ANACORTES — Running slightly behind in the primary race — really a poll of all registered voters taken less than three months before the election — Republican Dino Rossi came here Friday optimistic about his chances to unseat Gov. Chris Gregoire.

He said he’ll get a boost in November from independents, who typically don’t vote in primaries, and from “Dinocrats” who cross party lines to vote for him.

“They’re back, and it’s clear,” Rossi said.

Rossi is challenging Gregoire for the second time. In 2004, when neither candidate had the advantage of being the incumbent, Gregoire won by the razor-thin margin of 133 votes in an election in which more than 2.8 million votes were cast.

Rossi said Skagit and Island counties, where the primary votes were close, will be important to the final outcome.

Rossi leads Gregoire in Skagit County by a 1.8 percent margin, the same as Gregoire’s lead statewide.

“They’re very important for us,” Rossi said of Skagit and Island counties. Gregoire leads Rossi in Island County by less than one point.

“We do well in Skagit. We’ll do well in Island, too,” Rossi said.

Rossi toured Dakota Creek Industries and the 950-slip Cap Sante Marina, one of the largest marinas in the state.

Rossi called Dakota Creek’s owners “true entrepreneurs” for bringing 300 family-wage jobs to the area.

“I’ve got to help small and medium-sized businesses to be successful,” Rossi said.

Dakota Creek hasn’t missed a beat in a down economy, catering now to the oil business. The company was able to wrangle a major contract from Otto Candies, a Louisiana-based marine transportation company that is working on repairs to the offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

“They took a risk up here,” said Dick Nelson of Dakota Creek. He said Candies could have been ostracized by its peers in the Gulf Coast shipping industry for accepting a bid from an out-of-area company to build them three new ships. Rossi toured the first of those ships, a $65 million vessel that should be ready next month.

Nelson is no fan of Gregoire’s business policies, and he vaguely suggested to Rossi that the unfriendly climate she has created might force the company out of the state.

Rossi said that if elected, he would do what he could to prevent that from happening.

Gregoire, he said, has no experience in the private sector, and she assumes that if Microsoft and Boeing are OK, the state is doing well, too. To contrast himself, Rossi said he knows how important even the smallest businesses are, in towns such as La Conner, or in more economically troubled areas such as eastern Washington.

“I would let the entrepreneurs be entrepreneurs — not just certain regions doing well, while the rest of the state is in double-digit unemployment,” Rossi said.

Rossi overstated the unemployment figures. In July, no county in the state had an unemployment rate above 8.6 percent.

Debra Carnes, communications director for the Gregoire campaign, said Rossi also oversteps when he claims the governor is not business friendly.

“When you create 220,000 jobs, they’re not all at Microsoft and Boeing,” Carnes said, referring to job growth in the state since Gregoire was elected. Carnes noted that 30,000 of those jobs were created east of the mountains, calling that a significant number given the population in that part of the state.

The people Rossi met on his tour were supportive. The Port of Anacortes hosted part of the tour, and Betty Mooney, wife of Port Commissioner Pat Mooney, came along to see the candidate.

“We were every happy to have him and show him around,” Betty Mooney said. “We’re proud of Anacortes and what’s been going on.”

She said she supports Rossi for governor.

When asked why, Mooney, a business owner, said, “Because he’s for the businessman.”

• Ralph Schwartz can be reached at 360-416-2138 or .