For those not immediately aware, she is the governor of Washington, which had (still has?) one of the more tawdry and potentially scandal laced elections in quite some time. She eked out a win on a recount but multiple challenges to the recount have brought up some odd issues with voting from pretty much every angle and every side.
Is she governing effectively?
Is the state pretty much over the issue and ready to move on since she is in office?
Is anything interesting still going on with the legal battles or have the courts finally decided that what’s done is now finally done?
How is she doing?
I don’t know. I have a difficult time judging politicians effectiveness, especially over a short period of time.
Is the legal battle continuing?
Yes. I hear the updates on the radio etc., but don’t pay too much attention. There is far too much finger pointing on both sides.
My View:
I voted for Rossi.
Then I hear the local republican leader (Vance?) going on and on about how Gregoire should concede even before the re-counts. He basically was taking the position that if the count is in Rossi’s favor that it’s a Rossi win, if the count is in Gregoire’s favor that it shouldn’t count. This person was so ridiculous that I laughed when Gregoire won the final re-count. Because of this persons hyperactive political spinning, I was completely turned off of the republican party in this case, and I hope they do not win any significant legal decision.
Let us not forget that the Libertarian candidate for governor actively contributed to the election mess by drawning enough votes away from the primary candidates so as to cause the ensuing turmoil. She had no chance of winning, but knew she would be the spoiler in the race, notwithstanding vote irregularities on both sides of primary political fence.
Wait, how did she “know” she would be the spoiler? And why was the election “spoiled”. A candidate has no obligation to withdraw from a race even if they know it will be close, unless they truly have a strong preference for one candidate or the other. I certainly don’t see how you can blame a close race on the libertarians, what about the socialist workers party or the greens? Why blame the libertarians? Why not blame the voters for not voting for one candidate overwhelmingly? I suppose we really should blame the republicans for running a candidate that was acceptable to 50% of the population of the state, rather than an unelectable talk-show host or a darling of the religious right? If only the republicans had nominated another loser this close race never would have happened!
Is she governing effectively? In my view yes, but as Raftpeople mentioned it is hard to tell in the short amount of time she has been in office.
Is the state pretty much over the issue and ready to move on since she is in office? Most people that I talk to are over it, the ones that aren’t are the Die hard Rossi supporters. This has spurred some debate about the East Vs West Issue here in Washinton, with dividing line being the Cascade mountain range. Those on the East Side of the state tend be more conservative, and those on the west side in the more Urban areas of King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties tend to be more on the liberal Side.
**Is anything interesting still going on with the legal battles or have the courts finally decided that what’s done is now finally done? ** I would not go so far as to say that there is interesting stuff going on in the legal battle, as far as the courts go I think this is far from done, what ever the courts decide will be contested and end up in the State Supreme Court, which will more than likely not want to intervene
I guess my solution if I was the all exhaulted ruller of the universe (after all the center of the know universe is just about a 1/4 mile from where I sit right now) is to hold a revote at the next Statewide Election (Save Cost and all) and Include on the ballot the two highest Vote Getters in the last election it is obvious to me that at least half of the state wants either one of them and not the libertarian canidate.
Two of the areas that have recieved the most press about the subject of voter fraud are Dead people voting and Convicted Felons voting. I think this is the wrong tack to take If I were the State Republican party, because how can you argue that the Felons voted for Former State Attorney General? Yeah I voted for her cause she does a good job of locking criminals away, wait just a minute I am one of those criminals. And of the Dead people from the news reports I have read (sorry don’t have a cite at the moment) I remember one instance where a Widow voted for her Dead Husband and voted for Rossi cause that is what he wanted.
I think the bigger issue with reguards to our election process the debate of going to an all mail in ballot system like Oregon (don’t like that idea, that is how the dead were able to vote in this last election with spouse’s filling in the ballots and mailing them in after the voter was deceased) and the issues we have with our Primary system, most peope I talk with do not like the fact that the Political Parties took our Blanket Primary away.
