WA State Governor Election

[pstylesss]

I know everyone here is not familiar with Washington State politics, so I'll give a little background. Recently we passed what is called the "Top 2 Primary" which means any two people in any given office who gather the most votes in the primary move ahead to the General Election. It does not matter if it's two democrats or republicans, libertarians, etc. This has pluses and minuses but is not what I want to discuss.

4 years ago our current Governor Chris(tine) Gregoire won the election by 129 (or 133) votes. The way she won was very sketchy no matter what party you are affiliated with (disclosure: I'm a register Republican and very active in my county R party HQ and also work on Rossi's (re)election campaign). Dino Rossi was ahead in the first two counts and lost the 3rd recount. The count was close enough the first time to have the state pay for an automatic recount. Rossi won the second count. Gregoire's campaign opted to do another recount, but she had to pay for it out of her campaign. She won that count by 129 (or 133) votes. Rossi could have chosen to pay for another count but chose not to. A smaller county republican party sued in their county court for voter fraud (or something, can't remember) and either dropped the case or it was thrown out.

There were many votes "found" in boxes and whatnot in the second and third count... enough were "found" each time to push Gregoire closer until she won. After the election was certified our election process was overhauled and many registrations were thrown off the records and everything was centralized. Rossi more than likely would have won had a large amount of voter fraud not taken place.


Now onto the current issue. Dino Rossi has always run under the banner of GOP in every election to my knowledge. I know he ran under the GOP banner during his senate run (and win). He filed under GOP and on the ballet it says:

Dino Rossi - Prefers GOP Party

Yes I know it's redundant, not the point. Gregoire's (democrat) campaign knew what he filed as right when he filed (he was listed on the primary that way as well, so they had to know known at the primary). Just this week Gregoire's campaign sued Sam Reid - R (Secretary of State) saying that Dino Rossi is trying to mislead voters by filing as GOP.

One of the problems is that many of the ballets have already been printed and it's too late to reverse without a huge cost... and nothing can be done about the votes for our soldiers over seas. The Democrats say they will not argue the merit of the soldiers ballets if they win the lawsuit and they have to be sent saying "GOP".

I want to know your thoughts on this.

I feel its a way for Gregoire to pull the same crap she did last election.

So... thoughts?


EDIT: Here are some news articles -
1) Seattle PI
2) Tacoma News Tribune
3) Seattle Times


EDIT II: Here is Gregoire's press release on the lawsuit... It's an interesting take.

Gregoire Campaign Statement in response to Republicans on Democratic Party lawsuit
Posted Sept. 23, 6:45 p.m.

?Gov. Gregoire has a strong record of supporting veterans in our state. In fact, she is married to one. Her record of support for our troops and veterans stands on its own. It is sad that the Republican Party and Dino Rossi are trying to use our troops for political gain,? said Aaron Toso spokesperson for the Gregoire campaign. ?Dino Rossi is misleading voters by hiding the fact that he is a Republican in lockstep with George Bush, in the same way he is misleading voters about his opposition to embryonic stem cell research, denial of global warming and support of restricting access to emergency contraceptives.?

 

[daniel49]

To assert that the voters of the state of washington do not understand that Gop and Republican are synonomous is laughable.
Gregoire is merely throwing out smoke as she did in the debate.
The way she sat there and lied with a straight face during the debate is what the voters don't understand.
I hope she is voted out and the orchestrated incompetance that was observed in King County in 2004 is watched very closely this year.

 

[pstylesss]

Originally posted by: daniel49
To assert that the voters of the state of washington do not understand that Gop and Republican are synonomous is laughable.
Gregoire is merely throwing out smoke as she did in the debate.
The way she sat there and lied with a straight face during the debate is what the voters don't understand.
I hope she is voted out and the orchestrated incompetance that was observed in King County in 2004 is watched very closely this year.

It's nice to see another Washingtonian commenting and agreeing with me

Did you especially like during the debate anything good that happened with the economy was her doing and anything bad was "George Bushes failed economic policy.... which Dino Rossi supports!".

We counted she brought Bush up 9 times... Dino estimated it was going to be at least 6 times at the beginning of the debate :laugh:

 

[PokerGuy]

So basically, the democrats are making the argument that the voters of that state are too stupid to understand terms like "GOP"? Interesting. Clearly, Rossi should be in office, not that idiot Gregoire.

 

[winnar111]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.c...3983_donations24m.html

OLYMPIA ? In late 2004, when Christine Gregoire's bid to become governor was engulfed in legal challenges, the state Democratic Party sent out a plea for help.

The checks started rolling in almost immediately ? $250,000 from the state's largest public-employee union, $50,000 from a tribal-gambling group, $25,000 from the state's main teachers union. Major national political groups also weighed in.

That money, more so than the millions Gregoire received during her campaign, is what ultimately enabled Gregoire to vanquish Republican Dino Rossi.

And those allies have done well under Gregoire.

As governor, she gave thousands of state workers the biggest raises they've seen in more than a decade. She approved a major expansion of tribal gambling. She vastly increased education spending and pushed for big pay raises for teachers.

"Absolutely it was money well spent," Mary Lindquist, president of the Washington Education Association (WEA), said of the donations the teachers union gave that year.

But Republicans, who still seethe over the 2004 election, say Gregoire has gone out of her way to reward her supporters.

