I’ve been following the returns on the governor’s race all week, plugging them into a spreadsheet, and for the first time since election night, my projections show that Dino Rossi will win… by about 650 votes. In fact, this number is pretty conservative, as it is based on total average winning margins, as opposed to the most recent totals. Rossi’s margins have actually improved (generally) as the count has gone on, and suggest a victory of a couple thousand votes is possible.
I’m not saying Gregoire will definitely lose. But it looks grim.
There’s really no point in plugging in numbers and attempting to monitor trends. Just wait until they’ve finished counting and don’t raise people’s concerns. I am not worried – I am ignoring this race, only bothering to check updated results as they come in, and awaiting the final outcome. Until then, I think it’s better not to speculate, even if you have any sort of data to back you up. No matter how much trending you do, it isn’t going to affect the outcome. The campaigns are doing this, but it isn’t going to help them win, and there will probably be an automatic recount anyway. It’s just not worth speculating on.
Even if Rossi wins, he won’t be able to do anything with a Demo legislature! And BTW just how many perks do the business owners want in our state? It seems to me that was the only thing Rossi ran on.
Bennington, go visit http://www.dinorossi.com/meet/issues.php and think about what a Rossi governorship means for our great state…
A Rossi governorship means only bad news for our “great state”. He’ll deregulate everything! We can’t have this idiot running the show in Olympia. He’ll block everything the Democratic legislature does!
I was just reporting vote count trends here, and it doesn’t look good for Chris. As I’ve written before, I think Dino is fraud with an incredibly simplistic and ideological perspective. My hope is that if Dino does win, the D’s show their spine in the legislature.
I was honestly trying to be positve about our state. Besides I voted against the public record-stashing hater of civil liberties candidate…
And this is what I wrote earlier today,
“I hear you on that one. Methinks if and when Rossi wins, the cheering, the hooting, the hollering in the streets, the flag-waving and of course the honking like it’s 2001 in British Columbia will speak for itself…
“(On that train of thought gentlemen, free advice to prepare for a Governor Dino Rossi world: Study Gordon Campbell. Then thank goodness we have Democratic majorities in the legislature.)”
Besides I voted against the candidate who will deregulate Washington until there’s nothing left except the Constitution.
Thank goodness for Democratic majorities? And how are they going to pass legislation if Rossi vetos it? There aren’t enough Democrats to override a veto – you, Josef, just don’t get it!
Gregoire has her faults – I’ll take her any day over Rossi. She would make a much better Governor. She has the experience and the clout – and she’s a Democrat. The last thing we need is Rossi poisoning this great state. He wouldn’t be up for reelection for four years. If the Legislature can’t get things done – they’re up for reelection in two years – then the GOP could take back the Legislature, too! There goes your “thank goodness for the Democratic legislature” mantra!
Keep your hopes alive for Gregoire.
clarification: the House is up for reelection in two years, the Senate, in four years. Same point.
Mr. Rossi is Wrong For Washington;
ROSSI IS THE MESSIAH WHO WILL DELIVER US HEAVEN FROM THE TOLITARIAN.
Yeah, well I don’t necessarily agree with “Rossi is Right for Washington” and I don’t agree with “Rossi is Wrong For Wasington”. I just think my liberty is more important than party loyalty.
On that thought, since when did the Democrats stop being the ACLU, NAACP and anti-Patriot Act party?
Chew on that.
Let me also say this to Mr. Suck-Up for Dino: I am a bit unnerved that Rossi NEVER campaigned on the higher ed situation…
All I can say is, I just hope you spoofed an email address back to the Rossi campaign, because if not — and that is an official campaign view — we’ve just elected not just a fraud, but a complete and total nutcase.
Well, there are a lot of evangelical sillies and swarmies out there who would kiss Dino’s ring if for no other reason than he’s a a small c-conservative who’s about to take the governor’s mansion. That probably explains it.
Oh, and I forgot to add: Gregoire didn’t campaign on higher ed either. You should also do a Google News search for “Val Stevens” AND “amendment”…
Sorry – I’m trying to do too much.
