It's been clear for a few days now that Dino Rossi was ready to run for Senate, and, as expected, today was the official launch day:
In a five-minute video posted to his web site, www.dinorossi.com, Rossi reaches out to voters upset with the direction the country is headed, citing rising unemployment, plummeting housing values, "wasteful" stimulus plans and "massive new debt as far as the eye can see."
In language straight out of Ronald Reagan's playbook, Rossi says "America's best days" lie ahead if we "unleash the power of the people" and restore government to its "proper, more limited role...."
Rossi says he'd start by "replacing the Pelosi-Reid health care bill with something that will actually reduce costs and increase access," though he gave no specifics.
Before facing off against Patty Murray, though, Rossi needs to survive the state's top-two primary. State Sen. Don Benton was considered the more-or-less establishment frontrunner before Rossi's entry; he's a friend of Rossi and is likely to share the same pool of votes and donors, so he may be ready to bail out. Rossi's bigger problem is likelier to be Clint Didier, who has been explicitly courting the Tea Party vote (which doesn't have much goodwill left for Rossi... and whom Rossi doesn't seem too interested in, as he spent last Friday hinting about his plans not with them but rather in front of the Mainstream Republicans of Washington) and who has a freshly-minted Sarah Palin endorsement.
With many polls giving Murray a lead in the single digits over Rossi, Swing State Project is moving this race to "Lean Democratic" from our list of Races to Watch.
