Gov. Chris Gregoire has been named one of nine Public Officials of the Year named by Governing Magazine. Gregoire gets cover treatment from the magazine, which says that a year in office "even Republicans were conceding that Gregoire had brought state government a transparency it had never known before." No doubt there were Republicans singing her praises at times, but many GOP lawmakers may be surprised to see the accolades for the transparent governor.

I was a little surprised to read that she was "allowing reporters and citizens into regular meetings where department heads frankly discuss the details of agency performance and how to improve it." I didn't know what I was missing at those Government Measurement, Accountability and Performance meetings. Seriously, I'll have to check one of those out.

If the short profile jammed with high praise wasn't enough to have the Tums coming out at the Rossi campaign today, the quotes from House Republican Leader Richard DeBolt.may do the trick.

"We're not always ideologically aligned," says DeBolt. "But I think she's a good manager and that she's doing a good job of running the state."

Has that been pasted into a campaign flyer yet?

MORE: Here's some more people who might be surprised by all the talk about the Gregoire Administration's openess.

I posted a report Wednesday from city hall reporter Bob Young about record-breaking fundraising by city council candidate Tim Burgess. There are other records falling, too.

The insurance industry money behind the opposition campaign to referendum 67 now totals at least $10.7 million. The previous record for a campaign opposing a ballot measure was the $6.6 million raised mostly from tribes to oppose 2004's I-892 which would have expanded non-tribal gambling.

In county council races, Keith Ervin reports this morning that Republican Jane Hague's $450,000 campaign is a record, too. But as the case with Burgess, Hague hit the high mark with a lot of her own money. She has donated more than $100,000 to her campaign.