State Democrats say their latest research shows that Republican Dino Rossi cannot overcome Gov. Christine Gregoire's 129-vote victory under any theory proposed in court.

Even using the GOP's method of analyzing alleged illegal votes in the November election, the Democrats claimed, Gregoire would win by 67 votes.

Former two-term Gov. Gary Locke — the man Gregoire replaced in the Statehouse — accused Rossi of "fighting for himself at the expense of the citizens of this state." He and state Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt called a news conference yesterday to urge Rossi to drop his lawsuit.

"Our question is, 'Why go forward?' " Berendt asked.

Republicans, in a news release, said the Democrats were engaging in "wishful thinking" if they believed Rossi would drop his legal challenge now. "We are more confident than ever that we will win this case," said state Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance.

Democratic spokeswoman Amanda Fuchs said the party's analysis was done by "people at Democratic headquarters" and had not been reviewed by the party's two statistical experts.

Rossi, a former state senator, was initially declared the winner of what has turned into the closest governor's race in U.S. history. He led after the initial machine count by 261 votes and after a machine recount by 42 votes. However, a hand recount awarded the victory to Gregoire, the state's two-term attorney general. Rossi filed suit in January to have the election overturned.

Most of the sparring has focused on lists both parties have produced of suspect votes. The GOP claims it has found 946 felons who voted illegally, and the Democrats last week submitted a list of 743.

Republicans want a judge in Chelan County Superior Court, where the case was filed, to subtract the 946 illegal votes from each candidate's total based on the percentage of votes each candidate received in the precincts where those votes were cast. Republicans say this "proportional reduction" would favor Rossi.

However, Democrats have accused the Republicans of looking for felon voters only in precincts and counties that favored Gregoire. They say the 743 alleged illegal votes they cite were intentionally concealed by Republicans. The GOP list includes felon votes from 13 of the state's 39 counties; the Democrats say they found felon voters in 36 counties.

Here's how the Democrats arrived at the 67-vote margin they claimed for Gregoire yesterday: They first accepted Rossi's assertion that the Republicans' felon list would reduce Gregoire's vote total by 242 more votes than Rossi's. Next, they claimed their own list of felons would reduce Rossi's total by 180 more than Gregoire's. Subtracting one from the other would lead to a net loss of 62 votes for Gregoire. But since she won the election by 129 votes, she'd still come out ahead by 67.

All of those calculations presume there are no errors on either list. Each side alleges that the other's list is full of mistakes.

Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com