“Legal dispute from 2008 gubernatorial campaign lives on”

The Olympian:

The legal fight is so old that the governor whose re-election was at the heart of the case has left office, the defendant is no longer the campaign heavyweight it once was, and the lead plaintiff is dead.

But the case lives on after a decision Thursday by the state Supreme Court.

The 8-to-1 ruling sends the case of Utter v. Building Industry Association of Washington back to a King County court for more proceedings.

The case involves Republican Dino Rossi’s 2008 rematch with Gov. Chris Gregoire, which Democrat Gregoire won. Two retired Supreme Court justices, Faith Ireland and the late Robert Utter, accused the builders’ association of wrongdoing in its campaigning for Rossi.

After a state investigation, an arm of BIAW paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in a 2010 settlement.

An appeals court found the investigation precluded the lawsuit from going forward, but the state Supreme Court reversed that decision. State law allows for citizens to sue when state attorneys don’t, the high court said.

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