I have trouble with this characterization of the election. I can’t say I’m completely impartial here: I voted for Gregoire and am glad she won. But I came away with the impression of an overall smoothly-run election that was simply very close.
There was a lot of sound and fury, especially at the beginning. Dead people voted! Felons voted! But it differed from what I heard about, for example, Florida 2000. There wasn’t an equivalent conflict of interest like Karen Hughes – the state official responsible for elections is a Republican who seems beyond reproach. There was nothing like the butterfly ballot issue, no electronic voting / miscount issues, and I haven’t seen any suggestion that state officials did anything to influence the vote (such as the thing with the voter-list purging or traffic stops in Florida.)
Bear in mind, I’m not saying anything about the merit of those complaints about the Florida election. Simply that the complaints about the Washington election were mild by comparison – that a few hundred inelegible voters voted, and that they affected the outcome of the election. And even those claims have ended up being kind of weak on closer inspection – a lot of the ‘felons’ on the original list they published were actually eligible voters (because they’d had their voting rights restored.) And the ‘dead voters’ thing ended up being a lot less sinister than it sounded – the Seattle newspaper interviewed a sampling of them, and they were generally things like recently-widowed spouses who accidentally mailed in the wrong absentee ballot, or people who had voted absentee and then died (in which case the vote still counts.)
The court case is still very much alive: the judge ruled this week that the Republican party can introduce statistical evidence to show that felon voters affected the outcome of the election, but also required them to prove that the voters they claim to be ineligible actually are.
I think Gregoire’s been a pretty good governor so far. The legislature passed election reforms recommended by the (again, Republican) elections officer and a much-needed transportation package – she had an especially active role in the latter one. It includes a 10-cent gas tax which is pretty unpopular. And the sexual-orientation non-discrimination bill famously failed by one vote.
I’m not sure why they continued on this far, and were I a contributor to the WA state Republican party (and given the case they presented), I’d be pissed at how they used my money.
It still seems to me that the better idea would have been to make a bunch of noise at the beginning, sit for a year, then trot him back out as a candidate for Senator against Sen. Cantwell in 2006, another close race, but this time he’s the misused, unfairly treated underdog. With a big war chest.
I guess they’re unaware that the Supreme Court was behind that one. I liked the blanket primary, but it was unconstitutional… oh well.
As for Gregoire, I can’t think of any way we’d be better off at this point if Rossi had won. The only thing that’s bothered me so far is her support for the IRV trial bill.
Nonsense. The blame for that effect lies entirely with the major-party candidates who failed to present an adequate case for why those voters should select them instead.
My laugh with the wohle ‘voting felons’ thing is tha the only four cases where the felons are known how to have voted, all voted for Rossi - so he actually LOST four votes thanks to the Republican case.
I voted for Gregoire, but I wanted a revote from the beginning, just because the vote was so freakin’ CLOSE. How close? Take the old Kingdome, call it ‘Washington State’, fill its seats with people (about 50,000). If ONE person in the state of Kingdome changed their vote, the result changed. THAT’S a close election.
I think she’s done well so far. She pushed through a huge transportation bill with bipartisan support. The anti tax republicans are furious. But hey, you have pay for the roads somehow. Why not tax the users through a gas tax? They took away billions from transportation on the car tab tax. The money’s gotta come from somewhere.
Silly person. All “they” need to do is eliminate WFA[sup]*[/sup] from state government and they’d have plenty of money to do what really needs to be done.
I may be going on a limb, but I have a feeling that the gas-tax repeal initiative will qualify for the ballot and pass in November. And when more businesses move away because they can’t get goods (or people) from point A to point B, Chris Vance will jack up the “Democrats are anti-business!” meme another notch or three.
[sup]*[/sup]Waste, Fraud and Abuse—which to the anti-tax fanatics usually translates to “money that’s spent on somehing that doesn’t directly benefit me.”
From what I’ve seen of Washington’s roads, they don’t need more money for them, they need to completely rebuild the entire western road system. Of course, the southern half of the it is losing a lot of tax money, too. They probably are too high.