Yes, you are trying to do too much. You should stop now, while it’s still safe.
Hey, ROSSI IS RIGHT FOR WASHINGTON:
Why is it that you can’t spell? TOLITARIAN. That word does not exist. You’re on the wrong side, apparently, because you can’t spell. It’s “totalitarian”.
By “totalitarian”, I assume you mean Locke. It’s actually the other way around. Your description suits Rossi much better. So, to use your words, I suppose we’ve just elected a “totalitarian”.
“Yeah, well I don’t necessarily agree with “Rossi is Right for Washington” and I don’t agree with “Rossi is Wrong For Wasington”. I just think my liberty is more important than party loyalty.”
This from a guy who has also said he’s “pro-Rossi”….
You don’t want to make it appear as if you’re just using this as a medium for your own views. You waffle too much – I like Dino, no, wait, I sort of don’t, well I do, but only because Gregoire’s the only other choice – then again, well maybe not then again….methinks you don’t know what you’re talking about or what you yourself really stand for. You support a Democratic legislature and a Republican governor? That’s not going to be a combination that produces results. You need to do some soul-searching.
Go cheer, hoot, holler, wave the flag, and honk in the streets if Rossi wins. You can’t escape the fact Rossi is wrong for Washington.
Okay I went to Rossi’s site and read his six point program. I must admit that I agree completely with some of what he says, but first I want to address vetoes and the ability to override them. Since the election for Governor is going to be a real close one, Rossi won’t have the luxury of doing too many vetoes. The voters that put the Demo majority in the legislature will not stand for constant vetoes of worthwhile legislation–and without a mandate from the Washington voters Rossi will cut his own political throat if he governs by constant veto.
As to his points on state government not being efficient, I’ll agree with that, and that in-efficiency wastes tax dollars. But, I will also ask what he means about this state being unfriendly to business. Recently my out of state son started a small business in Washington–I handled most of the technicalities of getting the business set up, and I found state government agencies to be very helpful, customer oriented, and accessible. The most distressing thing I learned about Rossi recently concerns ergonomics in the workplace that that Rossi headed the legislature in eliminating L&I’s ability to investigate ergonomics in the workplace–this really worries me, as did the concession to Boeing on un-employment benefits in order to entice them to stay in the state. At least I didn’t see that Rossi has a proposal to do away with the State Library! or did I miss that?
His medical coverage agenda–I applaud his plan to get people that don’t deserve to be on the Basic Health Plan off, and insure that truly poor citizens of Washington get the coverage they need. So, does this mean that he will block Wal*Mart employees from being covered under Basic Health? If so, he’ll make a big whole in his Republican constituency. Will Dino get rid of Lock’s recent benefit of purchasing prescription drugs from Canada? I predict there will be hell to pay if he does that! I recently quit being an employee, and became totally self-employed. I was able to find affordable health care for me that is cheaper than the half I had to pay with my past employer–and I can deduct the cost of the premiums from my income tax. My son was laid off from his job three months ago and I finally convinced him to become self-employed. He also got health care coverage cheaper than he could have anywhere else and makes more money now then he did when he was employed–and he only has to work two to three days a week to do it.
Education–I have a son that is a school teacher. He taught for nine years in Washington and then left for California, where teachers pay is much higher. While my son taught at a middle school in Washington, I went several times to help in his classroom, and the behavior of students was atrocious! All I can say is that all the money in the world won’t help if children don’t want to learn–you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink! Education needs to be funded fully, teachers need to have good wages, class sizes need to be reduced, and the tenure system needs to be eliminated, no mater who’s governor. Good education=more tax money in the coffers.
I must close by saying I didn’t see anything on Rossi’s web page that would completely gut our state government–maybe I missed it, and you could enlighten me.
I was checking this blog (kind of hard not to with “ROSSI IS RIGHT FOR WASHINGTON” making a total a** of itself) when I noticed it couldn’t spell.
