Dino Rossi Vs. The Democrats: The Week In WA-8, June 4

SAMMAMISH, WA - Two fun news items this week in the WA-8 Congressional race: a new poll shows how the Democrats would do against Rossi, and Rossi ends up leasing the office of a former King County Democrat chief accused of harassment.

The poll

The Stranger's Rich Smith on Friday broke the news that a Democratic firm had done some polling of WA-8 voters and their opinions of Jason Rittereiser, Kim Schrier, and Shannon Hader. The headline: Rittereiser right now would beat Rossi by the biggest margin, but only AFTER the pollster talked about Rittereiser's background a little bit. Without knowing anything about Rittereiser or the other Democrats, the poll showed voters picking Rossi.

The poll also suggests that to win in November, Rossi would have to lock up ALL Republican voters, plus a lot of independents and at least 10 percent of Democratic voters. The whole poll is here, and it's an interesting read.

A politically ironic lease

The C Is For Crank reported last week that Dino Rossi is opening up a campaign office in Auburn. But the interesting part is that the office space once belonged to Bailey Stober, the former chairman of the King County Democrats. Stober resigned from that position in April after he was accused of harassment by several women who worked with him (he denies the allegations).

Rossi's campaign manager told Patch the Rossi camp wasn't aware of the Stober connection. The campaign is leasing the space from the property owner, not subleasing from the Democrats.

"We actually didn't know it was theirs until we showed up to tour the space with the landlord," Rossi's Andrew Bell said. "Our lease is solely with the landlord, and there's no subleasing going on."

Endorsements!

Just one this week: the Central Puget Sound Carpenters Local 30 tossed its support behind Rittereiser.

Upcoming events

• June 9 - Coffee with Kim in Orting
• June 6 - 8th District NARAL Candidate Forum, 9 AM at YWCA Issaquah Family Village
• June 7 - Meet Shannon Hader in Issaquah!
• June 9 - Kittitas County Summer Celebration with Jason Rittereiser
• June 16 - Meet & Greet with Jason Rittereiser in Ballard!