The campaign for Republican Dino Rossi is tamping down expectations of next week’s primary.
In a campaign memo released this week, Afton Swift said the Rossi campaign was not expecting to get the most votes in the primary battle against incumbent Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire.
Swift, Rossi’s campaign manager, said there were few races on the ballot to push voters to the polls, and noted that Democrats usually have higher turnout than Republicans during past primaries.
“With the top two primary a week away, no one quite knows what to expect or who will actually be turning out to vote,” Swift said in the memo.
“Other than the nonpartisan [Superintendent of Public Instruction] race, the three-way race for state treasurer, and a few legislative primaries, there is nothing on the primary ballot this year to drive voter turnout,” he said.
Ten candidates in all are on the primary ballot, but only the top two will advance to the general election in November.
Also on the ballot are Will Baker, a Tacoma resident for the Reform Party; Green Party candidate Duff Badgley of Seattle; Republican John W. Aiken Jr. of Medical Lake; Democrat Christian Pierre Joubert of Edmonds; no-party candidate Christopher A. Tudor of Indianola; Republican Javier O. Lopez of Lacey; no-party candidate Mohammad Hasan Said of Ephrata; and Independent Party candidate James White of Marysville.
Island County Auditor Sheilah Crider has said she expects about 60 to 62 percent of ballots to be returned for the state’s first-ever top-two primary. Statewide, Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed is predicting a 46 percent turnout.
In his memo, Swift said there has historically been higher turnout by Democrats than Republicans in past primaries.
“In 2004, Dino received only 34 percent of the total primary vote. In fact, since 1972 no Republican gubernatorial candidate has ever gotten the most votes in a primary, even though two have gone on to win the general election. Based on historical data and recent polling data, our campaign does not expect to win in the primary,” he said.
This year’s race is a rematch of the 2004 battle, one that Gregoire won after a controversial hand recount.
“Lowering expectations is an interesting strategy and one that speaks to the Rossi campaign’s concerns as to where they stand going into the primary,” said Debra Carnes, communications director for the Gregoire campaign.
Carnes noted the aggressive work of the Rossi campaign in the weeks leading up to the August primary.
“Gov. Gregoire has already withstood $2 million worth of negative attacks from Rossi’s special interest friends at the [Building Industry Association of Washington], and now the Rossi/BIAW campaign is pouring nearly $1 million more into misleading ads in the final days before the primary. It appears they are attempting to pull out all the stops and gain momentum before the general election in November,” she added.
“While the Gregoire campaign knows there will be challenges with an August primary, many things are certain. We have hundreds of volunteers working across the state to encourage people to vote in every one of our 39 counties. And, we have a candidate who has a record of delivering real results for Washingtonians, unlike her opponent who has to rely on deceitful, misleading ads to deflect attention away from his poor record, which included cutting kids off healthcare and slashing funding for two voter-approved education initiatives,” Carnes said.
