The state GOP sounded the klaxons this afternoon, noting that Gov. Chris Gregoire's biodiesel campaign bus has...Oregon license plates. They included photos, which my colleague Jim Camden will soon post here.

"Gov. Gregoire has been making it harder and harder for businesses to survive here in our state for three years, so it's no surprise that her campaign hired a bus with Oregon license plates to save money,"

state GOP chairman Luke Esser said in a press release.

The symbolism, he said,

"couldn't be plainer...Time and time again, small businesses have been thrown under the bus by Gov. Gregoire, and until Dino Rossi has been elected governor, our business climate will only continue to get worse."

What of this, I asked Gregoire campaign spokesman Aaron Toso.

Toso said the bus was rented from a Washington company: Seattle-based Meridian Transportation Resources.

"They serve the region, so it does happen to have Oregon plates," he said.

Citing recent kudos from Forbes magazine and Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, Toso said Gregoire has a excellent record of working to promote business in Washington.

"There's the governor's record, and then there's an argument over license plates," Toso said. "Their candidate wants to talk about license plates."

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