Look, I believe most voters must cease & desist being defined by party lines… because the parties are not in control of their candidates. I wonder how the party of the ACLU would let Christine Gregoire fight to hide public documents…
And frankly, I DO support Dino against Christine. I support his agenda for many of the reasons Bennington gave. But I have a question for Bennington, you wrote “Recently my out of state son started a small business in Washington” and then you also wrote that the state gov’t was friendly to you? Well, then why didn’t your son come here? In fact, that very dilemma is one of the reasons why Dino ran (I watched the AWB tape).
Rossi IS right for Washington. But not THAT kind of “RIGHT”. And now that I’m goaded, let me be goaded some more: “You don’t want to make it appear as if you’re just using this as a medium for your own views” – true, since I don’t know how tolerant the liberal readers will be of my Dinocrat & McKennarat position. I figure I should be tolerant of them, too and save the elbows for SoundPolitics.com.
Who invents this crap? “Dinocrats”? Come on.
There’s always some crossover in elections. I suppose we could talk about the Gregoireublicans that voted in the election, too.
Rossi’s proposed policies aren’t good for our state. I thought the mantra on state parks was pretty funny, too. Just to woo people. I saw what Rossi did in the state Senate – not pretty. He’s the guy that made sure that Tim Eyman had a good excuse for his 807 failure. In fact, Rossi isn’t very far off from Tim Eyman…that’s one of the reasons why he is wrong for Washington.
Josef–my out of state son is the school teacher I mentioned. He went to California for higher teacher pay. He wanted to start the business here as a way of investing his money for retirement purposes–heaven knows he can’t afford to buy a business in California–he can barely afford a house (which by the way he has to share with two other people in order to pay the payment). You see here’s the rub, California pays higher wages, but property is sky high there–so my son goes there to finish out his teaching career, gets the extra $’s and invests them here. BTW he continues to look for more property to buy in Washington.
Rossi is Wrong for Washington–please explain which of Rossi’s proposed policies are wrong for Washington and why. I really want an exchange of ideas here, not more political ads that makes statements, but don’t back them up with reasons why they are right.
I should also add here that Sims was my candidate for Gov.
I’ll explain why Rossi’s proposed policies are wrong… there really aren’t any, besides massive deregulation.
Rossi is a free market ideologue, with a quasi-religious belief that unfettered markets always make the best decisions and always use resources most efficiently. Cut taxes and eliminate regulation, and the invisible hand of the free market will guide us to prosperity for all. Simple solutions from a simple mind.
Bennington;
Tell you son I wish him all the best. I understand. And as per your request for better dialogue, I like Rossi’s plan for performance pay for teachers – go to http://www.dinorossi.com/meet/reform_four.php for the details. I think that if a teacher’s worth $100,000, give ’em a million bucks.
That may be too much “free market” for you all, but I’d like the thoughts of all of you.
Josef
P.S. I doubt seriously Dino Rossi is a “messiah”. But I don’t doubt we’d be less free under Christine Gregoire – see http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....da25m.html for a big chunk of why I feel that way.
P.P.S. Oh and Rossi giving Eyman excuses… COME ON. If one’s doing that by making gov’t more efficient and effective – then they’re robbing Eyman of his favorite casus belli.
Josef–I’ve already read Rossi’s spiel on education. First I want to say that I’m reluctant to go along with performance pay. Just who would set up the guidelines for teacher performance? And what if an innovative teacher had unorthodox methods, but got the students to learn? Have you ever read “The Essential 55.” It was written by an excellent teacher that was told throughout his career that his ideas on teaching couldn’t be done–thank God he wouldn’t take no for an answer. BTW this is why I voted for charter schools–they are innovative.
I’m a sixty-year-old divorced woman–mother of three sons, that has been around the block several times, and I have some fairly strict ideas when it comes to education and the lack there of. I think all dropouts that are age sixteen and over should have to go to compulsory service for two years. This program would be run like the military, but participants would have the choice of doing actual military service or community service. After the two years are completed, one year of college or other training would be paid for by the government. BTW I believe that there should be two years of compulsory service for all Americans at age 18 or graduation from high school. Many of our young people are entirely out of control and without any direction.
Goldy–deregulation of what? The Feds already deregulated electricity and stuck us in the heart with ENRON. Please explain.
