With all of the attention on the McCain/Obama and Gregoire/Rossi races, it would be easy to overlook important races down the ballot.

We have several reporters out working on a few dozen stories about state and local races. While they work on those pieces, check out the recent work by two local Web sites.

Exit133.com is interviewing the four candidates for Pierce County executive and posted its first interview, with Mike Lonergan, last week. Today, the Tacoma Sun posted an interview with Ken Paulson, who's challenging county Councilman Tim Farrell.

I think it's great to see local people asking questions of political candidates and sharing the results.

We'll have stories coming soon on the governor's race, county races, ballot initiatives and more. It's a lot of ground to cover in a short period of time, but our goal is to tell you about their policy proposals, a little about what makes them tick, and who is supporting or opposing them (which often tells you something about the candidates).

At the county level, David Wickert is recording portions of some of the debates and will post audio clips on this blog so you can hear it straight from the source. He posted clips from the four executive candidates last week here. As we previously reported, Stacey Emerson is posting videos from the debates.

I put a call into Joe Dear, executive director of the Washington State Investment Board, to find out how heavily the state's retirement funds and Labor & Industries funds were invested in Lehman Bros.

Here's the email the just posted on their Web site.

The $130 million represents .17 percent of the $78 billion the state Investment Board is managing.

WSIB funds show loss from Lehman Brother's bankruptcy
(September 15, 2008)

Olympia - The Washington State Investment Board (WSIB) today estimated the loss to its funds from Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy filing at approximately $130 million.

The bankruptcy filing affects retirement, Labor & Industries, and trust funds managed by the WSIB. The WSIB had $139 million of Lehman bonds and $8 million of Lehman equity at cost. The WSIB continues to hold senior debt in Lehman Brothers, which the WSIB believes is worth more than current market value.

The WSIB's total assets under management were $78 billion as of Friday, September 12, 2008. The loss represents 0.17 percent of assets under management.

Sound Transit is expanding its Sounder commuter rail and express bus service as high gas prices boost demand for its services.

Beginning Saturday, the regional transit agency will add new bus trips, reroute some buses or make minor schedule adjustments to most of its 24 express bus routes.

Among the changes: on Monday the new ST Express Route 599 service will begin connecting the newly completed Lakewood Station with Tacoma Dome Station. That will give Lakewood residents an easy connection to Sounder commuter trains.

Also on Monday, Sound Transit will add three round-trip Sounder trains, including two serving the South Sound.

Agency spokeswoman Linda Robson said the changes have long been planned and aren’t in direct response to a recent passenger boom brought on by high gas prices. But she added: “It’s at a great time. Couldn’t be better, actually.”

In July, about 61,000 people on average boarded Sound Transit buses and trains each weekday – up 25 percent from a year earlier. National surveys show high gas prices have boosted transit use nationwide.

The service expansion comes just weeks before voters weigh in on a $17.9 billion regional transit expansion measure. The plan would extend light rail south to Federal Way and beef up regional bus service and Sounder commuter rail service.

For more details on the service changes and the ballot measure, visit the Sound Transit web site.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is coming to Bellevue next week where she will host a $1,000-a-plate fund raiser, and it appears she also will attend a rally somewhere in South King County.

That's according to a release we received today from Jane Milhans, chairwoman of the John McCain Pierce County campaign.

Details were not shared regarding the potential rally, though Milhan's statement said a location has been selected.

The event is being used as a carrot for hard-working phone bank volunteers. Unlike the Bellevue fund raiser, where the chance to see the Republican vice president candidate requires only a willingness to part with some discretionary income, the rally photo op is free as a reward for a McCain-Palin volunteer.

Click ahead for the full statement, including details about how to volunteer.

=> Read more!

That's what the state Public Disclosure Commission is saying after hearing from its own investigative staff today, said PDC spokeswoman Lori Anderson.

UPDATE: Here's the news release the PDC just sent out:

PDC BELIEVES BUILDING INDUSTRY GROUPS
ENGAGED IN ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN ACTIVITY

Olympia – The Public Disclosure Commission voted today to alert the Attorney General of apparent multiple violations of Washington State’s campaign finance laws by two building industry groups.

The Commission believes that the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties (MBA-KSC) was a political committee when it solicited and received contributions to support and oppose candidates and political committees. The PDC investigation found that since January 2006, MBA-KSC has received and expended $411,670 on political contributions, polls and other campaign-related research without disclosing the source of the money.

The PDC investigation also found that the Building Industry Association of Washington’s Member Services Corporation (BIAW-MSC) solicited and received contributions to be used by BIAW’s political committee (ChangePAC) in the 2008 governor’s election. In 2007, BIAW-MSC's officers asked local building associations to contribute a portion of their workers compensation insurance premium refunds to ChangePAC. Eleven local building associations agreed to contribute and BIAW-MSC retained $584,528 for ChangePAC without disclosing the receipt of those contributions. The Commission believes that the BIAW-MSC operated as a political committee and failed to register and report in accordance with state law.

“The Public Disclosure Commission has to uphold Washington State’s campaign disclosure laws so that the public can follow campaign money,” said Commissioner Jim Clements. “The public’s right to know who is financing political campaigns is a critical part of transparency in government.”

The Attorney General asked the Public Disclosure Commission to investigate whether these buildings industry groups were political committees after the allegations were raised in a Citizen’s Action Letter filed in July 2008.

I'm including a letter from Seattle lawyer Knoll Lowney, but he seems to be overstating the case by saying the Building Industry Association Washington illegally funneled $1.2 million to Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi's campaign. The PDC says it's about $1 million.

=> Read more!

Pierce County’s effort to acquire the Tacoma Narrows Airport got a hearing before the County Council Monday.

The council’s rules committee discussed the proposed $5 million purchase, but tabled action until next Monday. Under a proposed purchase agreement, the county would pay $3 million to buy the airport, while the Peninsula Metropolitan Parks District would pay $2 million to acquire the adjacent Madrona Links Golf Course.

The county’s share of the money would come from two sources: $2 million from the sale of surplus property in Elk Plain (read more details here) and another $1 million in real estate excise taxes set aside last year.

The park district would pay its share in two annual $1 million installments. If it defaults, the county would cover the payments and gain ownership of the golf course.

Tacoma has been trying to unload the money-losing airport for two years. Pierce County officials say they can operate it in the black by combing operations with the county’s Thun Field airport on South Hill.

County officials view the Narrows Airport as an economic development tool and want to keep it in public hands.

The full County Council is scheduled to take up the purchase agreement Sept. 30.

What agency was Dino Rossi referring to last week when he accused it of "sheer incompetence"?

How much money have South Sound candidates for Congress raised?

Was Barack Obama telling the truth when he said John McCain doesn't know how to send an e-mail?

Find the answers to these and other questions on our new elections page. Here's what you'll find there:

* TNT stories about county and state campaigns, and McClatchy stories about federal campaigns.

* Recent headlines from our Political Buzz blog.

* The "Truth O' Meter," a joint effort by Congressional Quarterly and the St. Petersburg Times to assess the truthfulness of claims by the presidential campaigns.

* A link to the TNT voter guide, which lists 90 candidates' responses to our questionnaires.

* MapLight.org's campaign finance totals for the presidential race and state congressional races.

We hope you'll find this informative.