Posted on 05/11/2005 10:53:10 AM PDT by Publius
State Democrats say their latest research shows that Republican Dino Rossi cannot overcome Gov. Christine Gregoire's 129-vote victory under any theory proposed in court.
Even using the GOP's method of analyzing alleged illegal votes in the November election, the Democrats claimed, Gregoire would win by 67 votes.
Former two-term Gov. Gary Locke -- the man Gregoire replaced in the Statehouse -- accused Rossi of "fighting for himself at the expense of the citizens of this state." He and state Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt called a news conference yesterday to urge Rossi to drop his lawsuit.
Our question is, 'Why go forward?' " Berendt asked.
Republicans, in a news release, said the Democrats were engaging in "wishful thinking" if they believed Rossi would drop his legal challenge now. " We are more confident than ever that we will win this case," said state Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance.
Democratic spokeswoman Amanda Fuchs said the party's analysis was done by "people at Democratic headquarters" and had not been reviewed by the party's two statistical experts.
Rossi, a former state senator, was initially declared the winner of what has turned into the closest governor's race in US history. He led after the initial machine count by 261 votes and after a machine recount by 42 votes. However, a hand recount awarded the victory to Gregoire, the state's two-term attorney general. Rossi filed suit in January to have the election overturned.
Most of the sparring has focused on lists both parties have produced of suspect votes. The GOP claims it has found 946 felons who voted illegally, and the Democrats last week submitted a list of 743.
Republicans want a judge in Chelan County Superior Court, where the case was filed, to subtract the 946 illegal votes from each candidate's total based on the percentage of votes each candidate received in the precincts where those votes were cast. Republicans say this "proportional reduction" would favor Rossi.
However, Democrats have accused the Republicans of looking for felon voters only in precincts and counties that favored Gregoire. They say the 743 alleged illegal votes they cite were intentionally concealed by Republicans. The GOP list includes felon votes from 13 of the state's 39 counties; the Democrats say they found felon voters in 36 counties.
Here's how the Democrats arrived at the 67-vote margin they claimed for Gregoire yesterday: They first accepted Rossi's assertion that the Republicans' felon list would reduce Gregoire's vote total by 242 more votes than Rossi's. Next, they claimed their own list of felons would reduce Rossi's total by 180 more than Gregoire's. Subtracting one from the other would lead to a net loss of 62 votes for Gregoire. But since she won the election by 129 votes, she'd still come out ahead by 67.
All of those calculations presume there are no errors on either list. Each side alleges that the other's list is full of mistakes.
The timing is interesting. The trial is set to start in less than two weeks. At this point, Rossi is obviously not going to concede, especially when the call comes from a prominent Democrat. By making such an appeal, Gary Locke makes himself look more than a little bit foolish. If the case for Rossi is as hopeless as the Democrat lawyers (speaking through their official spokesman) want you to believe, why would Gary Locke bother to make a fool of himself with such a lame appeal? Why wouldn't he just wait quietly and bide his time knowing that the Republican case will self-destruct in court anyway? The only reason I can imagine that Locke would speak out now and risk looking like a dope, is if he were convinced that the Democrat case was in serious trouble and he wanted to rally his own party faithful.
How would Gary Locke be in a position to know how the trial was shaping up? Curiously, he was brought on as a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine, the firm which is representing the Republicans in the election contest.
I suspect that Gary Locke got a peek at the case his partners' are preparing, had an "Oh, shit!" moment, and felt a desperate urge to throw cold water on Dino Rossi.
The WA judiciary will make sure that if he does win, his term will be almost over anyway.
If you're right it seems to me, that is a conflict of interest and disgraced former governor Locke should be held accountable.
I guess the Democrats know more about their voter base then they let on.
But they're using New Math, which is why their answers have no bearing on reality. Proud graduates of public schools...
Ping.
WA Guv ping
So that, when the Dims lose, he can complain that it's obvious the Republicans cheated because he ran the numbers and it was impossible that the Rs could win.
It's an APFW, Advance Preparation for Future Whining.
So much for their "count every vote" rhetoric. not that it was already shown for the farce it is when they only contest close elections where they lose... never where they win, and never where it isn't close. THOSE votes don't have to be counted.
The Dems are so funny when they're both desperate AND scared ...
"Why go forward"
That's what they always say WHEN THEY KNOW THEY'RE LOSING.
Perhaps, that is a good thing. It seems to me that the longer this goes on, the worse it makes the dems look. If the Republicans were to win at the trial court level, it would be devastating. A fact finder determining that Gregoire and the dems lost. . .ouch!!!
Anyone see those Survey USA gubernatorial approval numbers? Gregoinovych is #47!
Her theft of the governorship has made me think twice about moving back there.
LOSING? Huh? Fraudeire is in the Governors mansion, the D's run the legislature. They overturned the citizen passed tax limitation and are spending like drunken sailors. LOSING? The argument that the R's have been driven to is that if 1000 felons vote and turn the election that it will be decided based on precint level analysis, overlooking the obvious fact that most of the felons probably voted liberal.
No they have won, are winning and probably will prevail. Even if the whore of Olympia were ejected now we'd still have all the bad laws she has signed to deal with.
Stolen in broad daylight.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Screw Washington. I'm moving to Australia. Maybe Perth. Or Canberra. Or even Darwin.
Somewhere as far away from western liberalism as I can get. They're selling Western civilization down the river for their own political egos and psychotic leftism.
Deserves to be repeated.
To tie our people up and cost us time and $$$ researching and disproving each and every one of them. Cheap tactic. Typical DemocRAT tactic.
Whoa. Stop the presses.
Hmmm. Seems to me that it's a no brainer that the Republicans will expand their search for felon voters to match the number of counties the Democrats searched.
This seems too easy though. I'm I missing something or do the Democrats really assume people are that stupid?
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