Columnist critiques Gov. Gregoire
Mac Diva
Washington Governor-elect Christine Gregoire should never have been in a contest so close that she was the winner by only 10 votes before a court ruling. She was in that position because she ran an inept campaign, failing to capitalize on the goodwill she had earned as a very effective attorney general. Ultimately, Gregoire (pictured) prevailed by a margin of 129 votes in an election in which 2.9 million ballots were cast.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Joel Connelly holds her accountable for that electoral close call.
Gregoire has a "predisposition to insulate herself," says a senior adviser who wishes to go unnamed.
The governor-elect is a longtime public servant, but has been immersed in such complexities as the Hanford cleanup and states' lawsuit against tobacco companies.
She traveled our state last fall with what my colleague Angela Galloway wonderfully called a "political-bureaucracy-on-wheels."
Upon arrival in Kennewick, this included a campaign manager, deputy manager, spokesman, deputy spokesman, political director, two volunteers, one husband and a driver/security guard.
Gregoire was to lose Benton County (which includes Kennewick), 44,895 votes to 19,831, despite being architect of an accord that has kept more than 12,000 people employed at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
Connelly believes Gregoire squandered her political capital by failing to engage in retail politicking and not trumpeting her achievements, including how they benefitted working-class voters such as the Hanford workers. She allowed multimillionaire Dino Rossi, who supports a national sales tax, and, elimination of the minimum wage, to garner votes from thousands of people who should have been in her column. Connelly compares Gregoire to Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, who is available to squeeze the flesh or flesh out reasonable stances on political issues in exactly the way Gregoire has not been.
But not all of Connelly's column is a dressing down of the woman who is planning her attire for the inauguration. He has good advice regarding how Gregoire should conduct herself as Washington's chief executive.
A message to Gregoire as governor: Get out of Olympia, and listen to why citizens have come to view our state government as so cumbersome.
. . .Appointment of ex-state Agriculture Director Jim Jesernig as transition director did not signal new blood on the way in Olympia. Gregoire will have a complement of insiders. But our old-timey capital badly needs fresh people and ideas.
. . .Gregoire needs a top-notch political director, to boot her out of the capital and to deal with the state's deep divisions. The communications office must have a talent sorely missed in Gregoire's campaign -- the ability to use a telephone.
. . .As well, no matter where her victory margin came from, Gregoire must NOT be a pander bear to Seattle liberals. In 1993, Mike Lowry, dug his political grave by talking up new taxes early in his term. The liberals deserve a place at the table; they shouldn't get to eat the whole meal.
I suspect Connelly is telling Gregoire the things she really needs to know. Let's hope she heeds the advice of those in the know after such a humbling election.
Read the rest of Joel Connelly's column here.
Reasonably related
Is Christine Gregoire the Govenor-elect? Yes. There is a Republican effort afoot to try to challenge the election. But, absence proof of fraud, there is no legal basis for such a challenge. GOP activists are claiming the fact that all voters' names don't appear on the lists submitted by the counties means there were thousands of ghost voters. Election officials say that some voters' names are withheld to protect their privacy. People who moved recently and military personnel may also be missing from electoral rolls, though they voted. The final rolls will likely include most of the missing names.
Note: This entry also appeared at Mac-a-ro-nies.
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Jan 8, '05
Interesting story. What is amazing is how conservative candidates have used issues such as the national sales tax and the reduction of government in general to get voter support from those that rely on govenment enities for their jobs. I recently had a local county employee ask me how I could be a democrat and support the paying of taxes. I guess he didn't connect that's where his paycheck came from.
Jan 8, '05
Your comment (following) is untrue:
Wrong! You are unfamiliar with Washington law or just plain not reporting the facts (you choose). Incompetence and illegal procedures ARE, in fact, grounds under Washington law for declaring an election invalid. You might note that polls consistently show 55-75% of all Washington voters think the election was flawed and want a revote.
10:25 p.m.
Jan 8, '05
No, I'm pretty sure Mac is correct. Incompetence is actually mentioned nowhere, so we can leave that one alone. Illegal procedures (wrongful conduct as the RCW calls it) can set aside, but ONLY if the official procures the vote such that the loser is made the winner. It has to be intentional fraud rather than poor professionalism. If you are interested, I'd be happy to cite the parts of the RCW I'm referring to--I believe 29A 68.070 and .080 are the ones referring to wrongful conduct by officials.
Rossi's got trouble, because he's given up fraud in his petition, and said the election has to be thrown out because we can't tell who won. But the court will say 1) We CAN tell, because we have a certified winner, and 2) throwing it out doesn't tell us differently, nor will the next one be any less subject to non-fraud error as the last one.
He can't identify actual invalid Gregoire ballots, and he's locked himself out of the fraud argument. His narrow corner is that things were just too messed up. Judges tend to give a lot of weight to things that have already been declared, unless they know the outcome was actually prejudiced.
Jan 9, '05
I've read the applicable statues several times, Sue. Torrid has explained why we are seeing the GOP mount a public relations campaign instead of a legal one. A rule of law called stare decisis requires that allegations of error be raised early in a conflict. By not claiming whatever 'error' they think led to Gregoire's victory in its earlier complaints, the Republicans have lost that opportunity, absent proof of legally recognized fraud.
Like Torrid, I don't know where you are getting 'incompetence' from. The only way I can think of the word fitting this framework at all is if a governor became mentally incompetent (senile) while serving. Then there would be reason to replace him. That has nothing to do with this conflict.
Due process and equal protection claims (what I think you mean by 'illegal procedures') have already been filed and ruled on.
In regard to public opinion, I haven't seen a poll since the GOP began stirring the s---. However, if 'flawed' is the language used, that is good for Gregoire. 'Flawed' does not mean 'fraudulent.' I suspect people believe the election was a bumpy one due to the closeness of the count. And, of course, the misplaced votes in King County were a flaw, as were other mistakes made by workers. But, again, the courts have already ruled on that. I doubt most voters want to go through the another balloting process. I believe they want to move on.
There is no 'perfect elections,' requirement. Without proof of fraud, the GOP does not have a leg to stand on, rhetoric nothwithstanding. I believe Gov. Gregoire should take office and let the stirrers keep stirring. Gradually, the audience for the stirring will dwindle away.