Washington Race Decided by Only 42 Votes. Washington

If anybody ever doubts that one vote can make a difference, seriously, let us look west – to the farthest northwest corner of the lower 48.

The Washington state governor’s race was just decided by 42 (not a typo) votes. That’s slightly more than one vote per county. Unfortunately, ending a 24-year Democratic reign, Dino Rossi is the tentative victor. I say "tentative" because, as was expected no matter who won (lost), another recount has been requested.

No need to rehash the news report - CNN.com has already done that.

This poses some serious questions -

Are we really that divided or do the parties simply seem too similar? Can people not see the difference between us anymore and all a Republican has to do to tip the vote is throw the “L” word around?

If we really are that divided, how can we ever find common ground?

If we’re not that divided – if we really have become the other GOP, how do we start to move away from the center again? Do we compromise ourselves based on what the country seems to want? Or do we restructure and reinforce our platform and hope that people are paying attention?

This Blue Oregon article shows that we’re not necessarily that divided – it really is that the candidates don’t look that different. Not different enough for people to elect somebody other than a Republican mouthpiece who managed to get us stuck in a war that we really don’t know how we’re going to get out of and, at the same time, run this country in to the worst economic condition it’s been in since the Great Depression.

The other interesting thing that has been pointed out by Kari and others is that coat tails obviously aren’t what they used to be. People aren’t voting along party lines nearly as much as they have in the past – especially not in the west. Kerry took Washington, but Gregoire didn’t. Bush took Montana (handily) but Schweitzer did, too. I’d throw California in there, but we all know the Governator won on name rec. ;-)

All of these things point to what we’ve been saying all along – (even though Gregoire didn't win) the Western Democrat is the wave of the future for the party and for this country - the rural D who understands the farmer’s plight as well as tough social issues that concern the urbanites. The fact that suburban voters may be pro-choice, pro-school, and pro-environment, but they don’t want their property taxes to go up AGAIN – at least not without any accountability. They’ve got kids to raise! Nowhere else in this country is there such a contrast between rural and urban than in the west (OK, perhaps the mid-west, but we’re not talking about them). So nowhere else in the country will we be able to solve this problem – this problem that has resulted in a Republican winning the state of Washington for the first time in 24 years by only 42 votes. Kitzhaber? Richardson? Schweitzer? Who knows… but I really think we’re on to something (Hey, I thought it long before Kari had an editorial printed about it and then started a blog. Really. I swear).

Jessie Smith | November 24, 2004 | Comment on This Post (0 so far) Permalink: Washington Race Decided by Only 42 Votes. Washington

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