The razor-close Washington governor's race is crucial . It's the governorship, but it's also showing uncanny parallels to the presidential race. Both McCain and Dino Rossi have made simultaneous upward moves in the polls recently by co-opting the Democratic message of change and viciously distorting the Democratic candidate's record and character. Some recent polls are showing Rossi taking the lead while McCain pulls within the margin of error.

The thematic links don't end there: as the Republican attack apparatus continues to distort and position Dino Rossi as the change candidate, his ties to the "usual suspects" on the right are coming to light. Just as Obama steps up his attacks on McCain for his lobbyist-run campaign and entanglements with special interests, the same story is emerging in the Washington Governor's race with respect to Republican nominee, but with a twist: not only is the Republican's campaign completely beholden to a narrow slice of extreme business interests, there is a clear personal business relationship between the lobbyists, the industry groups, and the Republican candidate.

They're not only funding his campaign, but his personal wealth is directly tied up with them - and they're breaking the law to help his campaign, using under-reported money that comes from a state-mandated program that is supposed to fund worker safety programs. Now he has been included in a lawsuit alleging that he may have had a personal role in soliciting some of the illegal contributions - he may have to give a deposition as soon as October 15th.

Here's the background as reported by the Washington press:

[...] the Rossi bandwagon is on the move. It's receiving substantial help from the Republican Governors Association and out-of-state dollars that weren't available to underdog Rossi in 2004. [...] The Building Industry Association of Washington has pounded Gregoire for months, including those "Don't Let Seattle Steal This Election!" signs plastered across Eastern Washington. ChangePAC, the BIAW's front group, has collected $2.7 million and spent just over $2 million
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/3 78810_Joel12.html

More after the jump...