Wednesday, December 1, 2004

Rossi vs. Gregoire vs. Reality I live in Washington, so the big story has been our governor's race, and recount, and recount, and ... There's not enough time if I write from now until Xmas to tell you everything I think about this.  But here's a few thoughts. 1)   Gregoire lost the race. I don't care how the third recount goes, although she'll probably win it.  Gregoire ran a boring, conservative, prevent defense campaign based on the assumption that everybody knew who she was and liked her.  She said absolutely nothing memorable during the entire campaign, made no promises that anyone cared about, and generally failed to make an impact on anyone.  She made Al Gore in 2000 look like a wild man.  Rossi, on the other hand, used a classic Washington approach:  vote for me because the Democrats have been Governor for too long.  Specifically, twenty years.  That was all he had to say.  He also said some stuff, mostly about limiting government regulations, to make his base happy.  He ran as if he was running a campaign.  Gregoire ran as if she was taking a victory lap.  She lost, and she deserved to lose. 2)   A recount is legal, and a hand recount is also legal.  I believe that the Dems should demand a recount of the entire state - none of this gerrymandered recounting crap that's been suggested.  They need to take the highest road, demand that every single vote be counted, and win or lose, they should proclaim themselves victorious because every vote was counted properly. Here's the truth about how elections work:  Republicans win by suppressing voter turnout and alleging that new votes are fraudulent.  Democrats win by mobilizing voters and by insisting that every vote is authentic.  There's a push-pull effect, and that's what's going on right now in our state.  Rossi won the vote tally by 240 votes or so, but then in the computer recount, the lead slipped to 42 votes.  A second machine count picks up votes that aren't detected the first time - chads fall off, etc. A hand recount is almost sure to pick up more votes, and the trend suggests that Gregoire will end up winning the final count by around 100-150 votes.  The Republicans will scream about fraud, and there will be lawsuits aplenty.  3)   The news people have run out of things to say about the election, so they're making up stupid stuff.  One story suggested that write-in votes cost Gregoire the race.  This is just stupid, and it's stupid because it suggests that Gregoire or Rossi deserved every vote, and anyone who voted for someone else was wasting a vote for one of them.  About 500 people voted for King County's charismatic County Executive, Ron Sims, who ran an agressive campaign in the primary.  So 500 people voted for someone with more passion than Gregoire.  Good for them.  One of my co-workers voted for the similarly charismatic Phil Talmadge.  This was not a vote for Gregoire wasted. This was a vote for a better candidate.  One of our tv stations has conducted their own poll that says that 2/3 of people think Dino Rossi won the election.  Um... hello.  We already did a poll.  It's called an election.  Talk about distorting reality.  (It's viewable here, but you'll need to create an account to see it.  It's not that exciting.) I'm starting not to care.  Rossi's a Republican who'll probably fuck up some things, but at least progressives will know they have an enemy in Olympia. Both houses of the Legislature are in Democrat hands.  He probably won't do much damage.  Gregoire, on the other hand, is another talk-loud, do-nothing New Democrat, exactly in the mold of useless Gary Locke.  She'll do nothing meaningful.  It doesn't matter.  7:32:54 AM     comment []