Dino Rossi becomes a candidate once again — this time for the U.S. House in WA-08

Dino Rossi con­firmed tonight that he once again becom­ing a can­di­date for pub­lic office, this time for the Unit­ed States House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives in 2018.

At the Wash­ing­ton State Repub­li­can Par­ty’s annu­al din­ner in Belle­vue, Rossi made his long-rumored can­di­da­cy offi­cial, declar­ing that he will be vying to suc­ceed Dave Reichert in Wash­ing­ton’s 8th Dis­trict next year.

Rossi also relaunched his web­site (dinorossi.com) on Nation­Builder, although at the moment it only con­tains a splash page and a signup form.

Rossi has run three statewide cam­paigns since the turn of the cen­tu­ry, los­ing each one to his Demo­c­ra­t­ic oppo­nent. In 2004, he was the Repub­li­can Par­ty’s nom­i­nee for gov­er­nor in what became the clos­est guber­na­to­r­i­al race in state his­to­ry. Demo­c­ra­t­ic nom­i­nee Chris Gre­goire pre­vailed after two recounts.

Rossi con­test­ed the out­come in Chelan Coun­ty Supe­ri­or Court, but his law­suit was dis­missed with prej­u­dice in June of 2005, and he chose not to appeal.

In 2008, Rossi sought a rematch with Gre­goire, but lost to Gre­goire for a sec­ond time, with Gre­goire enjoy­ing a much more com­fort­able mar­gin of victory.

While Gre­goire was serv­ing her sec­ond term as gov­er­nor, Rossi was recruit­ed by the Nation­al Repub­li­can Sen­a­to­r­i­al Com­mit­tee (NRSC) to chal­lenge Wash­ing­ton’s senior Unit­ed States Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Mur­ray dur­ing the 2010 midterms.

Repub­li­cans backed Rossi with boat­loads of cash, but failed to knock out Mur­ray, who won reelec­tion to a fourth term.

Since los­ing to Pat­ty Mur­ray, Rossi has kept a low­er pro­file, although he has twice returned to the Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture as an appoint­ed replace­ment for Repub­li­can sen­a­tors Cheryl Pflug (who resigned in mid-2012 to take a new job) and Andy Hill (who died of can­cer late last year).

Rossi’s Sam­mamish home used to be in the 5th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict, which he was twice elect­ed to rep­re­sent in the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate pri­or to run­ning for gov­er­nor. Now it is in the 45th Dis­trict thanks to redistricting.

Although Rossi stepped for­ward to serve as Andy Hill’s imme­di­ate replace­ment back in Novem­ber of last year, he made it clear he was not inter­est­ed in run­ning to retain the posi­tion. Repub­li­cans ulti­mate­ly recruit­ed his pro­tege Jiny­oung Lee Englund to com­pete in the spe­cial elec­tion against Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­date Man­ka Dhingra.

Now, how­ev­er, Rossi is reen­ter­ing the are­na him­self as a can­di­date… but this time for the Unit­ed States House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives as opposed to the Legislature.

The last time Rossi sought fed­er­al office (in 2010), the cen­tral themes of his cam­paign were con­trol­ling spend­ing and reduc­ing the debt — mean­ing­less plat­i­tudes Repub­li­cans love to pay lip ser­vice to when they are out of power. 

Like oth­er Repub­li­can can­di­dates then and more recent­ly, Rossi also pledged to “repeal and replace” the Patient Pro­tec­tion Act, which has helped mil­lions of Amer­i­cans obtain access to life-sav­ing healthcare.

Rossi also cam­paigned in favor of mak­ing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy per­ma­nent and “fin­ish­ing the bor­der fence”.

Were Rossi to take Dave Reichert’s place in Con­gress begin­ning in 2019, he would be a depend­able vote for Paul Ryan’s agenda.

That’s not what either Wash­ing­ton State or the coun­try needs.

Rossi may have at least one or two rivals run­ning as Repub­li­cans. State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Drew Stokes­bary, for instance, says he has still not ruled out a run. But he’d bet­ter get mov­ing if he wants to be com­pet­i­tive against Rossi, who is well con­nect­ed in Repub­li­can cir­cles due to his three failed statewide campaigns.