Oregon Public Broadcasting

It’s the dog days of summer. But that’s not slowing the leading candidates for Washington State governor.

The campaigns are heating up -- with TV ads, almost daily partisan attacks and continued fundraising. Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins reports.

Turn on the TV or radio and you’d think it’s September or October. Campaign ads for Washington governor are blanketing the airwaves. Here’s one from Democrat Chris Gregoire who’s trying to make in-roads in Republican Eastern Washington.

Gregoire ad: “I’ve made helping families here a priority. We’re protecting family farms. In Eastern Washington we’ve created over 30,000 jobs.”

And here’s Republican Dino Rossi playing the outsider.

Rossi ad: “Do we have problems that are too big, too hard to solve? Dino Rossi. Or is Olympia stuck in the same old way of doing things. I’m running for governor to fix some problems.”

These are the official campaign ads. Then there are the unofficial third-party ads – paid for largely by unions that support Gregoire and homebuilders who support Rossi.

August seems a bit early for ad wars. Democratic strategist Cathy Allen says it is.

Cathy Allen: “I’ve never seen a time when there’s been not only as much money spent by this time, but also as much conversation, give and take, back and forth - it would indeed seem like we’re four weeks away from the general election.”

Allen says that’s largely because the Gregoire-Rossi match-up is the closest gubernatorial race in the country. Not only that, it’s a rematch. Gregoire narrowly beat Rossi in 2004.

Republican strategist Randy Pepple argues it’s essentially a tied race with few voters undecided.

Randy Pepple: “The two campaigns and their surrogates are going to spend 20-25 million dollars on that last ten percent of the vote, the people who are undecided right now and they’re just trying to spend all of that money to get five-point-one percent of that ten percent to come their way.”

So far Gregoire and Rossi together have raised a record $15 million. For now the candidates are trying to keep their message positive.

The negative campaigning comes from campaign staffers, the Democratic and Republican parties and the third party groups that support each candidate.