Deregulation of everything the state regulates. Building standards, food inspection, environmental regulations, you name it. Of course, Rossi and his free market cohorts aren’t stupid enough to try to eliminate things like food services regulations… they just won’t spend much time enforcing them. (Probably a bad example, as most of that is done at the local level… but you get the point.)
Probably one of the biggest targets is the state’s Growth Management Act. Remember, Rossi is a real estate salesman, and thus sympathetic with the BIAW and the rest of the building industry. There’s a ton of deregulation that can be achieved with simple agency rule making, and you’re going to see a ton of it.
Bennington, I hear you. But Rossi will use student performance as the measuring stick.
Goldy–I believe that building standards are regulated by my county. As to food inspection isn’t that mostly done by the FDA (Fuddy Duddy Administration)? And right now they’re not doing all that good (the FDA). Now environmental regs are something that I’d hate to see our “Gov” deregulate! But if you want business to really suffer get lax on the environmental rules now in place. You may have all the money in the world, but if there’s not water to drink or air to breath it won’t do you much good.
Josef–many students don’t do well on tests even though they are very bright. So in other words Rossi’s aim will be to get the teachers to teach to the test, and reward them for their ability to do so? I think if that’s the case business will still be getting un-educated employees that are not well rounded.
I love the closeness of this race, and I’d bet that there’s going to be a recount. People need to think about voting more than just a couple of days a year–they need to think about how they waste their ballot over a stupid thing like their signature–and they need to realize that EVERY vote counts!
I respectfully disagree with you Bennington. I think the performance pay plan will include a negoiated one, with WEA & WFT input. I’ll put it this way: I’m made a trustee at Skagit Valley College (SVC) (I’m an applicant) – I WILL go to SVC Federation of Teachers President Trish Barnes and say, let’s go to a negotiated performance pay system with mutually agreeable markers.
I also very much agree with you Bennington on this, “People need to think about voting more than just a couple of days a year–they need to think about how they waste their ballot over a stupid thing like their signature–and they need to realize that EVERY vote counts!”
Thanks for your pithy reply :-).
Josef… you’re nuts (or young and naive) if you think Rossi’s going to be able to squeeze performance pay out of the WEA and WFT. Life is a lot more complex than the Rossi’s of this world like to make it out to be.
Go Dino, go! It’d be nice to have some change in the bleeding heart Olympia. Whiney Gary Locke and his minions need to go. Christine G. could’nt even manage her own state office before, so why she thinks she can now is beyond me. Plus, having Patty Murray, and Maria Cantwell stand up in the news interviews and be so up in arms that Wa. loves women in power needs to change. The fact that they are women and they thought Christine was going to win is ridiculous, and should’t be the sole reason they are on camera. What about the real issues? It would be nice to have someone that pees standing up in the Governor’s mansion for a change. Thanks.
I am glad he won. A lot will change. Christine needs to pack her bags. If you don’t like the changes, if things are not better, then vote we will vote him out next term. I personally don’t like the fact that Washington is on the bottom of every indication list socially and financially. About healthcare, you guys are morons. We have less choices than ANYWHERE in the country. We also have the SECOND HIGHEST insurance rates as well. Do your math. I personally can’t wait for him to get in office. We need him here before all of Boeing leaves. If Microsoft didn’t have so many important millionairs here, they would have left a long time ago. Time to help business.
Hey “Dino”… I assume you can cite sources for all the vague statistical claims you just made? For although I welcome, name-calling, invective, and strongly stated opinions of all kinds… this is not the place for pulling unsupported crap like that out of your ass.
FACT THIS:
So, whom should we hold accountable?
The totally inept governor, the attorney general or maybe the legislature? They’ve all kept us from having the much needed Performance Audit, something every other state has to check on where money’s wasted; where it’s being properly spent/invested. Candidly, I don’t think there’s very much of the latter. Ethics either.
Attorney General with the Most Remarkable Pay Raise (to my knowledge)—Christine Gregoire; hmmmmm… is it any coincidence that she let the powerful Washington Education Association off the hook in a lawsuit brought by the Evergreen Freedom Foundation??? Attorney General who lost the most tax dollars in state history—Again, Christine!
