Seattle Times reporter Andrew Garber reports that the Building Industry Association of Washington, the arch-conservative political committee that has long supported Republican candidates by bashing Democrats, is rethinking its attack dog approach.

The article points out that the BIAW has established lines of communications with both Gov. Chris Gregoire (who the group once called a "power-hungry she-wolf who would eat her own young to get ahead") and the Department of Labor and Industries, which regulates workers' comp claims—a big issue for the building industry.

The article fails to mention that Gov. Gregoire led the fight for a Republican-style all-cuts budget last session—calling for the elimination of the Basic Health Plan, for example—and that she led an effort (backed by Republicans and conservative Democrats) to scale back workers' comp payments. It may be that it's the Democrats who have changed—not the BIAW.

However, Garber does focus on one other big change: The BIAW doesn't have as much money as it used to.

With builders struggling in the ongoing housing crunch, the group also isn't bringing in the money it did a few years back, when it spent $6 million to support Republican Dino Rossi's failed attempt to unseat Gregoire, a Democrat, in 2008.

"Our industry has been suffering and our membership has been down. Obviously our revenues are not what they were back then either. I would expect us to be players, but we're not a $10 million to $11 million-a-year operation any longer," he said.

State records show the recession hit the BIAW's largest source of income, a retrospective rating program — known as Retro — that rewards companies and organizations for preventing on-the-job injuries and keeping workers' compensation costs down. The state Department of Labor and Industries runs the workers' compensation system.

The BIAW has a for-profit subsidiary, BIAW Member Services, that administers the largest Retro program in the state, according to state reports.

Under the program, if workers' compensation claims are less than the insurance premiums paid to the state, the surplus goes back to BIAW and its members.

In 2007, a peak year, the state refund totaled more than $51 million. Last year's refund was $5.5 million. The BIAW keeps 10 percent, and the rest goes to companies it represents and to local homebuilder associations.