The Buildergate scandal takes a new twist this morning as former Washington State Supreme Court Justices Faith Ireland and Robert Utter filed notice with Attorney General Rob McKenna of their intent to bring suit against Republican gubernatorial challenger Dino Rossi, alleging illegal campaign coordination with the Building Industry Association of Washingtion (BIAW) and its political committees.  They also filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court claiming that the BIAW’s coordination with Rossi disqualify it from making “independent” expenditures in the 2008 gubernatorial.

These dramatic legal developments could have a huge impact on the gubernatorial race.  The BIAW has already spent over $2 million on behalf of Rossi this year, mostly smearing Governor Chris Gregoire, and plans to spend an additional $700,000 during the final weeks of the campaign.  The justices are asking that further “over limit” expenditures be barred by court order.

These suits are just the latest in a widening Buildergate scandal for which the BIAW is already being prosecuted, in a case stemming from Utter and Ireland’s original October, 2008 complaint.  But while McKenna is pursuing the BIAW for numerous “egregious” campaign finance and reporting violations, he took no action on the assertion that the BIAW improperly coordinated its activities with Rossi, thus prompting Utter and Ireland to bring suit on their own.

In a joint statement, the two retired justices—both appointed to the bench by Republican governors—outline both the evidence behind their allegations, and their motivation for seeking enforcement.

Developing story, stay tuned…

Woke up to find the Dow down over 500 points, under 10,000 for the first time in four years.  Maybe we should just buy Dow Jones, and jigger the index?

UPDATE:
Somebody should do a remake of that memorable “crying Indian” ad from the 70’s, on it should be Dino Rossi shedding a tear at the sight of industrial polluters being forced by DOE to clean up their mess.

Maybe Miss Congeniality would like to discuss American history with me? ‘Cause, you know, (wink) mean people suck and all.

Now:

And then:

After all, we’re only ordinary men:

Damn, John McCain looks angry.  (And, is it just me, or is he putting on a little weight?)

This will further enrage the already hysterical wingnuts, but The Columbian has managed to recognize skill, competence and results in the race for governor and endorse Chris Gregoire:

Newspaper endorsements in tight races are always controversial, and you can bet this will lead to much wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst the local Orthogonians. It’s a Clark County election tradition to increase the volume of Nixonian anti-intellectualism to eleven.

Nothing is quite as poignant as the class resentments of the burghers, you know. All over the county this morning you can hear the echoes of “EM ESS EM” bouncing off the walls of gated communities. Furious threats to cancel already canceled advertising accounts will be issued first thing Monday morning. You can almost hear it– “Really, I was going to advertise just as soon as liquidity returns to the markets, but now I’m not.”

There’s no question that Gregoire has done a fine job as governor, and as the national economy tanks, we need a steady hand at the helm. I can’t honestly say that The Columbian endorsement helps Gregoire; it might or it might not. Most likely a wash overall. If you’ve heard the term “low information voter” well, Clark County is a “low information county.” Ironically, this is largely because of our unique media situation, as Oregon media dominates the area.

But we do know that lots of people registered to vote here in the last week.

Maybe many of them were intensely motivated by the thought of electing Dino Rossi governor? It’s his wink, isn’t it?

The Seahawks play the Giants today in the first of their four games against NFC East teams this season. While the NFC West has looked truly awful (especially the Rams), the NFC East is looking exactly the opposite. The Eagles’ loss to the Bears last Sunday night was the first and only loss by an NFC East team to someone outside their division this year (and Westbrook definitely would’ve gotten that yard if he was playing). After 4 weeks, the NFC West only has two wins outside of the division. With an 0-3 record and 13 more games to go, will anyone in the NFC West beat a team from the NFC East this year?

Last week, Daily Kos’ “Hell to Pay” fundraiser brought in over $25,000 for Darcy Burner, and this week it is Charlie Brown’s turn, as he takes on mudslinging GOP apparatchik Tom McClintock in a race or an open seat in California’s 4th Congressional District.  So if you have a few dollars to spare, please toss a few Brown’s way.

Two days ago:

Today:

With the curtain closed on Reload, I’ve decided to bring the Birds Eye View Contests over here to HA. If you don’t know how this works, you just have to guess where on Earth the following scene is from. The scenes are from the Windows Live Mapping site, which will be linked from the image itself every week. Good luck!

As I’ve already written, Sen. Joe Biden clearly won Thursday’s Veep debate, at least on points.  But what really matters is the impact (if any) this debate might have on voters, and whether it changes the dynamics of a presidential race that has been shifting steadily in Barack Obama’s favor.  And the best measure of that, I suppose, are the various national tracking polls that are now being reported daily.