America’s Most Confused Police Department—The Seattle Police Department, the REAL anarchists in Seattle’s WTO follies, some of whom have been accused of illicit undercover filming of whistle-blowers and reform activists, murder, theft, rape and helping at least one rapist escape.
Most Corrupt Media—Hmmm… would that be the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which smeared (and possibly framed) a teacher, possibly contributing to his suicide, or the Seattle Times, which protected the late Seattle Schools attorney turned judge (oh yes… and pedophile) Gary Little and recently knowingly hired a sex offender to deliver papers to customers’ homes?
The public votes on car license tabs. The public’s ignored; they’re raised regardless. Don’t like the “light-rail” fiasco? Screw ’em, they say, build it anyway. The public votes “no” on a stadium. The city fathers and mothers build one anyway. Their contempt for us, the unmitigated gall, is thoroughly sickening. Sound Transit spent $2.16 million to buy the Wells Fargo bank at 14th and Madison, though there is little chance that light rail will ever pass beneath it.
And, seriously, we are driving on the worst highways imaginable while a group of misfits holding office in Seattle and Olympia struggle to maintain the Sound Transit abortion, the crummiest boondoggle imaginable. They’ve built, what, 70 or so highway miles in the last decade or so, while the mileage traveled increased by over 2-1/2 million? In the meantime, the transportation bureaucracy is about twice that of Michigan, which has, ironically, about double the highway miles. And the cost to build each highway mile in Washington is, I read, something like 40% above the national average? If those numbers are accurate, that’s ugly. Very!
And, on that topic, symptomatic of the whole Washington fiscal and political scene, the late Kingdome was built for 55-mil, right? But when it was knocked down 25 years later, what was owed? Something like $127 million, correct? And who admits responsibility? Or doesn’t the apathetic public give a damn? And, if they did care, would anything change? Doubtful. Aside from three on the Seattle City Council, removed for strip-club silliness, I don’t believe anyone’s been kicked out of office. In fact, you continually elect/re-elect/re-appoint these nitwits.
One might have thought that those in the Offices of Such Importance (Locke, Gregoire, Sims, et al) might have learned something from those upsetting nuclear plant financial disasters of a few decades ago. But no wonder there’s so much discontent among the area businesses, large and small – a completely disreputable state government, which, if it’s not actually corrupt, has definitely gone bonkers in terms of efficiency – or the lack thereof. Safeco would leave if it feasibly could; Boeing has – despite the goofy governor’s belated attempts to foster some “semblance of understanding.” Or, perhaps that masquerades as a bribe. Or, bribes, plural? Certainly hasn’t worked. And we haven’t even touched on the bureaucratic red tape, licenses and over-regulation that make this such an Unfriendly To Business state of affairs. Businesses have only begun to leave Washington.
But there’s so much more – the sum of its parts makes Washington intolerable. The sum of only some of its parts makes it laughable. Almost. It’s so very frustrating!
Like, a felon with a rap sheet a mile long tries to run over a cop. He’s shot. His sympathizers tie up traffic on the freeway for hours. No one arrested.
Car thieves have to be nabbed seven times before they face any “serious time?” They seem to forget: If You Commit A Crime, You’re Guilty. Period.
People do Mardi Gras partying downtown and some thugs beat up some people. One young man gets killed by a creep who is, appropriately, named Slaughter, right? A young woman battered by a bunch of punks, clobbered. No one wants to admit that they’re racially motivated – wouldn’t be Politically Correct. The police are afraid to inflame emotions? Or something. And a bunch of criminals get away with it! Despite brass knuckles, a judge releases Slaughter so he can beat up someone else a short time later at The Gorge. Other weird or warped judges release convicted rapists, while a drunken member of the State Supremes skates after a hit-and-run “mishap” – no jail time either.
And all along we thought that a little jail time was mandatory. Not if you’re Bobbie Bridges. Other so-called prosecutors want to cut-a-deal/plea-bargain rather than do their jobs. So sad.
