From Les Blumenthal in our DC bureau:

The morning buzz this week in the nation’s capital revolves around some rather nasty radio advertisements being run by a group called Alabamians for Building America’s Tanker.

Boeing and the Northrop Grumman-EADS team have been snipping at each other for months over the $35 billion contract for Air Force aerial refueling tankers. They seem to run almost daily, full-page newspaper ads touting the virtues of their tankers and smacking each other silly.

But these new ads, running on a D.C. news radio channel, have cranked up the rhetoric at least several notches. The Alabamians say they are tired of taking it and it’s time to fight back. Northrop-EADS promised to build a plant to assemble their Airbus tanker in Mobile, Ala. Groundbreaking for the plant was canceled, however, when government auditors found serious problems with the original contract.

The latest ads take note of Boeing’s involvement in a previous Pentagon procurement scandal involving the tanker contract, a Boeing engineer who was arrested for allegedly trying to sell trade secrets to "Communist" China and how jobs in Mobile are just as American as those in Washington state where Boeing would build its tanker.

“We are Americans, Mobile is part of Alabama and Alabama is part of the United States,” Bryan Lee, one of the founders of the group told The Politico. The Politico reported the group expects to spend $250,000 on the radio ads.

Lee is a Mobile firefighter, and others involved in the nonprofit group who have been identified publicly include a lobbyist for the City of Mobile, a prominent real estate developer and an accountant. No word on who is funding the group.

Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Auburn, called the ads “false and misleading” and a “direct attack” on Boeing workers in Washington state.

Here is a transcript of the ads or you can listen here.

Read more »

Think you’ve been seeing a lot of Gov. Chris Gregoire lately? It’s not your imagination.

According to a schedule provided by her campaign, Gregoire has visited Pierce County 28 times in 2008, including six trips this month.

Eighteen of Gregoire’s 2008 visits involved at least one campaign event, according to the schedule. The rest were for official government business, like bill signings or this week’s groundbreaking ceremony for the pedestrian overpass at Pierce County’s Chambers Creek Properties. But in an election year, it’s sometimes a fine distinction.

Dino Rossi has been no slouch, either. According to

Read more »

You might recognize the above ad, for a Tacoma Water conservation campaign. But what you may not realize is that the above ad, which I found here, is missing the complete address, which I found on the back of the No. 57 bus today.

www.tacomawater.com/tuna or, as I like to say: “Tacoma Water dot com, slash tuna.”

Is Tacoma far enough removed from the “aroma of Tacoma” meme to enlist this URL, especially regarding our water supply? Some part of me — let’s call it the water-drinking part

Read more »

Just got this e-mail:

“The Tacoma City Council needs three additional citizens to help plan and coordinate the City of Destiny Awards program, an annual public awards ceremony which recognizes Tacoma citizens for their outstanding volunteer service.”

Interested? Contact the Community Relations Office: 253-573-2506 or visit www.cityoftacoma.org/commissions

Good luck, citizens.

In other news(ish), the city will host an open house on Aug. 6 to help explain upcoming Pacific Avenue improvements between S. 25th and 17th streets.



In short, the area will get a new street and repaired sidewalks and

Read more »

It is a pretty typical first campaign spot, not so much a biography of the candidate as a summary of the campaign’s themes. The 30-second ad called “Better” tries to set up Dino Rossi as the candidate who can solve problems.

The spot doesn’t mention rival Chris Gregoire but suggests that the problems he says he will solve are the result of the inactions of the incumbent.

“Do we have problems that are too big, too hard to solve?” Rossi asks. “Or is Olympia stuck in the same old way of doing things?”

Rossi voices most

Read more »

Connie Ladenburg thinks term limits should be wiped out of City Hall, but, judging by yesterday’s appointments committee meeting – where they decided which citizens would write the “for” and “against” voter guide statements for Ladenburg’s proposed amendment – there may not be much support.

Thirteen people signed up to write the anti-abolishment-of-term-limits piece. Names on the list include those well-known to city government, including Tom Stenger, Marty Campbell, Charles “Kelly” Creso and Catherine Ushka-Hall.

Just one person signed up to write in support of Ladenburg’s proposition: Randy Harrison. (Jesse/Robert/”The Traveller” Hill also submitted his name, but

Read more »

Gov. Chris Gregoire addressed hundreds of teachers in Tacoma this morning at a conference sponsored by the state school superintendent’s office. The governor touted efforts to reduce class sizes and raise teacher pay. But one of her biggest applause lines came when she announced husband Mike’s take on daughter Courtney’s upcoming wedding.

"My husband’s philosophy is that his job is to show up, shut up and pay up," Gregoire said. "He is performing admirably."

Thanks largely to a hotly contested county executive’s race, Pierce County candidates this year are raking in huge sums of campaign cash.

So far, the combined take is about $800,000, and there’s still three months to go before the election. Two executive candidates – Republican Shawn Bunney and Democrat Calvin Goings – account for nearly $500,000 of the total.

According to data from the state Public Disclosure Commission, candidates this year already have nearly doubled the amount raised by candidates for all Pierce County offices in 2000 ($404,321)) and 2004 ($409,501).

For a candidate-by-candidate breakdown of 2008

Read more »