Dino Rossi sent out a fundraising letter this week. It wasn’t for his potential run against Sen. Patty Murray, though. It was for local conservative think tank, The Washington Policy Center.
Rossi does tease WPC fans with this line, though:
“I will always be grateful to Washington Policy Center for their work during my time in the State Senate, and for some of my ideas that I’ve been able to adopt during statewide campaigns. I plan to be active in shaping policy here in Washington for a long time to come…”
Criticizing the just-concluded legislative session in Olympia—where Democrats suspended I-960 (the anti-tax measure)—Rossi’s letter rails against “Big-government politicians” who want to “expand state power.”
He also praises WPC’s free-market ideology. One example of a WPC idea that Rossi is in sync with and hyped in a statewide campaign (his 2008 run for governor) was coming out against increasing the minimum wage during a recession. The issue became a political ad fodder for Gov. Chris Gregoire.
WPC’s conservative politics became an issue for candidate Susan Hutchison—a regular emcee at WPC fundraisers—in last year’s King County Executive’s campaign.
WPC has also come out against increasing unemployment benefits during a recession.
Rossi’s potential opponent, Sen. Murray gave a floor speech just this morning, trying to get the Republicans to stop filibustering against unemployment benefits.
