D-Know?

On Monday night, Nan and Brett Malin opened their front yard to the community to host a campaign rally event for GOP gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi.
Rossi is the first gubernatorial candidate to make a campaign stop on the Peninsula during an active campaign in over 15 years. Rossi was in the general area on Monday and Tuesday making stops in Cathlamet, as well as north county towns the next day. Nan is a long time friend of Dino and was able to pull a string to get him to make the special appearance. Rossi lost the 2004 election to current governor Christine Gregoire by less than 150 votes.
As with most political rally's, this one featured some schmoozing on the part of both the candidate and those interested in meeting him and having their picture taken with him. Over 100 people turned out, which was a somewhat surprising number, judging by how "blue" the Peninsula has voted over the years. I give Rossi credit, he was pretty low key for such a high profile figure.


Of course the highlight of the event for those in attendance was his stump speech, which he gave in front of the Malin home, which was decked out in flags and bunting. The crowd was assembled before him in lawn chairs, munching away at their dinners while he waxed "politics as usual sort of stuff" about how he would do things different, how the current governor isn't doing a good job, etc. Probably the same thing Gregoire says in her speeches to fundraisers I would guess.


I did think it was interesting that Rossi would make a boast about having all this money in his campaign coffers despite doing any fundraising. This was the day after the Sunday Seattle Times-PI cover story about him noted how his foundation had in the last year had their finances under question after it appeared that it was essentially a campaign fundraising entity under the guise of a non-profit organization. But hey, we don't get the Times or the PI down here, so.... That part of the article is under the subhead "In a very difficult spot"


More than anything else at an assignment like this I want to show basically what it was like to be there, and convey the mood/feel for it. This certainly wasn't the most exciting or important thing I've shot, but it certainly had historical significance on some level and getting a few good frames was important so I arrived early, stayed late and worked it. Now these certainly aren't on par with some of the better political photojournalism that has been taking place this year, but it is my small contribution. Hopefully, and I don't think we've shored this up yet, but hopefully sometime this fall as the election gets closer I'm trying to get Brian Baird to approve me doing a follow-along kinda thing as he campaigns down here. And I think it would be great to do the same for the GOP candidate running against him as well. We'll see how it goes.



-DKM