Annnd, lest we forget, that same Supreme Court in a virtual plethora of other loony decisions, ‘most all in favor of larger government and higher taxation. Or letting murderers off. Shameful.
Then, Judy, Heidi, Lacata and the other supercilious souls on the Seattle City Council were a tad more concerned with salmon on the Snake River than solving the city’s multitude of problems. Resolutions on the Iraqi war and circus animals were among their other priorities; too little of any real or positive substance. Seattle, Ron Sims-and-friends want to build an expensive new flop-house allowing drunks to drink in a city run “refuge” for alcoholics. Unfathomable! $600,000 blown on some portable toilets, subsidized art in garbage transfer stations; and the driving-without-a-license law becomes less than a misdemeanor; not even a slap on the wrist. The cops’ hands are tied – they can’t even ask if the driver is in our country legally! Or illegally. It might be laughable if it weren’t so damned tragic.
Still, other questions come to mind.
When will Bill Gates (1) get his tax-increasing – big government, semi-socialist pop to shut-the-hell-up or move to France? And (2) might he refuse to accept a paycheck until he’s able to solve that idiotic “You’ve Conducted An Illegal Operation/you’re Shut Down” problem? A pox upon his operation.
Why were there defenders of those totally dishonest high school “counselors” who inflated grades? They should have been axed. Yet they’re defended?
About 60% of the high school graduates require remedial work when they step into junior college – often “A” and “B” students who were conned by their teachers to believe that they’d actually been taught something are amazed to find out that they’re ill equipped to handle real work (but, wow, their self-esteem is outstanding!). Hell, over 30% of Seattle parents were so dissatisfied they reportedly pulled their kids from public schools to get them educated in private schools, afford it or no – even before vouchers were approved! One teachers’ union, the hideously misnamed Maryville Education Association, owns that sad little town; the kids are the victims. In fact, unions have such a disproportionate share of influence statewide, no wonder Washington is failing to attract new business. They’ve priced the state out of business, and there’s no “right to work” law. Again, sad.
One could thank God that Gary Locke’s not running again, but consider the alternatives: Christine Gregoire’s mishandling of the Boys Ranch mess, and the tobacco loot, among other things (like not insisting that striking teachers return to work, be fined or fired as they were in violation of the law) – and she expects you to elect her governor?
Oh, and on the subject of embarrassments, haven’t even mentioned demented Jim McDermott. Or the ungodly department of so-called Health & Human Services. ‘Til now. ‘Nuff said.
And on the subject of politics, while I’m no “staunch” Republican, I did vote for Bush (nor Kerry!), I’ve never witnessed such unbridled hate as I’ve observed here in Western Washington, directed toward Dubya. Lies, misstatements, exaggerations. Unhealthy? Yeah. But the extreme left has pulled the plug of good taste. Marginal taste, even. Can you say disgusting? Placed in context, it’s like a bad dream – enough to make an optimist like me cringe.
Maybe a final example will summarize and illustrate the sheer stupidity of what we’re going to joyfully leave behind when we leave the area — the totally repulsive waste of money “invested” by spendthrifts who purchased idiotic signs which can be noted in Everett (among other places, I’d wager): “You Are Now Entering A Drug Free Zone” — as if, before crossing the street, we’d just been willingly hob-knobbing with cocaine dealers and assorted pot-heads? Political correctness run amuck, like proclaiming a “Nuclear-Free” zone? That’ll do you a lot of good, I’m sure… Although those signs are only a small, penny-ante example, it’s just too typical of the mindset; spending money on such lunacy is beyond dumb. How much did they cost, and who paid whom to write and design? Install, etc. It would appear as if some deranged bureaucrat or city-councilman proposed ’em. But somebody signed-off and approved them, right? Somebody you might vote out of office next time? Very doubtful — it’s ludicrous!
So, whom should we hold accountable?
The totally inept governor, the attorney general or maybe the legislature? They’ve all kept us from having the much needed Performance Audit, something every other state has to check on where money’s wasted; where it’s being properly spent/invested. Candidly, I don’t think there’s very much of the latter. Ethics either.