| Nov. 17, 2004
Recount triggered in down-to-the-wire Washington
governor's race By REBECCA COOK
Associated Press Writer
SEATTLE (AP) _ The closest governor's race in Washington history
was forced into a recount Wednesday as counties finished tallying the
ballots and found only a few votes separating the candidates out of
2.8 million cast.
Republican Dino Rossi held a mere 261-vote lead over Democratic Attorney
General Christine Gregoire after all counties reported their final
tallies to the state. A recount is required by state law when there is
less than a 2,000-vote margin.
"Making history isn't easy," Rossi said, smiling widely as he spoke to
reporters outside his campaign headquarters Wednesday night. He thanked
his wife, children and other family members, joking: "I've got a lot of
relatives - probably about 261!"
Gregoire said she believes the recount will declare her the ultimate
winner, calling Wednesday night's results a "virtual tie." But she
pledged to support Rossi if he wins in the end.
"We're going to make sure, in this recount, every single vote counts,"
Gregoire said. "This is not about Republican or Democrat, Libertarian or
Independent. This is about all of us as Washingtonians, standing up,
casting our ballots."
Wednesday was the deadline for counting the ballots.
The
recount means Washington voters will have to wait until next Wednesday
to find out who their next governor is - a stunning scenario considering
the experts never thought it would be this close. Gregoire was
considered the favorite.
"We
really aren't going to know before we do this recount who the governor
is going to be," said Secretary of State Sam Reed, a Republican who will
oversee the recount process. "I feel sorry for Attorney General Gregoire
and Senator Rossi."
Washington is one of two states (the other is Alaska) that allow voters
to mail ballots on Election Day, so votes have trickled in at an
agonizingly slow pace.
As
political junkies across the country have recovered from their
presidential election withdrawal, they have turned to the Washington
governor's race for entertainment. Gov. Gary Locke, a Democrat who is
stepping down after two terms, said he has "never seen anything like
this before."
"It's
fun, it's exciting, it's like a two-week playoff series. But it's a lot
more important than a ballgame," said Joe Arko, a Texas doctor who has
been following the Washington election religiously on the Internet.
The
election is reminiscent of the 2000 U.S. Senate race in Washington that
took several weeks of counting and recounting before Democrat Maria
Cantwell was declared the winner over Republican incumbent Slade Gorton.
Washington is a Democrat-leaning state that has not elected a Republican
governor since 1980. John Kerry won the state with 53 percent of the
vote, Locke easily defeated Republican opponents in the past two
elections, and Democrats control the Legislature.
So
why is this election so close?
Gregoire was the Democrats' Wonder Woman. Polished and popular, the
57-year-old attorney general won national recognition as lead negotiator
of the national tobacco settlement in the late 1990s. But her campaign
struggled to find a message that resonated with voters.
Rossi, meanwhile, surprised everyone with a slick, strong campaign that
painted him as a compassionate conservative. The 45-year-old Rossi, a
wealthy real estate agent, lacked name recognition outside his district,
but his promise of a fresh start in state government caught on with
voters.
"Gregoire
ran a front-runner, media-based race, where she did not take
controversial positions, and focused her resources on the media rather
than the grass roots, and that's very dangerous," said political
scientist Ken Hoover, a professor at Western Washington University.
"Rossi had a somewhat sharper message."
Washington elections are usually clean to the point of dullness. But the
twists and turns in the vote-counting have sparked conspiracy theories
and court battles.
"We
have arrived at the moment which all reasonable Washingtonians have
dreaded for four years: the moment when the Court is asked to
micromanage an election," Judge Dean Lum wrote in a decision ordering
that certain provisional ballots be counted. |
