In the previous post, Gov. Chris Gregoire responded late today to claims about tribal gambling. Also late today,
Dino Rossi's gubernatorial campaign responded to claims in new advertisements about his positions and voting record in the state Senate.

You can see the ads here. David Postman wrote about the group here.

Rossi's campaign complains that the ads - primarily funded by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Washington Federation of State Employees and the Democratic Governors Association - come at the same time as Gregoire's office negotiates labor contracts with state unions. Once you get past that rhetoric, the Rossi campaign refutes the ads' claims:

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The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has published stories linking Gov. Chris Gregoire's acceptance of campaign contributions from tribes to a new tribal gambling compact. The most recent story appeared today. The guv ain't happy about that.

Late today, her office sent out this statement:

The truth about tribal gaming
Governor’s Office presents the facts

OLYMPIA – Recent media coverage questioning removal of a revenue sharing provision from a tribal compact is inaccurate and ignores the facts.

* Following the lead of state voters who in 2004 overwhelmingly rejected Initiative 892, which would have led to a massive expansion of gambling in Washington state, Gov. Gregoire and a bipartisan group of state and local leaders opposed revenue sharing provisions. This was based on their shared fears that revenue sharing would result in a rampant expansion and lead to a reliance on gambling revenue by the state.

* There is no evidence that Washington state would have raised $140 million from revenue sharing (“Tribes give big to Gregoire, avoid sharing casino cash,” June 12, 2008), or lost “hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the state” by abandoning the revenue-sharing provision (“Democrats defend tribal compacts,” August 1, 2008) both as carried by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

* Until yesterday, the issue of revenue sharing was not raised at earlier hearings on the Spokane compact. A joint legislative committee had ample opportunity to review the approval process for compacts during which they could have addressed their concerns on revenue sharing.

* Tribal lottery machines first appeared in Washington state in 1998 following a federal court order. Each federally recognized tribe was allowed 675 machines. When the compacts were renegotiated in 2005, the tribes initially requested unlimited number of machines per tribe. Through negotiations spanning almost two years, the parties agreed to 975 machines.

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Got an hour to kill? Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg discussed his candidacy for state attorney general on KUOW’s “Weekday” program Thursday. You can listen to the program here.

Secretary of State Sam Reed reported today that sponsors of Initiative 1029 submitted enough signatures to win a spot on the November statewide ballot.

Now it's up to the courts to decide whether that's this November or next November due to an error in petition printing. Here is Reed's press release that explains what's going on:

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