Oregon Public Broadcasting

The amount of money political candidates raise always gets a lot of attention. But how much they spend and where they spend it is often ignored.

Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins takes a look at out-of-state spending by the leading candidates for the Washington State Governor’s race.

First, some numbers. Democratic incumbent Chris Gregoire has raised about $6 million.

Republican Dino Rossi has pulled in more than $4 million.

Both have spent about a third of what their campaigns have taken in. A good bit of that money is going to out-of-state firms.

For instance, both Gregoire and Rossi have employed Portland-based pollsters.

Rossi uses companies in Minnesota to handle his campaign mailings and phone calls to voters. Gregoire hired an Atlanta firm to do some research. And both candidates have retained D.C.-area firms to do their TV ads.

Going out of state for political help is not unique to the Washington governor’s race.

In the Oregon Senate race, Democrat Jeff Merkley is using Barack Obama’s New York pollster and D.C. ad firm.

Republican incumbent Gordon Smith has a New York strategist and a Philadelphia ad man.