From Seattle Weekly:

There’s plenty of speculation that, as many AGs do, McKenna is positioning himself as a popular moderate for a run for higher office. (There’s an old joke that AG actually stands for “aspiring governor.”) His decision last Friday to file suit against rabid Republican backers the Building Industry Association of Washington for campaign-finance regulations will help him appear nonpartisan. Yet McKenna is also the chair of John McCain’s Washington state campaign, and has praised staunchly conservative Supreme Court justices Samuel Alito and John Roberts as “outstanding picks” by President Bush.

A popular, politically adroit Republican who may be more conservative than he appears is the Democratic nightmare (see: Rossi), but the Democrat seeking to halt McKenna’s rise, Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg, has been unable to raise even one-third as much as the incumbent. Ladenburg’s campaign estimates that it will raise $600,000 to $700,000, compared to the more than $1.5 million already in McKenna’s treasury. Democrat Deborah Senn amassed $1.2 million in her battle against McKenna for the open AG spot (vacated by now-Gov. Gregoire) in 2004.

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