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Peter Callaghan is a local columnist. He’s covered the statehouse and state politics since 1981. Before joining The News Tribune in 1985, the Stadium High grad worked for newspapers in Everett and Lewiston, Idaho, and for The Associated Press in Olympia and Seattle. Email Peter

Joe Turner has covered state government and transportation issues since 1990. Since the Bellarmine grad’s arrival in the newsroom in 1978, he’s covered police, suburban cities, Tacoma City Hall, Federal Way City Hall and the Pierce and King county governments. Email Joe

David Wickert covers Pierce County government. Before coming to The News Tribune in 1998, he covered local government for newspapers in Illinois, Virginia and Tennessee. Email David

Ian Demsky is a general assignment reporter who specializes in database-driven reporting. He's been at the News Tribune since 2007 and has previously worked in Nashville, Tenn. and Portland, Ore. When he's not at work, he enjoys hiking and science fiction. Email Ian
Les Blumenthal has been covering Washington, D.C. for The News Tribune since 1990, focusing on issues and politicians involving the state. Before joining The News Tribune, he spent 13 years working for The Associated Press in Seattle, Illinois and Washington, D.C. Email Les

John Henrikson is a local news editor who oversees political coverage. He's worked as a journalist in the Northwest for 19 years, supervising coverage and reporting on local and state government, the environment and growth. Email John

Local politics links
Brad Shannon's The Politics Blog (The Olympian)
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Sound Politics
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P-I's Strange Bedfellows (Seattle PI)
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Other Resources
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Let's talk politics.
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
Posted by Niki Sullivan @ 05:50:46 pm

I've been writing about April fundraising totals for Gov. Chris Gregoire and her opponent, Dino Rossi, since the month ended. And, while I now have some memos and guestimations, I don't have all the answers.

I do, however, have some questions. And math. Here goes.

Gregoire reported $2.843 million cash on hand in March. Subtract $75,803.16 in unpaid debt and you've got $2.767 million.

Rossi ended the month with $2.623 million cash on hand, zero unpaid debts. (Spokeswoman Jill Strait says the campaign pays debts as they're incurred, which means none carry over.)

So ... Gregoire's campaign memo says they raised $1.3 million this month and indicated they'd end up with about a million more cash on hand. That means they spent the $.3 million (OK, $300,000) and will now have somewhere in the neighborhood of $3.8 million. Got that?

Now for Rossi: Strait told me they raised about $625,000 and ended with around $3.1 million cash on hand. Get out your pencils.

$2.623 million + $625,000 = $3.248 million.

$3.248 million - X = $3.1 million. (X = all expenditures for the month.)

X = $148,000.

Question = The Rossi campaign spent about twice that during the previous month. And the month before. So how did they save all that dough? Strait told me they were being fiscally conservative.

To be clear, I believe and distrust everyone equally. Nobody wants to tell me – and, by extension, you and their competition – the truth about money until they have to.

So we'll wait, impatiently, for the final numbers. Unless anyone cares to enlighten me. You know how to reach me.

Categories: Governor, Campaign news