/ Local News / Washington AP Wire

10/08/2005

By DAVID AMMONS  / Associated Press

Dino Rossi, taking a sabbatical from politics but still treated as Republicans' once and future candidate for governor, is turning to the printed word to keep his name fresh in people's minds.

He's written a book about his rags-to-riches life, the Election from Hell and his thoughts and aphorisms on government, business, politics and living a good life. The hardback edition, published by his own new publishing house, with a first printing that could hit 25,000 copies, will be pre-sold on the Internet.

First copies will roll off the press next month, one year after Rossi won the governor's mansion by 261 votes and a recount by 41 votes. The office slipped out of his grasp, though, on the third count and Democrat Christine Gregoire was declared governor. Rossi lost a court challenge in June and now says, "I've moved on. I moved on a long time ago."

Part of Rossi's new post-campaign life was writing "Dino Rossi: Lessons in Leadership, Business, Politics and Life."

He has blurbs from Rudy Guiliani and John McCain, both presumptive presidential candidates who have written books, and from Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck.

Don't expect sex, sensationalism or delicious payback attacks of an Olympia tell-all, though. The book combines autobiography and business tips with political and campaign narrative — all told with his sunny, make-lemonade-when-life-gives-you-lemons approach.

Although he defends his conservatism, including his opposition to abortion, in what he describes as a Democratic-leaning "blue state," he portrays himself as a different kind of conservative, mindful of the needy and willing to cross the aisle to find allies. He says he grew in a "Scoop Jackson Democrat" family and refuses to call Democrats the enemy or even the opposition.

The book will be Rossi's main public voice for a time. He has eschewed the role of governor-in-exile and rarely does political analysis. He isn't taking sides on this year's ballot initiatives, and has largely unplugged from politics for now.

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'YOU OUGHTA WRITE ...'

As Rossi dealt with the limbo of waiting to learn if he'd get a do-over election, he began thinking seriously about the suggestions he'd been getting that he write an insider's view of the country's closest and craziest race for governor. Others wanted to know more about his personal story and how he parlayed a $200 nest egg into a real estate fortune. Others asked about the backstory of writing a no-new-tax state budget when Democrats held the governor's mansion and the House of Representatives.

So politics, he wrote.

His approach was unconventional. After deciding on a dozen ideas he wanted to capture, rather than writing in longhand or on a computer, he talked into a tape recorder. An inveterate teller of stories and aphorisms, he stitched together the narrative with sayings and soundbites that will be familiar to people who saw him in full charm-offensive on the campaign trail or in Olympia.

He had the tapes transcribed and then he and a professional editor smoothed it into book format, leaving a breezy, conversational style that is part bootstrap, self-help, motivation-speak, part an Algeresque riff on how to succeed in business from scratch, and part his personal take on coalition politics and modern campaigning.

Each chapter is summed up with a "key principle" written by an old friend, Chris Widener, a motivational speaker, writer and business guru with a national satellite TV show.

Rossi said over breakfast at a suburban restaurant this week that writing the book was good therapy, including cathartic sections on growing up in a poor, broken home with an alcoholic mother and a father who died young.

He said some detractors won't like parts of the book, but that he didn't go out of his way to whack Gregoire and other adversaries.

"I'm sorry if they feel attacked. I'm just telling the truth and if they feel like it's potshots, that's too bad. People can let themselves get eaten up by bitterness if they stew on things like that and don't move on. That's not just politicians. That's human nature, but it's destructive."

The crankiest he gets is complaining about King County elections department, where hundreds of ballots were improperly handled and counted. "Third-world countries have better ballot security," he said.

He also noted that a statewide poll this summer said a sizable majority believe he was the legitimate winner.

Then he gets back on message, saying he has moved on.

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DINO-ISMS...

Three chapters made available to The Associated Press deal with leadership and authenticity, his business life, and what he calls the "80-20 Rule."

He opines that a big part of leadership is staking out a clear position and then not waffling or tailoring views to fit the occasion. He said a fellow senator once advised him to change his name to Dean Ross so he'd sound more mainstream and less ethnic. Some campaign backers urged him to fuzz his position on abortion so he'd have an easier shot at winning. The grandson of Italian immigrants and a Tlingit Indian grandmother, he did neither.

Rossi writes that he watched some colleagues agonizing over every vote.

"It always made me wonder how they conducted their campaign. Did they have one position at the Kiwanis and a different position at the Rotary? Are they devoid of principles to guide them or do they simply want to please everyone? This rudderless style of leadership is, in fact, not leadership at all."

Rossi's 80-20 Rule is that 80 percent of the job of a leader is to sell the vision and 20 percent is spelling out the details. He tells how he learned to spin the big picture in Olympia, complete with pithy one-liners and sound bites he tried out at the grocery store.

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ROSSI'S NEW LIFE...

Rossi has a chapter on his future, but won't discuss it before publication. He does restate what he said in previous interviews, that he won't decide until 2007 whether to sign up for a rematch with Gregoire. And he said he plans to stay involved in politics, either in private life or public office.

So what's he up to in the meantime?

_Publishing. He has founded a little publishing house, Forward Books, in Bellevue. His is the first title, but publisher Brian Smith says other authors are submitting manuscripts, mostly in the niche market of politics, leadership, and business titles. The Rossi book will be pre-sold, $23.95, at http://www.forwardbooks.com. Rossi plans a book tour and hopes to get some national sales, given the notoriety of the election and the assist from McCain, Guiliani et al.

_Real estate. Rossi has sold his original commercial real estate holdings in King and Snohomish counties and now owns a medical-dental building, apartments and a warehouse. He's living comfortably off the income, and not selling real estate for others, and said he may let his agent's license expire.

_Foundation. Rossi and his spokeswoman, Mary Lane, are starting the Forward Washington Foundation, a 501-C4 group that will use private dollars to work on issues he espoused in his campaign: parks, health care, services for the developmentally disabled, lawsuit reform and others. Lane will be executive director and Rossi will be president.

_POLITICS. Rossi is taking a time-out, accepting only a handful of the hundreds of speaking invitations he gets and frustrating some folks by not taking sides on this year's crop of initiatives.

"I'm taking time off with my family, and I think I've earned it," he says. "I'm not getting back on that treadmill this year."

Next year, he plans to work for candidates he likes, and then in 2007? Stay tuned.

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David Ammons is the AP's state political writer and has covered the statehouse since 1971. He may be reached at P.O. Box 607, Olympia, WA 98507, or at dammonsap.org on the Internet.