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Dino Rossi (born October 15 , 1959 in Seattle, Washington , USA ) is a former Washington State Senator and the Republican nominee for Governor Of Washington in the historically close 2004 Election . Currently, he is working in Real Estate while preparing for his 2008 campaign for Governor and promoting his book ''Dino Rossi: Lessons in Leadership, Business, Politics and Life''. POLITICAL BACKGROUND In 1992 , Rossi ran for a Washington State Senate seat. After winning a divisive Republican primary, he lost the general election. In 1996 , Rossi ran again for the State Senate and was elected. Rossi was a relatively low-profile Senator until his 2003 work in negotiating a budget deal which closed a budget shortfall without raising taxes. The plan achieved support among both Republicans and Democrats although some Democrats were disappointed because the budget slowed the rate of spending growth for health care and other programs {Link without Title} . Some also expressed disappointment that state employees did not receive across-the-board pay increases with that budget, a claim to which Rossi responded by pointing out the unfairness in raising taxes on people who have no jobs to pay for salary increases for workers who already have living-wage jobs and benefits. In 2004, Dino Rossi resigned his Senate seat to run for governor. His resignation was due to state fundraising laws that do not allow fundraising while the legislature is in session. Rossi is a moderate Republican from Sammamish, Washington . He faced no significant opposition in the Republican gubernatorial primary when all GOP candidates dropped out shortly after he declared his candidacy. He won the primary with 85% of the vote. THE 2004 GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION See Also: Washington gubernatorial election, 2004 In the November 2nd election, over 2.8 million votes were cast for Governor. After the initial vote count, Rossi led Democrat Christine Gregoire by 261 votes . A series of recounts and legal battles ensued. Rossi again led after the first recount, but a second recount, done by hand, gave Gregoire a slim lead. Along the way it was discovered that hundreds of disputed votes, including votes by suspected felons, deceased voters, and double voters, were included in the canvas — an amount Washington Republican leadership claimed was enough to change the outcome of the election. However, this claim was later rejected by the judge hearing a lawsuit filed by the Washington Republican Party because their lawyers were unable to prove for whom the disputed votes were cast or even that they were ineligible votes. Rossi lost the disputed election trial on May 25 , 2005 and he chose not to appeal to the state Supreme Court because "the current makeup of the supreme court...made the ruling nearly impossible to be overturned". This statement was criticized by Washington Democrats. Gregoire was declared governor, by a margin of 129 votes, or 0.0045%. After his defeat, he returned to his work in real estate and worked on his book. In December 2004, as governor-elect, Rossi filed to run for governor in 2008 . Other victorious Washington state Republicans had all done the same, filing to run for another term immediately after it was determined that they won. Due to the reversal of the election result, if Rossi runs in 2008 it will be for a first term, instead of running for re-election. |
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