The AP’s Curt Woodward has written his post-election analysis of the governor’s race, in which he largely credits (blames?) Obama’s “Superman-style” coattails and the economic meltdown for Gov. Gregoire’s big, election night victory. And let’s not forget that “high-stakes politically motivated lawsuit.”
In fact, the only non-external factors Woodward credits to the campaign itself were Gregoire’s performance in the final debate, a few “half-truths” about Rossi’s stance on the minimum wage, and a last minute text message to Pierce County voters. That said, Woodward points out, “Gregoire’s campaign definitely had its flaws…”
She allowed Rossi to define her early on, and took some time to formulate a “change” theme that tied her campaign to Obama’s.
Even in victory, there were perplexing missteps. Gregoire’s campaign, for instance, didn’t provide the governor – or even a senior campaign official – for an interview Tuesday night or Wednesday with The Associated Press, which has the widest statewide reach of any news organization.
Yup, the most glaring flaw in Gregoire’s campaign was its failure to show proper deference to the AP… or so says the AP. I guess that explains the glowing post-election analysis.
Chris Gregoire won the gubernatorial race because she has done a good job being governor, despite what the rightwing media of this state (Seattle Times) might proclaim. She kicked Dino the Dim’s ass into political purgatory. We know that Rob McKenna is next for the “prefer GOP” gubernatorial race. Let’s make sure we point out his flaws, of which there are many. And, Dino, by the way, I can’t even wish that you rest in peace. Too much schaadenfreide (sp?) at the moment. I’ll get over it, I swear, I will.
Dino may have largely kicked his own ass. The early negative ads might have caused some to ponder Gregoire’s record, but those who did found out that his charges were pure grade A horse manure. He and the BIAW then figured if a little was good a lot must be better, and blanketed the airwaves with an endless barrage of ever more outrageous lies. Most sane people’s reaction had to be something like “Oh, stop flapping your yap!”
The BIAW ended up behaving like a compulsive gambler, stuffing more and more coins in the slot expecting the machine to pay off. That’s a great way to go home broke.
It wasn’t just that the governor has been doing a great job, while the Rossi campaign was largely negative – it was the whole “I’m not going to tell you! nanny nanny boo boo” campaign Rossi ran.
You have better ideas for running the government? Tell me what they are and why you think they are better. I’ll decide if I agree with you or not. Rossi doesn’t do that.
We know more about Good Space Guy Nelson’s stances on the issues than we do Rossi’s, and Good Space guy didn’t make it past the primary.
And the AP needs to start being non-partisan so they can get the interviews.
I was worried about Rossi’s campaign. I figured with the fears about the economy, his attempt to flip it against Burner might gain some traction, especially given her failure to respond quickly and forcefully in response to those lies. How many voters in this state really understand the difference between a current fiscal crisis and a “projected” deficit?
But my guess is that Rossi tried to run a campaign which might have worked in 2004, when the Republicans had more credibility. By 2008, Republican fear tactics and negative campaigning had become such a well-known tactic that it actually worked against him.
The voters in Washington state are smarter than the voters in Alaska. In Alaska, being a convicted felon is a badge of honor for a republican. Ted Young is next. Rossi will be cited fro ethics violations – by McKenna (maybe) but too late to influence the election.
I think that Rossi is partially the victim of the independent expenditure groups that placed highly negative ads in Washington State months before the election. I think the worst ads were created by the Republican Governor’s association. They were far too “in your face” for Washington Voters, and had the feel of something thought up in the Other Washington.
Gregoire’s campaign also ran plenty of negative ads. Their tone was a bit milder – more scolding and lecturing compared with the Republican Governor’s association’s lurid fear mongering.
Gregoire, whatever her strengths or weaknesses as a Governor, is not a good politician. She doesn’t really inspire many people. She’s also being handed a mess to deal with. It’s pretty clear the State’s current financial woes were created in New York and DC, not Olympia.
Goldy, it seems that we’re in such a polarized environment that making subtle arguments can quickly land one in the “bad guy” category. However . . . Gregoire DIDN’T run a particularly good campaign. I heard all kinds of unpleasant stories about rank incompetence from Democratic insiders here in Olympia.
I would mostly agree that Gregoire has been a good governor, but I would fault her for not doing nearly enough to anticipate the projected budget shortfall. We’ve seen this one coming for quite some time, and up until a few months ago state agencies were taking very few steps to prune costs. And that last budget really should have been smaller.
I’m not coming at this as a winger. I’m a lefty state worker who was petrified at the thought of Rossi winning. With that out of the way we must now confront a revenue fall off that is likely to be substantially bigger than what is currently projected.
The next few years could very easily be like the early 1980s, where some pretty difficult budgetary decisions had to be made. If the R’s have any hope it will be to exploit the inevitable backlash that comes out of the D’s efforts to balance the budget.
I’ll say it again — I hope this is Gregoire’s last race. She makes a great appointed exec but has too many weaknesses as a statewide candidate.
It will be interesting to see what happens four years from now. There isn’t an obvious heir apparent to Gregoire, and McKenna would seem to be better positioned than Rossi was.
Idealistic @7,
No doubt there were flaws in Gregoire’s campaign, but Woodward really didn’t really enunciate them, apart from whining about how he didn’t get an exclusive interview. It just wasn’t much of an analysis.
Others in this thread have pointed out the main reason why Gregoire cruised to a comfortable victory… voters were largely pleased with her performance as governor. I mean, that’s just fucking obvious. And I didn’t see that mentioned in Woodward’s piece anywhere.
Gregoire is a very good Governor. She is not as good a candidate. I’ve watched her in the town hall meetings she has held and she performs extremely well. That is her forum. In her campaigns, her ads and her messages have been poor. (Stem cells? Really?) Dino was deceptive and evasive yet had a generally positive press. He was done in by the ham-handed and arrogant BIAW and NRGA and their over the top negative ads. (Chris and her allies ran negatives too, but don’t give that false equivalency crap. Dino’s stuff was far, far worse.) I would hope that some homebuilders would look at the membership funds Tom McCabe and his thugs have squandered in losing cause after losing cause while trashing the reputation of the organization and make some wholesale changes.