The following polls represent three-day running averages.  The first number is from today, which includes  results from Wednesday through Friday, and thus factors in one day of post-debate reaction.  The number in parentheses are those reported yesterday, and represents survey results from Tuesday through Thursday, all collected before the debate.

                Obama      McCain
Research 2000: Â 52 (51) Â  Â 40 (40)
Rasmussen: Â  Â  Â 51 (51) Â  Â 45 (44)
Diageo/Hotline: 48 (48) Â  Â 41 (42)
Gallup: Â  Â  Â  Â  50 (49) Â  Â 42 (42)

This only includes one day of post-debate tracking, but as you can see, if there is any movement, it’s not in McCain’s favor.  Indeed, the Research 2000 poll, which is being conducted on behalf of Daily Kos, showed the best single day spread for Obama yet:

And Rasmussen, which is reporting the narrowest gap between the two candidates, observes a similar stability:

To say the least.

Early voting has already started in Ohio, and begins in earnest here in WA state and throughout much of the rest of the nation in another week and a half.  If John McCain is going to turn this thing around, he better get moving quick, because I don’t think Sarah Palin’s collection of half-answers, winks and folksy colloquialisms quite did the trick.

For all you Democratic Party elitists planning to attend tonight’s “4th Biennial Campaign Appreciation Party,” don’t bother; it’s been canceled.  Perhaps you’re just not appreciated anymore, I dunno… you’ll have to ask Jason.

Taking a break from the election contests for a bit here, I wanted to give a plug to a great student organization at the University of Washington that’s kicking off their fall recruitment drive. I didn’t go to UW, but I got involved with the AIESEC chapter in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan back in the 90s when I was getting my engineering degree. It was without a doubt the smartest decision I made while at college.

AIESEC is the largest student organization in the world. What it does is run an international internship exchange program. Students at universities across the globe work with local companies to create internship opportunities specifically for foreign exchanges and then host the students who get matched up to them. Members of the organization can then apply for and be matched to foreign internships of their own.

After being involved in the Michigan chapter for a year and a half - helping build their website and working on exchanging students, I was matched on a foreign internship, traveling to Helsinki, Finland during the summer of 1996 to work for the telecom company HPY. It was an amazing experience to live and work in another country, not to mention how much fun it was to be with dozens of other college students from around the world who’d also come to Helsinki that summer to work at various local companies. Over the 12 weeks I was there, I was able to go on weekend trips to Stockholm, St. Petersburg, and Tallinn, Estonia.

The University of Washington’s chapter has a small group of motivated students looking for more members, especially underclassmen, to get involved with the chapter and promote the AIESEC mission of better international understanding here in Seattle. The head of the chapter, Zhi Wei Wan, just got back from a summer spent in both Turkey and Brazil and is ready to get things going for this school year. He’s looking for people with an international outlook and some entrepreneurial spirit to join the local chapter and have the kinds of extraordinary educational experiences that are hard to get from classes alone.

Here’s the first meeting for those interested in joining:

Tuesday, October 7
6:00-7:00
Thomson 335

I guess it’s all relative, you know, but apparently, the McCain campaign is about to go negative.  Relentlessly, deceitfully, viciously negative.

That’s right, they’re “looking forward to turning a page on this financial crisis,” not as an actual financial crisis mind you, but as a political one.  They need to change the subject from, you know, actual issues, to Barack Obama’s “associations.”  Shit, they can’t even get Obama on what he’s done, but rather, who he knows.

Here in WA state, where we’ve largely been spared the presidential air war, it might not seem like an unusual election season, but viewers in other, more competitive states should be girding themselves for a political shitstorm of near Biblical proportions.

We have come to the point in this campaign where John McCain only has two possible paths toward victory:  character assassination or… well… the other kind.

I’m sure it comes as no surprise, but the P-I has endorsed Gov. Christine Gregoire, and in doing so, makes a strong argument for sticking with the incumbent during uncertain times:

It should be noted that in a largely positive editorial that lauds Gregoire’s experience, performance and values, this brief excerpt comprises the full extent of their criticism of her opponent.

It will be interesting to compare that to the Seattle Times’ inevitable endorsement of Dino Rossi, which I expect in both tone and content to be substantially more negative… because honestly, even given poetic license, there are fewer positive statements one can manufacturer in support of the Republican.

Because you need to smile.

The latest Rasmussen Reports survey, released today, shows Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire and Republican opponent Dino Rossi tied 48% to 48% tie in the governors race.  That’s a marked improvement for Gregoire over the last Rasmussen poll, which showed Rossi leading by a 52% to 46% margin.

I suppose I should be cheered by the trend, but this race really shouldn’t be this close, this close to election day.  I guess lying and cheating is a good strategy.

In the presidential race, Rasmussen shows Barack Obama regaining a double-digit lead, 53% to 43% over John McCain, after last month’s survey showed the race narrowing to within an unlikely two point margin.