Rossi takes over lead in Wash. gov. race

[Freddie Stubbs]

07:44 AM PST on Wednesday, November 10, 2004


Associated Press and KING5.com Staff



OLYMPIA, Wash. - The waiting game continues for Christine Gregoire and Dino Rossi. But at least the vote-counters are keeping it interesting. Gregoire, a Democrat, and Republican Rossi are still waiting to find out who won the race to become Washington's governor. Tuesday, a week after the election, Rossi edged ahead of Gregoire for the first time as new batches of absentee ballots were counted, ending the day leading by 2, 123 votes.

Rossi, 45, the former state Senate budget chairman and a real estate investor, also announced a transition team, although he concedes no one will know the winner for days.

Gregoire, 57, the three-term attorney general, also has a transition effort under way, but said it's premature to talk about it before all the votes are counted. State Democratic Chairman Paul Berendt called Rossi's announcement presumptuous and inappropriate.

The election ended in a virtual dead heat last on Election Day and neither candidate has pulled away as hundreds of thousands of mail ballots have been tallied.

more: http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_111004_news_rossi_gregoire.42666c8b.html

[Union Thug]

1. This is painful. I really hope Gregoire picks up the majority

of the remaining ballots. Rossi is an anti-labor zealot.

[AmandaRuth]

3. oh vey

i think i read somewhere that he got a 0 (that is a zero!) for a labor vote rating. Out of 100. Not 26 or 12 or 19, but a ZERO. Well, as one old time eastern Washington proud union Democrat said to me earlier this year, they get what they vote for.

[progressivebydesign]

4. Rossi is a religious nut-case.

Wait until washington is teaching creationism.. as he'd like us to do! he's a wack job, scummy developer.

[The empressof all]

2. This is just wrong

Rossi is another scary nut-job liar
I can't take it anymore.

[Kitsune]

5. Awww, crap crap CRAP!

Dino Goddamn Rossi. :puke:

[freeplessinseattle]

6. I thought we were a blue state dammit guess it really is just Seattle:(

[Atlant]

10. You follow the same patern as CA, don't you?

The coast is bluish-purple while the inland areas are red?

Atlant

[Freddie Stubbs]

11. New York has had a Republican governor for the past ten years

And California just elected one last year.

[maxsolomon]

7. wait. 46000 king county absentees wait to be counted.

it ain't over just cuz they counted the seattle-subsidized 'rugged individualists' in the columbia basin.

[righteous1]

8. No worries

Probably will never hold

[ismnotwasm]

9. I can't stand him

even more than I can't stand most Washington state republicans. They haven't been able to present a sane candidate for years. Which is why we have had Democrat governors. Rossi is nuts too, but packaged differently. Come on Chris!

[LisaM]

12. So the outstanding ballots are from King County?

The fricking news will never say where they are; they have also stopped saying how MANY there are.

[CityDem]

13. Outstanding ballots

About half of the state's counties tallied about 60,000 ballots yesterday, leaving an estimated 156,000 ballots to count statewide.

Nearly all of yesterday's ballot counts took place in counties where Rossi is leading. No ballots were tallied in King County, Gregoire's main stronghold, which estimates it has 46,000 ballots left.



http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002086938_gov10m.html

This race could be tight right to the very end. Gregoire is getting about 60% of the votes from King County, but there are over 110,000 ballots from other counties. It will come down to the 80k provisional ballots -- this could be a real donnybrook.