Washington gubernatorial election, 2008

The gubernatorial election in Washington, 2008 will elect the Governor of Washington on November 4, 2008. With the emergence from the August 19 primary of Republican Dino Rossi and incumbent Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire, the 2008 election will be a rematch between the candidates from the 2004 election. That election was the closest in Washington State history.

=Dates and deadlines [cite web |url=http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/calendar.aspx?m=8&y=2008 |title=Calendar |author=Secretary of the State of Washington |accessdate=2008-05-31] =

Based on the results of August 20, Christine Gregoire and Dino Rossi are the presumptive finalists to appear on the November general election ballot.cite news|url=http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_082008POB_primary_wednesday_LJ.1681b8dc.html|title=Gregoire, Rossi fire first volleys in rematch|date=2008-08-20|accessdate=2008-08-20|work=KING 5 News]

Police Guild press conference incident

At an August 7 press conference held by the Seattle Police Officers Guild to declare its endorsement of Rossi, the Guild forcibly removed Kelly Akers, a Gregoire campaign staffer who was filming the event, from the premises. The Rossi campaign reiterated a standing policy to prevent opposing campaigns from filming Rossi's appearances, to deny them the ability to take "attack footage". Rossi's campaign staff includes a cameraman tasked with filming Gregoire appearances. [cite web|url=http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/video.html|title=Dem cameraman is evicted from Dino Rossi event|accessdate=2008-09-26|date=2008-08-12|last=Postman|first=David|others=Andrew Garber|work=Seattle Times]

Debates

Five debates have been scheduled [cite web|url=http://blogs.thenewstribune.com/politics/2008/09/08/debate_schedule_gregoire_rossi_preparing|title=Debate schedule: Gregoire, Rossi preparing to face-off at least five times|last=Hagey|first=Jason|work=Political Buzz|publisher=Tacoma News Tribune|date=2008-09-08|accessdate=2008-09-26] between the Gregoire and Rossi, the candidates in the general election.

^*The Spokane debate was taped in the morning to be aired at the indicated time. All other debates are held and aired live.

A possible sixth debate has been proposed for Clark County. [cite web|url=http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/487474.html|title=Gregoire, Rossi kick off debate schedule tonight|accessdate=2008-09-26|date=2008-09-26|work=Tacoma News Tribune|last=Hagey|first=Jason]

The Gregoire campaign had set aside August 15th for a pre-primary radio debate with Rossi on Seattle NPR station KUOW-FM. [cite web|url=http://www.tri-cityherald.com/901/story/263970.html|title=Gregoire, Rossi plan gubernatorial debates|date=2008-08-05|accessdate=2008-09-26|work=Tri-City Herald|last=Mulick|first=Chris] Rossi declined to appear, giving Gregoire solo airtime. [cite web|url=http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/seattlepolitics/archives/146295.asp|title=Rossi to NPR: I won't show|date=2008-08-15|accessdate=2008-09-26|work=Strange Bedfellows|publisher=Seattle Post-Intelligencer|last=Connelly|first=Joel]

General Election

The General Election will coincide with the national general election on November 4. However, with all Washington counties either exclusively or (in the case of Pierce and King counties) predominantly voting via mail-in ballot [cite web|url=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/350326_mailvote07.html|title=King County delays all-mail voting until 2009|date=2008-02-07|accessdate=2008-09-26|last=Roberts|first=Gregory|work=Seattle Post-Intelligencer] , many votes may be effectively cast prior to that date. King County, the largest county in the state, and the one which carried Gregoire to victory in 2004, is scheduled to send out overseas absentee ballots on October 5, and resident mail-in ballots on October 17. [cite web|url=http://www.kingcounty.gov/elections.aspx|title=King County Elections|author=King County|accessdate=2008-09-26]

Election Results

Election box candidate with party link no change
party = Washington Democratic Party
candidate = Christine Gregoire
votes =
percentage =Election box candidate with party link no change
party = Washington Republican Party
candidate = Dino Rossi
votes =
percentage =Election box invalid no change
votes =
percentage =Election box total no change
votes =
percentage = 100.00Election box turnout no change
votes =
percentage =

References

External links

* [http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/ Elections] from the "Washington Secretary of State"
* [http://www.votesmart.org/election_governor_five_categories.php?state_id=WA Washington Governor candidates] at Project Vote Smart
* [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=155495 Washington Governor race] from "OurCampaigns.com"
* [http://www.2008racetracker.com/page/WA-Gov Washington Governor race] from "2008 Race Tracker"
* [http://www.followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/state_candidates.phtml?s=WA=2008&f=G Campaign contributions] from "Follow the Money"
* [http://www.pollster.com/08-WA-Gov-GE-RvG.php Rossi (R) vs Gregoire (D-i)] graph of collected poll results from "Pollster.com"
*"Official campaign websites"
** [http://www.chrisgregoire.com/ Christine Gregoire] , Democratic incumbent candidate
** [http://www.dinorossi.com/ Dino Rossi] , Republican candidate