Who Is The Next Governor Of Washington State?
Published December 30, 2004
Earlier in the day, Rossi's spokeswoman Mary Lane said he and his advisers, including state GOP Chairman Chris Vance, were weighing whether to proceed with contesting the results.
Gov. Gary Locke said he strongly disagrees with Rossi's call for another election. "The people have voted, and all votes properly cast were counted," said Locke, a Democrat who's retiring after two terms.
When Reed certifies the hand recount Thursday, Gregoire will become the official "governor-elect." Rossi had been using the title, although Gregoire's camp called the race essentially tied and refused to concede.
Both Gregoire and Rossi have maintained transition offices, appointing teams to work on a state budget, cabinet appointments and an agenda for the upcoming Legislature.
Rossi and his family even toured the Gov.'s Mansion.
State Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt said Rossi should either concede or immediately present evidence showing he has legal grounds to challenge the election.
Rossi already has been mentioned as a challenger to first-term Democratic U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, who faces voters in 2006.
So. Now that the Democrats have managed to find enough votes to "win" this election, they want the process ended. I'm not at all surprised.
Rossi, if he's smart, will concede this election magnanimously. He will then immediately begin campaigning for Ms. Cantwell's Senate seat, while his surrogates wave the "bloody shirt" of a stolen election.
Rossi should also court out-of-state contributors for this 2006 Senate race, and get Bush to campaign for him.
Rossi might have lost the Governorship by a narrow margin, but hopefully he will be able to win a Senate seat less than two years from now...
- Who Is The Next Governor Of Washington State?
- Published: December 30, 2004
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- Section: Politics
- Filed Under: Politics: Law and Rights
- Writer: RJ Elliott
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Does anyone really think Dino Rossi would have agreed to a revote if it were the other way around?
C'mon now - enough of this fake outrage. Politics is what it is.
It's a close vote. No matter which side of the aisle you sit, a vote this close would be contested by any loser. Taking potshots and making hot-headed partisan comments doesn't help the situation.
I also understood that the Republicans had filed a broad FIA request (12-23) to help determine how undervote and overvote ballots were assessed, and to find out if military ballots had been edged out by sending them too late.
It is a close vote. Many states have specific methods (including re-balloting) to determine the winner in races this close.
I find some irony in the fact the Dino Rossi originally won by a margin so close that it triggered an automatic statewide recount, yet he called on Christine Gregoire to concede, called himself governor-elect, and even toured the Governor's Mansion with his family.
The whole time, he and the state Republican party fought to disallow as many votes in the recount as they possibly could.
Now that he has lost the manual recount, he and the state Republican Party are trying to find uncounted Republican votes, even though the vote has been certified and they are thus headed into uncharted waters.
The sheer arrogance and hypocracy of the Republican Party today makes me long for some good old-fashioned Democratic sleaze and corruption.
This is not my father's Republican Party. What the hell happened to it?
Not that it matters. Our terminally disfunctional State Legislature will not be improved with either Gregoire or Rossi as Governor.
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So. Now that the Democrats have managed to find enough votes to "win" this election, they want the process ended. I'm not at all surprised.
So. The Republicans want to keep counting votes until they have enough to "win". I'm not at all surprised.