Dino Rossi

After 2012 redistricting and the 2016 death of State Senator Andy Hill, Dino Rossi was appointed to the 45th District State Senate Seat. The Republican Party chose him over Kirkland City Councilman Toby Nixon and Joel Hussey from the King County Council. Democrat Manka Dhingra defeated Republican Jinyoung England to take the seat in the November 7, 2017 election.

On September 19, 2017, Rossi announced that he would run for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 8th Congressional District. The seat was held by Dave Reichert, who had decided not to run for reelection. Rossi advanced from the top-two primary to face Democratic challenger Kim Schrier in the general election, which he lost with 47 percent of the vote.

Rossi returned to the Washington State Senate, being appointed in 2012, and again from 2016 to 2017. He was a candidate for the United States House of Representatives for the eighth congressional district in 2018. Rossi lost that race to Democrat Kim Schrier, his fourth consecutive defeat for public office since 2004.

On July 11, 2012, Rossi was appointed to fill the term of Senator Cheryl Pflug. Rossi left office in November 2012, when Mark Mullet was sworn in.

On October 7, a lawsuit was filed against the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW), for allegedly coordinating fundraising activities with Rossi in violation of Washington's public finance laws. Rossi's campaign spokeswoman dismissed the suit as a desperate attempt by Gregoire's supporters to win an election through frivolous legal maneuvering, a claim that was denied by the lawyer that filed the suit. In 2010 the lawsuit was dismissed "with prejudice".

In early 2010, Washington State Republicans began courting various conservatives to challenge incumbent Senator Patty Murray in a year that was seen by many as a vulnerable year for Democratic candidates. On May 26, 2010, Dino Rossi officially announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate. In the Republican primary, Rossi defeated Tea Party favorite Clint Didier 33.98% - 11.99%. Rossi went on to lose the general Election on November 4, after two days' worth of ballot counting indicated that he would not have enough votes to defeat Sen. Murray. In the final tally Murray received 1,314,930 votes (52.4%) to Rossi's 1,196,164 (47.6%).

The National Rifle Association spent $414,100 supporting Rossi and opposing Murray in the 2010 senatorial contest.

Dino Rossi was defeated by Governor Christine Gregoire in the 2008 election and formally conceded at noon on November 5, 2008. Her margin of victory was 53.2% to 46.8%.

Following his defeat in the 2008 gubernatorial election, Rossi "unplugged from almost everything political" and became a principal at a commercial real estate firm called Coast Equity Partners in Everett, Washington. Rossi's role at the firm was to find investors for income producing properties in Washington and four other Western U.S. states.

In 2007, the state Democratic Party filed a complaint with the Washington Public Disclosure Committee (PDC) asserting that the Forward Washington Foundation was too similar to a campaign to be exempt from campaign finance laws. Prior to her party's formal complaint, Gregoire stated to donors that she was "campaigning aggressively". The PDC dismissed in totality the allegations made by the Washington State Democrats, deeming each accusatory claim as "insufficient" and stating that the organization was indeed acting consistent with its mission statement, making it "a social welfare organization ... and not a political committee".

On October 25, 2007, Dino Rossi announced his intention to seek the office of Governor of Washington in 2008. Rossi's campaign was centered on many of the same issues he ran under in the 2004 election, namely controlling the spending of the state's legislature, tax cuts, and improving the business environment within the state. He was endorsed by The Seattle Times.

Republican leaders in Washington claimed there were enough disputed votes to change the outcome of the election and sued. On May 25, 2005 the judge hearing the lawsuit ruled that the Party did not provide enough evidence that the disputed votes were ineligible, or for whom they were cast, to enable the court to overturn the election. Rossi did not appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Originally from Seattle, Washington, Rossi graduated from Seattle University and later pursued a career in commercial real estate. He ran for Governor of Washington in 2004, losing to Democrat Christine Gregoire by 129 votes in the closest gubernatorial election in the history of the United States. Four years later, in 2008, he unsuccessfully contested the office a second time, losing to Gregoire by more than six points. He was the Republican nominee for the United States Senate in 2010, losing to incumbent Senator Patty Murray. This marked Rossi's third straight loss in public elections.

Rossi decided to run in November 2003, but was already facing an uphill battle in terms of money raised, low name identification with voters and trends established by the two prior GOP candidates for governor. The sitting Washington State Attorney General and Rossi's eventual opponent in the general election, Christine Gregoire, had already raised $1.15 million by December, only weeks after Rossi officially kicked off his campaign. Furthermore, the previous two GOP candidates for governor had lost their campaign bids by 16% and 18.7% in 1996 and 2000.

When the Senate Republicans gained the majority in 2002, Rossi became chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee that writes the state's two year operating budget. As Ways and Means chairman, Rossi helped to carry out Democratic Governor Gary Locke's plans to close a $2.7 billion budget deficit. The budget chief for Democratic Governor Gary Locke said of Rossi in 2003, "The really good legislators move from one side to the other really effortlessly, and I think Dino did that." The Republican modifications to Locke's budget plan which Rossi oversaw included reaching a balanced budget by cutting the number of children eligible for Medicaid, cutting prenatal care for undocumented immigrants, cutting raises for state employees and increased tuition at colleges and universities. Said former governor Locke, “For years, I have simply laughed when Dino Rossi took credit for devising a no-tax-increase budget for the 2003-2005 cycle while protecting vulnerable populations."

In 1998, he co-sponsored the Mary Johnsen Act, to require ignition interlock devices for certain convicted drunk drivers in the state of Washington. He also sponsored the Dane Rempfer bill which boosted penalties for those who left the scene of a fatal accident, named after a 15-year-old boy from his district who was killed in a hit-and-run.

Rossi served in the Washington State Senate from 1997 until December 2003, when he resigned to spend full-time running for governor. During his time as senator, he gained a reputation for being a political consensus builder.

In 1992, Rossi ran for a Washington State Senate seat in a district representing suburbs east of Seattle, Washington in the Cascade foothills. After winning a divisive Republican Party primary, he lost the general election. In 1996, Rossi ran again for the State Senate and was elected.

Rossi was the youngest of seven children brought up by his mother Eve, a beautician of Irish and Tlingit ancestry, and his father John Rossi, an Italian-American Seattle Public Schools teacher at Viewlands Elementary in North Seattle. Rossi was raised in Mountlake Terrace and graduated from Woodway High School in Edmonds. He earned a bachelor's degree in business management from Seattle University in 1982.

Dino John Rossi (born October 15, 1959) is an American businessman and politician who served as a member of the Washington State Senate. He is a former Chair of the Washington State Special Olympics.