No governor yet — does it matter?

By Andrew Garber
Seattle Times staff reporter

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OLYMPIA — John Giese has a dilemma. He needs to hire people to work for Gov.-elect Dino Rossi, but can't offer them a job.

Republican Rossi is ahead of Democrat Christine Gregoire by just 42 votes after last week's statewide recount, but the Democrats are expected to ask for another recount by hand. That, plus potential court fights over ballot-counting issues in several counties, could keep the race in doubt past Christmas.

"It clearly makes this thing more difficult," said Giese, who is on Rossi's transition team and recruiting people to work in his administration. "You obviously can't go out and start to seriously interview and offer people positions where they are going to have to give notice."

Even under normal circumstances, the roughly two months between Election Day and inauguration can seem like a mad rush. Having the race in doubt nearly a month after Election Day makes matters much worse, according to the Rossi campaign, which complains that the uncertainty not only delays filling key positions but also bogs down preparing a state budget and getting ready to assume power in general.

However, that's not a view shared by Gregoire's camp, which appears poised to request another vote recount later this week.

"I don't think it's going to be that big of a problem," said Jim Jesernig, who heads Gregoire's transition team. "The bottom line is it's going to be inconvenient, but it's worth it to make sure folks are confident about the outcome of the election."

Neither Gregoire nor Rossi could be reached for comment.

Gubernatorial recount The first tallies The ballots in the Washington governor's race have been counted twice; a third count could begin as early as this week. In the first count, Republican Dino Rossi won by 261 votes out of 2.8 million cast. After the first recount concluded last week, his lead dropped to 42 votes. Certification of the first recount is tentatively set for Tuesday. Hand recount possible The State Democratic Party has said it will request, and pay for, a hand recount, which means sorting and counting each ballot by hand instead of using scanning machines. The party has three days from the date the first recount is certified to officially ask for the hand recount. Party officials could ask for a recount statewide, or only in selected counties. A statewide hand recount could cost at least $700,000, but if it changes the outcome, the state would reimburse the party for the expense. How a hand recount is done Once a hand recount is ordered by the secretary of state, teams of two (usually one person for each political party or staff members in the county Auditor's Office), sort the ballots by candidate. Ballots with no valid vote in the race are kept in a separate stack. The two team members verify that the ballots have been sorted correctly, total the votes and report the returns. King County says its recount could take two weeks or longer. After the recount If a partial recount changes the apparent winner in a given county, the state, by law, would be required to pay for a hand recount of the entire state. No recount has ever changed the outcome of a statewide race. — Susan Gilmore

Jesernig said Gregoire has a team in place to recruit people to work for her administration if she wins.

As for the budget, "There is a misunderstanding about how fast you need to move," he said. "You need to know a lot about the policy and budget things. But even with the budget, the legislative process really doesn't kick off until March, when you get the revenue forecast."

Todd Donovan, a political science professor at Western Washington University, also doesn't see the shorter time frame as an issue. "If it's a problem, it's a problem that exists beyond just this recount," he said. "We have ... a pretty compact time frame for transitions compared to most other states."

Rossi's staff disagrees.

"It has a real impact on the next governor being able to be as ready as they otherwise would have been on January 12," Giese said.

For example, although he can ask people if they're interested in working for Rossi, he can't do much more than that.

"If you want to ask them to consider a change, but you're not certain what you can offer, then obviously it's going to be more difficult," he said.

There are hundreds of state government jobs that can change with a new administration, ranging from confidential secretaries to the heads of the Department of Corrections and the Department of Social and Health Services.

Governors generally focus on top management when they get into office. There are 45 agency heads hired by the governor.

Aside from hiring people, the long election has made it tough getting a handle on the state budget, said Dan McDonald, a former state senator heading up Rossi's budget staff during the transition.

It's been difficult getting all the information needed from Gov. Gary Locke's budget office, because "nobody knows if they are talking to the representative of the governor or not," McDonald said. "We didn't have a transition office. You didn't have access to all the people. You just had to make do with who you could talk to."

McDonald said that should change when Rossi is certified as the governor-elect next week. They expect to get full access to the records they need then, even with a recount going on, but they'll still be three weeks behind, he said.

People who've been in the hot seat before said they expect the long election will make it harder for the new governor to get ready to take over.

"First of all, it makes it a lot harder in terms of identifying folks you want to have as part of the administration," said Dick Thompson, who served on Locke's transition team when he was first elected eight years ago. "It [also] makes it harder in terms of figuring out what kind of budget to put together."

Thompson recalled inheriting a budget from outgoing Gov. Mike Lowry when Locke won the election. "We [made] significant changes to the Lowry budget. It was right through Thanksgiving and Christmas."

"You want to have time so you can explain to fiscal committees, explain to policy committees and to legislators why you've done certain things. For us it was just a dead run," Thompson said. "It seems to me the less time you have, the bigger problem you've got."

Marty Brown, Locke's current budget director, agreed. "It's hard under even normal circumstances," Brown said. "You're catching up because you're moving, you've got the holidays, you've got all this organizational stuff you're trying to put together.

"And delaying it this long just pushes it back that much further," he said. "It compresses the amount of time you have to do it."

Andrew Garber: 360-943-9882 or agarber@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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