I well remember the feelings we had as we watched the outcome of the 2004 governor’s race in Washington State. Republican Dino Rossi appeared to have won it very narrowly from Democrat Christine Gregoire, even through the first recounts. But in an outcome that many said was the Dem’s revenge for Florida, the King County numbers were finally brought home for Gregoire, and Rossi embarrassed AlGore by stepping aside instead of continuing the fighting through the courts. Ah yes, I remember.
..Also, the much-publicized antics of the King County Elections bureaucracy in the post-Election Day counts and recounts did much to foster long-term resentment among Republicans and independents.
King County ended up having thousands more votes counted than it had registered voters credited with casting ballots. After a failed court challenge to the final election results, soundpolitics.com blogger Stefan Sharkansky unearthed evidence from a less-than-forthcoming King County Elections office that hundreds of ballots — not cast by lawfully registered voters — were tallied in election results.
So I find it interesting that we’re lining up for a rematch this year. I’ll spare you the movie sequel jokes. But according to an article by Eric Earling over at American Spectator, this rematch appears to be setting up as a “do-over” with good prospects for Mr Rossi in the usually Democrat/Liberal state to our northwest.
..Independent surveys this past Fall had Gregoire consistently under 50 percent in hypothetical rematches with Rossi, holding at most a five-point lead.
Very nice.
..Gregoire’s tenure as governor has been cursed with the same inertia and lack of decisive leadership that plagued her Democratic predecessor, Gary Locke. On Gregoire’s watch, the state budget has ballooned, leaving even the slightly left-of-center Seattle Times editorial board displeased. By comparison, Rossi ran in 2004 on the strength of his bipartisan work with Locke to balance and restrain the state budget.
Meanwhile, the state looks incapable of decisive, timely action to replace two aging state highways in the heart of the Seattle metropolitan area: the Alaska Way Viaduct on the Seattle waterfront and the 520 bridge, connecting the city with its Eastside suburbs across Lake Washington. Year after year of inaction on those projects, and other long overdue transportation improvements in the rapidly growing Puget Sound region are an increasing sore spot for voters who are otherwise regularly sending Democrats to represent them in Olympia and Washington, D.C.
Head on over and read the whole article, because if you follow Washington State politics at all, this will be an important race, and the article is a good one. Could the Republicans pick up a new Governorship? I’m going to be real interested to see how this plays out. King County politics is dirty and many say corrupt. Can they bring it home for Gregoire yet again? And Washington voters that I know insist, when asked, that they are “independent and we vote for the right person, not the party”… although if you keep score on paper that isn’t so. But hey, here is an opportunity to prove me wrong. Come on Washington! You’ve had two losers in a row. Stand up to the machine in King County and elect a REAL Governor this time. Go Dino!
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