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Home / Washington Business - January/February 2005 / About this Issue: Unprecedented |
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About this Issue: Unprecedented |
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Written On: January/February 2005 |
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Written By: by Don C. Brunell |
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Washington’s unprecedented gubernatorial election is historic. With nearly 3 million votes cast, a mere .0036 percent of the vote separated Democrat Attorney General Christine Gregoire and Republican Dino Rossi. It has never been this close, and there was no clear cut winner. Voter skepticism is high, and a dense fog hangs over our state.
Gregoire was certified as governor-elect on Dec. 30 and inaugurated on Jan. 12. She won a hand recount by 129 votes after Rossi was declared the winner of the general election by 261 votes and the subsequent machine recount by 42.
Rossi called upon Gregoire to join him in asking the Legislature to hold a new election. He believes a re-vote will burn away the fog of “illegitimacy.” His request was quickly dismissed by Gregoire and the Democrats. Now the focus shifts to the Legislature and courts.
Republicans, feeling they may have little luck with the Democrat-controlled Legislature, want the courts to toss out the election. They are amassing a list of election irregularities, especially from King County.
Meanwhile, Washington has a $1.6 billion revenue shortfall just to run state government status quo, skyrocketing health-care costs, a workers’ comp system needing reforms, and an unemployment system which is still the nation’s most expensive. Then pile on the country’s highest minimum wage, a woefully inadequate transportation system, and an electrical grid which, if our mountainous snow pack slips to 2000 levels, is gravely deficient. The bottom line is the most recent costs-of-doing-business survey by the Milken Institute, which ranks Washington as the eighth most expensive state in which to do business.
Washington’s economy is just starting to come back, but the recovery is lagging and fragile. Our unemployment rate remains one of the nation’s highest.
That is what our governor should be focusing on. Easier said than done because at least half of the voters strongly believe the wrong person with the wrong agenda now occupies the governor’s office.
Shortly after the election, The Economist featured President Bush on its cover. The message was simple: “Now Unite Us.” Bush won the popular and electoral votes but faces an electorate deeply divided over Iraq, budget deficits and his domestic agenda.
Uniting America is a difficult challenge for a clearly elected head of state because we are a country divided down the middle by red and blue counties. Washington is a state not only divided by colors on a map, but people who are venomous about the 2004 gubernatorial election. In short, our state will experience the very same rancorous partisanship of the President’s first four years unless Gregoire and Rossi find ways to unite us.
They are dedicated public servants and decent people with strong families. Both have important roles to unite us in this unprecedented time.
Washingtonians have little patience for months of the partisan bickering flooding the airwaves, and our competitors across the globe are not sitting on the sidelines waiting for us to sort this mess out.
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