Rossi denies involvement in Buildergate

Progressive advocacy group Fuse provides excellent coverage of Rossi's involvement in the BIAW's illegal fundraising scheme, complete with online references for the truly wonky.

It's all there, the legal documents, the Master Builders Association meeting minutes, and it's plain to this observer that Dino Rossi was indeed soliciting campaign funding from top MBA officers, despite his ludicrous claims to the contrary.

Here's Rossi defending his phone calls to three MBA officers from today's front page of the Seattle P-I:

...Rossi said the calls had nothing to do with a campaign because he was not running for office at that time.

Asked if he had solicited money, he said: "No."

Instead, Rossi said he had called on behalf of the BIAW to mediate in a dispute between the two organizations.

"They are not always on the same page," he said. "Before I decided to run for governor, they asked me to come in and talk to them and see if they could put the relationship back together again. In the end it didn't work. They both ended up going their separate ways because they have different realities."

It's clear from the context in the MBA meeting minutes that Rossi's calls addressed campaign funding and his so-called mediation was so insignificant that it was not even worth mentioning at that same board meeting. I think that future evidence will catch Rossi in this rather obvious lie.

To get to the bottom of the matter, it's important that there is no conflict of interest in the attorney general's office. Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna's close relationship with the BIAW creates this conflict. NPI urges McKenna to appoint an independent special prosecutor to handle the case.

The BIAW's tentacles reach too many corners of our state's political system for our comfort.