A group of prosecutors and other law enforcement types gathered at Gov. Christine Gregoire's Seattle campaign headquarters this afternoon to denounce a new round of attack ads from the Republican Governors Association, which portray Gregoire as soft on sex offenders.

You can watch the RGA ads at a Web site www.onherwatch.com.

Over a foreboding soundtrack, the ads claim that 1,300 sex offenders are on the loose thanks to the Gregoire administration. "We know they're out there, but thanks to Gregoire, we have no idea where," says a mom in one ad. Another shows a smoking, shady looking sex offender being let out of jail.

At today's press conference, Mark Roe, senior deputy prosecutor in Snohomish County, said he was "quivering" mad over the ads because they made Gregoire sound like she's soft on sex-offenders -- which he said is 180 degrees from the truth.

Roe has some credentials on the subject. He's spent most of his career prosecuting sex offenders, as has his wife and his sister.

"In my family we know the truth about prosecuting sex offenders. The ads that have been recently run by Governor Gregoire's opponent are not the truth," Roe said. "Many of us ask questions: are you better off than you were four years ago? Sex offenders in Washington aren't, because of Chris Gregoire."

Roe and others at the press conference demanded that Rossi and his allies take the ads down.

Gregoire has signed into law new efforts to better track sex offenders, including DNA testing and electronic monitoring. Her campaign already has released an ad countering the latest RGA attacks. See it here.

House Republicans last year called for a special legislative session on sex offenders following the slaying of 12-year-old Tacoma girl by a sex offender who had failed to register his address with police.

Democrats declined the special session. Instead, Gregoire appointed a task force, which recommended the strengthened sex-offender monitoring efforts she signed into law.

I spoke with Kitsap County Prosecutor Russell Hauge, who chaired that task force. (He was not at today's press conference.) Hauge said Gregoire also pushed to get $5 million in the state budget to give to local police and sheriff's departments so they can dedicate officers to track the whereabouts of sex offenders.

"That's the most practical solution to the problem I heard and that money is being spent," said Hauge, a Democrat.

UPDATE: I got a different perspective from Jim Hines, a Gig Harbor activist who has championed tougher sex offender laws. Hines, a Republican who unsuccessfully ran for state senate on the issue a few years back, gave Gregoire some credit for the recent changes to the law and for the added law-enforcement funding.

But Hines said Republicans had proposed similar plans before Gregoire. Hines said the governor didn't act until after the high-profile Tacoma murder dominated local headlines. "She hasn't led on it. She only did it when it was politically expedient."

When Gregoire appointed her task force, Hines said, she took care not to appoint the Republican lawmakers who had been pushing the issue.