This post comes from staff reporter Ralph Thomas:

From the counting-their-chickens file:

There are 10 people running for governor and the primary election is still two weeks away. But that hasn’t stopped Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire and Republican Dino Rossi from making plans for a series of general election debates.

Gregoire and Rossi said today they have begun accepting debate invitations from various media organizations. But no dates have been set and the campaigns are still at odds over which debates to do.

So far, there are three debates that both sides have agreed to:

• A Seattle debate hosted by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, League of Women Voters, KOMO TV, KXLY in Spokane, KATU in Portland


• A Yakima debate hosted by the Yakima Herald-Republic, Seattle Times and statewide PBS affiliates


• A Spokane debate hosted by The Spokesman-Review newspaper, KSPS Public TV and 790 KJRB

Meanwhile, Gregoire is declining - but Rossi has accepted - an invitation to a debate hosted by KING 5 and The Seattle Times.

Gregoire spokeswoman Debra Carnes said the two campaigns have not yet had discussions about debate schedules. She said the governor tried to pick a mix of debates that covers all regions of the state and different media formats. “Unfortunately, she just can’t do them all,” Carnes said.

Rossi said he’s open to doing as many debates as possible. “I just want to make sure there’s maximum exposure,” Rossi said. “If we do it, I don’t want it to be in a vacuum.”

Gregoire and Rossi appeared in four televised debates in 2004.

Still no word yet on debate plans from any of the lesser-known governor candidates: Christopher Tudor, James White, Will Baker, Duff Badgley, John Aiken, Christian Pierre Joubert, Javier Lopez and Mohammad H. Said.

With David Postman off for a couple of days, staff reporter Emily Heffter, who is covering the 8th Congressional District race, filed this post:

Democratic Congressional candidate Darcy Burner's campaign launched its first TV ad today, a one-minute spot introducing Burner to voters by talking about her family and experiences. You can watch it here.

The ad seems to play up Burner's middle-class roots, a theme of her campaign this year, and something I wrote about last month. The ad also mentions Burner's July 1 house fire, which destroyed her family's Ames Lake home. The camera shows images the charred remains of her house, and her voiceover says: "When we lost our house to fire, thanks to this community, which has helped my family in so many ways, we've been able to focus on all that we still have."

Campaign spokesman Sandeep Kaushik won't say how much the campaign spent on the ad, except to say it was "well into the six figures." It will run for at least a week on broadcast and cable television, he said, starting today.

Burner is challenging U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Auburn. She lost to him by 2 percentage points in 2006. So far, Reichert has not run any television ads.

By the time you read this I'll be going through my wardrobe to pick just the right vacation outfit for my first-ever visit to the island.

(Confidential to John: This is not an open thread.)