The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

Republican candidate for governor Dino Rossi listened as well as spoke when he made a campaign stop Monday afternoon in Cathlamet.

Rossi described his vision for Washington and touted his leadership to a crowd of about 20 persons.

Then he invited local residents to share their concerns.

Chief among those concerns were comments from commercial fishermen urging the potential governor to protect what they see is the public's interest in a share of the Columbia River's salmon runs.

Irene and Kent Martin, Skamokawa, reviewed the past winter and spring salmon seasons which saw commercial fishing severely constricted in order to protect a weak return to the Willamette River. In just 30 hours of fishing, they caught fish that had a $1.6 million impact on the economy, Kent Martin said. For the 92 percent of Washingtonians who don't fish, this was the only opportunity for them to have access to the region's salmon, he said.

The fishermen urged Rossi to support hatchery programs and equitable shares to all user groups.

Rossi thanked the group for their comments and recalled facing pressure from anti-hatchery groups while he was chair of the Senate Natural Resources Committee. He fought to have a hatchery program continue in his district, he said.

"As governor, I would have to find ways to keep the people in the different groups from fighting over the last fish," he said.

Rossi spoke confidently of being elected governor. He lost a closely contested race four years ago after several recounts. He wouldn't have run again if the state hadn't cleaned up the mess in its election process, he said.

"Our fundraising is going very well," he said. "We have already raised more funds than we raised during the whole previous campaign," he said.

If elected, he would be able to clean house in state agencies and appoint new persons with new blood and new ideas, he said. He would instill a belief that state agencies are created to serve the state's residents--good customer service in other words.

He would support education programs that are in the best interest of children and stop early release of prison inmates in response to three inmates who committed murder after being released under the Gregoire administration.

He would control state spending so that it doesn't exceed the economic growth rate and he wouldn't raise taxes, he said.

"Governor Gregoire has blown through a big surplus and will leave a big deficit for the next governor," he said.

He added that he can handle it--as former chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee several years ago, he had to write a budget at a time when the state had another revenue shortfall.

He also promised to curb governmental regulation