"There's a quo for every quid with this administration," said Tom McCabe, head of the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW) and one of Gregoire's biggest critics. "The tribes were paid off handsomely, as were the unions."

Gregoire bristles at the suggestion of political payoffs.

"When the election was over, for me, it was over and it was my job to be governor," Gregoire said. "There was never a litmus test. Anybody who wanted to get in that door, got in that door. And everyone who got in that door, got an absolute fair shake."

 

[zeruty]

She's not the governor to me, she shall forever be The Former Attorney General Christine Gregoire.

I'm amazed how they got away with obvious fraud.

 

[pstylesss]

Originally posted by: winnar111
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c...3983_donations24m.html
..snip...

Oh man that's another issue entirely and also reeks. She is doing the same thing this year as well.

 

[ElFenix]

honestly? is this what our country has come to? if this were a comic book movie they'd have to hire all new actors and just ignore the previous 5 flicks.

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

Sounds pretty freakin shady.

 

[pstylesss]

Originally posted by: bl4ckfl4g
Sounds pretty freakin shady.

On which side?

 

[Zenmervolt]

"Pelz said he's confident the courts will rule the issue is more 'important than whether two to three small counties have started to print their ballot. I know they haven't started to print in King County.'"

Ah, typical Gregoire campaign. If you're not in King County, you don't matter.

ZV

 

[daniel49]

Originally posted by: ZeroIQ

Originally posted by: daniel49
To assert that the voters of the state of washington do not understand that Gop and Republican are synonomous is laughable.
Gregoire is merely throwing out smoke as she did in the debate.
The way she sat there and lied with a straight face during the debate is what the voters don't understand.
I hope she is voted out and the orchestrated incompetance that was observed in King County in 2004 is watched very closely this year.

It's nice to see another Washingtonian commenting and agreeing with me

Did you especially like during the debate anything good that happened with the economy was her doing and anything bad was "George Bushes failed economic policy.... which Dino Rossi supports!".

We counted she brought Bush up 9 times... Dino estimated it was going to be at least 6 times at the beginning of the debate :laugh:

Rossi guessed 6 in the office pool he said.lol
Guess she shouldn't be responsable for anything during her years:disgust:

 

[lupi]

This is an actual news story and not another of oneofthosedays threads?

 

[dbk]

LOL verbage... The electorate of Washington are smarter than this right?

 

[Vic]

My $0.02:

- The "Top 2" system absolutely sucks. They got that on the ballot here this year, and I'm working hard against it. This just gives me more incentive. At the heart of this issue is not verbiage, but that a candidate can claim to represent any party he wants to under Top 2.
- Rossi is from King county, born and raised and still living there.
- I have no opinion either way in this race, except a rematch of 4 years ago reminds me of why WA state politics suck.

 

[ChunkiMunki]

i have heard up to 20% of the electorate doesn't know what GOP stands for, and are unaware or ignorant that that is a Republican term. so in a race this close, I can't blame the democrats for trying to eke out some more votes, based on voter stupidity.

 

[pstylesss]

Originally posted by: ChunkiMunki
i have heard up to 20% of the electorate doesn't know what GOP stands for, and are unaware or ignorant that that is a Republican term. so in a race this close, I can't blame the democrats for trying to eke out some more votes, based on voter stupidity.

If they wanted to vote democrat I'm sure they can find the word "Democrat" some where on the ballet. Anyone that spends 2 minutes looking at the voter pamphlet can figure out Rossi is a republican. Google search "GOP" and see what the first 3 results are. THEN Google News search GOP and this ridiculous lawsuit is the first result.

Gregoire has spent millions trying to say Rossi is Bush in sheeps' clothing. If they don't know who Rossi is by the time the election rolls around, maybe they shouldn't be voting...

 

[ChunkiMunki]

these same 20% ARE NOT going to read the pamplet, or google anything political, or anything else requiring any effort regarding politics, whether they should vote or not is pointless, they vote anyway. This lawsuit gets press, talk radio action and forum posts, so if it is enough to swing some votes, so be it.

 

[Jiggz]

She just have to keep counting the ballots until the numbers support her goal of winning. She doesn't care about the cost because she can recover that in a matter of days while in office. Corruption at its best while the State accumulates record deficit of more than $2.5B! Al Gore tried the same tactics during the 2000 National Election but it didn't work. In short, look forward on seeing Chris Gregoire with environmentalists and the so called new religion, Global Warming!

 

[pstylesss]

Originally posted by: ChunkiMunki
these same 20% ARE NOT going to read the pamplet, or google anything political, or anything else requiring any effort regarding politics, whether they should vote or not is pointless, they vote anyway. This lawsuit gets press, talk radio action and forum posts, so if it is enough to swing some votes, so be it.

Sure, if they want bad press. The people that don't know what GOP means and hears this, they won't admit they didn't know and they'll form a fake anger at Gregoire if they were going to vote for Rossi because Gregoire called them stupid. It's the same reversed, the people that were going to vote for Gregoire will form a fake anger at Rossi for trying to lie to them.

I guess my main point, that I didn't make very well... is that Rossi wasn't trying to be slick. To my knowledge he has always run for an office under the GOP banner, and so have many other people in our state for that matter. "GOP" has been used to refer to Rs for over 100 years and he isn't using it to fool anyone.

It's a ridiculous and shameful tactic.