shawa
CNO
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004
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 Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2005 11:38 pm Post subject: Washington Race Update |
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http://news.bellinghamherald.com/stories/20050213/LocalState/231089.shtml
| Quote: | Rossi now favors Nov. vote
Analysis: Candidate's political life currently in hands of Chelan County Superior Court judge.
David Ammons, The Associated Press
OLYMPIA - He still sports that sunny smile and the bouncy gait of a born optimist, but Dino Rossi finds himself stuck in a twilight zone, a political version of suspended animation.
How weird is his life? He won the office of governor in two vote tallies, only to see it slip away on an unprecedented third count. Democrat Christine Gregoire pulled ahead of Republican Rossi by the skimpiest margin on record, 129 votes out of 2.9 million cast.
Thanksgiving and Christmas came and went and Gregoire was inaugurated. Valentine's Day is almost here, and there's still no end in sight to Rossi's limbo.
Rossi has refused to throw in the towel, asserting his legal right to file an election contest. Fifteen weeks after Election Day, he's still waiting to hear if he'll be declared the winner or if there will be another grueling campaign and a new vote in November. Or something.
"I said we'd make history, but this isn't exactly what I meant," he says dryly.
For now, he's an unemployed Mr. Mom, making his four kids ham-and-cheese omelets for breakfast, doing the carpool runs, and spending days in shirt sleeves at the Bellevue headquarters for his once-and-future campaign.
"Sometimes it's hard to believe we're still in the middle of this - it really makes you stop and say 'This is bizarre,"' says Rossi's spokeswoman, Mary Lane. "Dino's doing fine, although he never thought he'd be at this point. Dino doesn't get freaked out about stuff."
Rossi has glided gracefully through the various stages of political weirdness, acting like this happens all the time. For more than a month he was the governor-elect and was planning his new administration. After the hand recount flipped the election to Gregoire at Christmastime, he reverted to the status of nonperson, agonizingly close to his prize. She gets the governor's mansion; he gets a nondescript office near the I-405 onramp.
After his backers and the media uncovered hundreds of problem ballots, including votes by felons and dead people, and unchecked provisional ballots illegally fed through the tote machines, he shifted back into contender mode. Declaring the election fatally flawed, he called for a do-over and filed an unprecedented election contest.
For the moment, his political life is in the hands of Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges. Although the judge said he hasn't the power to grant Rossi's dream of a quick do-over, he is allowing the Rossi camp to present evidence of vote-tally sins.
Moving the goalpost, Rossi now says what he wants is for the courts to set aside the election, declare the office vacant and set the stage for a fresh vote in November.
"So essentially, the revote we wanted to have in the spring now moves to November," he said.
But that's a big, big if.
Although some legal scholars speculate that Bridges might indeed throw out the election, it's considered a very tough sell in the state Supreme Court, which would be reluctant to remove a sitting governor from office.
Rossi expects a five-day March trial in Wenatchee, followed by a hurry-up appeal to the high court by the losing side. He expects a speedy decision by the nine justices.
If perchance Rossi wins both rounds, then Washington would experience an oddball rerun campaign season and a new vote. The only comparably strange recent parallel: California's midterm recall of Gov. Gray Davis and the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"It's not what I signed up for, but it definitely is something I can do, with enthusiasm," Rossi says. |
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