'GOP Party' lawsuit takes military tack

By Bryan Bissell, PolitickerWA.com Reporter

State Republicans are going after the Democrats' recent lawsuit that aims to change the ballot to show gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi labeled as a Republican instead of preferring the "G.O.P. Party" by saying it discriminates against overseas military personnel whose ballots have already been mailed. The Democrats responded by saying their lawsuit will not affect those in the military.

The Republicans held a press conference this morning at their Bellevue headquarters featuring family members of overseas military servicemen and women who are concerned that, if the lawsuit is successful, their ballots will be disqualified.

State Republican Party Chairman Luke Esser called the move "pathetic" and argued that it might wind up disenfranchise some serving in the military.

"It is shameful that Christine Gregoire would use her party to take an action that could disenfranchise the brave men and women serving overseas in our armed forces today," Esser said in a release reacting to news of the lawsuit. "Gregoire and her Democratic Party operatives have been moaning about this non-issue since filing week - more than three months ago. But they waited until today to file their frivolous lawsuit out of purely political motives. And now our brave men and women in uniform may pay the price."

Still, state Democrats are undeterred. They call this line of reasoning by Republicans a move that ignores the substance of their lawsuit in order to continue with their "deceptive scheme" to allow Rossi to avoid calling himself a Republican on state ballots. Polling has shown that many Washingtonians do not know what "GOP" stands for, and that Rossi performs better when not labeled as a Republican.

"Dino Rossi and the Republicans are cynically manipulating the men and women serving our nation overseas, using them as a smokescreen to justify their deceptive scheme to hide the fact Rossi is a Republican on the November ballot," said Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz. "Our legal challenge to their deceptive practices does not and will never involve the challenging of any military ballot that has been mailed or returned. Rossi and the Republicans are simply lying - the motion we have filed is over the millions of ballots that have yet to be printed or mailed, and has nothing to do with the handful of military ballots that may have been sent at this point.

"Rossi and the Republicans appear willing to say or do anything to avoid the facts at hand. The cold hard data shows that Rossi's scheme to hide the fact he's a Republican may equate to as many as 100,000 votes, in an election that was decided by just 133 votes 4 years ago. The mere fact that Rossi and the Republicans are fighting so vigorously to avoid having the word "Republican" next to his name on the ballot - as it did in 2004 and has in every other election in which Rossi has participated until this year - makes it abundantly clear they see their deceptive scheme as advantageous."

Bryan Bissell is a PolitickerWA.com Reporter and can be reached via email at noreply@politicker.com.

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