Rossi says he’ll not decide on campaign until 2007

In his blue suit, pressed white shirt and red tie, Dino Rossi appears every inch the candidate.

He’s got a book on leadership coming out.

He’s making a few select speaking appearances, like the one this morning to Republican state Senate leaders meeting in Spokane.

He’s returning the favor of friends who helped with his past campaigns, down to recording a few automated “robo-calls” for candidates in the 2005 election.

“I get three or four requests a day to do things. I just can’t do them all,” Rossi said Thursday during an interview in the lobby of the Montvale Hotel. “I’m trying to take the rest of 2005 off. I think my wife and kids and I have earned it.”

He’s already said he won’t be a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2006. So is he embarking on a three-year campaign for the 2008 governor’s race?

“We’re going to make that decision in 2007,” he insisted, using the same criteria he used in running in 2004 but not running in 2006. “Is it right for the family? You can’t answer that today.”

Next month, his new book “Dino Rossi: Lessons in Leadership, Business, Politics and Life” will hit bookstores.

He describes it as personal stories – from childhood through his career in commercial real estate to legislator to the governor’s race – with messages that a reader can apply to his or her own circumstances.

“People expected me to write just about the governor’s race,” he said. He confined that to the last chapter, although he adds: “It’s a big one.”

The genesis for the book came on the campaign trail when Rossi would talk about collecting lost golf balls to sell back to duffers at age 7 or buying his first commercial building at 25 or crafting a bipartisan compromise over the state budget. People said “Ya oughta write a book,” so when he had some time available this summer, he did.

The former Republican legislator had that time after he lost the court battle over the closest statewide race in Washington history, by what’s thought to be the narrowest margin for a major race in the United States.

He was certified the governor-elect after finishing the first vote count 261 votes ahead of Democrat Christine Gregoire; he was certified governor-elect again after finishing a state-mandated machine recount 42 votes ahead.

When a hand recount requested by Gregoire finished with her up by 129 votes, and she received the final certification, Republicans challenged the election in court.

Republicans, Democrats, state and local elections officials – and a gaggle of their lawyers – gathered in Wenatchee for two weeks for a trial. Rossi stayed home in Sammamish.

“I didn’t need to be there,” he said. “I’m not a lawyer. There’s nothing I could add.”

Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges eventually upheld the results of the hand-count, and Rossi declined to appeal to the state Supreme Court.

“I’m not bitter, I’m not angry. It is what it is,” he said.

Although he didn’t win the election, he is quick to point out he got more votes than President Bush, more votes than GOP Senate candidate George Nethercutt, more votes than Gregoire in 35 of the state’s 39 counties, proving, he said, that a Republican can win the governor’s office even though that hasn’t happened in 24 years.

The court case also pointed out major problems with the elections system, particularly in King County, that still need to be addressed, he said.

One of Rossi’s earliest supporters and longtime allies in the state Senate was Jim West, who won the race for Spokane mayor the year before Rossi ran for governor. He relied on West’s advice because “he had a lot of insight, and scars to prove what direction not to go.”

Rossi said he hasn’t spoken with West since early this year, before The Spokesman-Review began publishing stories that linked the mayor to sexual molestation and misusing his office. Those reports first surfaced just before the revote trial started in May, and Rossi said he hasn’t kept up with all the details of West’s situation, which will result in a recall election on Dec. 6.

“I was very surprised and very concerned,” Rossi said, but hasn’t been asked by West for advice and is “not in a position to offer it.”

“I just pray that this is resolved quickly for him, and the city.”