Thursday, January 20, 2005

Even if Rossi gets election thrown out, he may still lose

Washington's rightful governor, Dino Rossi, continues to build a towering mound of evidence of how fraudulent and screwed-up the recent gubernatorial election really was in his bid to contest it and get a new election ordered. I just wish he'd fully gotten into this game a lot earlier than he did, instead of sitting there like a potted plant and letting Christine Grinchoire cherry-pick him to death.

Just as I predicted this dynamic would work, Rossi's court challenge has already faded from front-page prominence. Grinchoire has been sworn in (in addition to sworn at), the legislative session has begun, and majority Dems are off and running to see how deep a hole they can spend the state into. The election, protracted as it was, feels like old news.

The Dems know this. That's why, having failed in getting Rossi's challenge thrown out, they're now trying to stall it as long as they can. They know that the longer it can be dragged out, the less attention the public will pay to the matter and less likely they'll be do boost Rossi in a new election should the courts rule in his favor.

Leaving aside how unlikely that is (the Washington Supremes don't want to undo the favor they did the Grinch), if Rossi did win, there is another possibility: the SCWA could vacate the entire election and just let the Lieutenant-Governor, Brad Owen, serve out the four-year term.

Naturally, Owen is a Democrat. And that result certainly wouldn't be what Rossi is looking for.

But for a Donk, Owen is a good man. All things considered, Washingtonians could do a lot worse.

Like the status quo, for instance.