Kate, relax and take a breath. It's only a hullabaloo if the media choose to bite and turn it into one.

Kate, Kate, Kate. It's not so much that people do or do not know that Republican and GOP are used for the smae thing in articles, etc., but the attempt of these assorted individuales to HIDE from the word Republican on their posters, flyers, etc., that is the issue. Sneaky as ever. If you are a Republican, have the guts to stand up and have that work plastered proudly on all of your forms, papers, etc. If not, don't run for any office. Sit home and let others wth some guts try running this year with Republican attached to their good name. Ha!

Michael, Thanks for your comment.
Guilty. Though I was "biting" on the media hullabaloo, not the invented scandal.
The beauty of the top two is that it deliberately makes party affiliation so much less important. This silly exercise of lining everybody up on either side of one line is counterproductive. I'm a firm believer that the solutions are in the middle -- and anything that can be done to make the parties and other special interest groups weaker is a good thing.

Someone should actually organize the "G.O.P. Party" as a bona fide minor party, and run a President/V.P. ticket under that banner in the November general election. Maybe the Ron Paul people will do this, or perhaps someone can do this as a protest type of ticket. Whoever does this, gets the "G.O.P. Party" line at the top of the ballot, several hundred words for the voters pamphlets, and sets the pace for the handful of "G.O.P. Party" candidates running for lesser offices.

That way, Dino Rossi will be on record as preferring some fringe/joke "G.O.P Party" come November. That would be a lot more embarassing to Rossi, than having to associate with the semi-respectable John McCain and the at least slightly respectable Washington State Republican Party.

Democrats lie in a press release and bloggers defend them? Yuck.

They must be campaign staff...

No problem with the top two here.

However, I think it does say something about a Republican candidate if he or she decides to put GOP instead of Republican next to their name on a ballot. Same for a Democratic candidate.

Conventional wisdom is that 2008 is a bad year to run as a Republican. It looks like some Republicans are aware of that fact (there's lots of data to back the bad Republican year theory) and making a switch on the ballot.

Data also demostrates that lots of voters don't read newspapers but do read ballots and voter guides. In 2004 the state voter guide included a statement from Dino Rossi, Republican. There was no mention of the term GOP or Grand Old Party.

There's no GOP caucus in Olympia. There are two Republican caucuses. It is the Washington State Republican Party, not the GOP. Republican is a term used much more in press coverage on radio, tv, print and the web.

Consider me among the folks who consider the method a stunt, a deceipt, and a comment on the character of the candidates who do it. It's just a bad political move that will turn people off. Rossi has already suffered run-ins with truth and a tendency to evade. This won't help him.

I don't care what they put on their campaign materials. I do not like the idea of state tax dollars being used to participate in the stunt on a ballot. I'll bet Sam Reed at least wondered about the same thing.

Rossi IS attempting to re-brand his republican association with the more editorial term, "GOP".
His reasons for doing so, and what that says about how he wants voters to view him and his candidacy, is fair game.
It's not so much about whether it will fool voters, or if that was his sole objective - which I suspect it was not.
Rather, it's about what kind of man would put lipstick on a pig for ANY reason.