After election-lawsuit ruling, it's all over but the sniping

A day after a Chelan County judge finally ended the 2004 governor's race with a thorough rejection of Republican claims, neither Republicans nor Democrats seemed ready to move on.

State party leaders said they were. But first, Democratic Chairman Paul Berendt criticized Republican candidate Dino Rossi yesterday for dragging "the state through a lot of difficulty and mud."

A few hours later, Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance zeroed in on King County Executive Ron Sims, whom he blamed for the election problems, and Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges, who he said created a "ridiculous" standard for election lawsuits and was wrong in his interpretations of the law and court precedent.

Vance said if Bridges' view of the law is correct, the Legislature should either change the law or "erase the election contest statutes from the books and not give anybody false hopes."

Bridges upheld the election of Gov. Christine Gregoire Monday following a two-week trial in which Republicans argued the balloting was tainted by illegal votes and other wrongdoing, particularly in King County.

Republicans filed the election contest in January after Rossi won the initial count and a machine recount, but lost on a final hand count by 129 votes. Bridges said there was no evidence to suggest fraud, intentional misconduct or any attempt to manipulate the election.

During a news conference yesterday in Tukwila, Vance added his support to comments Rossi made Monday that he wouldn't appeal the ruling because the "political makeup" of the state Supreme Court made success unlikely.

"I don't think anybody believes that this is a court that is particularly conservative," Vance said. He would not elaborate on his or Rossi's concern about the court.

Rossi didn't take questions when he made the comment Monday and didn't respond to a request for an interview yesterday.

Rossi spokeswoman Mary Lane said the comment speaks for itself. "We all know there are more liberals than conservatives on the state Supreme Court," Lane said. "It's just a matter of fact."

Raising an objection

The court's chief justice objected to Rossi's comment, though. And even one of Rossi's closest supporters, a political activist who has done as much as anyone to elect conservatives to the court, said he was perplexed by the notion.

Tom McCabe said he wasn't sure what Rossi meant. McCabe is head of the Building Industry Association of Washington, which spent more than $200,000 last year to help Jim Johnson win a seat on the court.

"On crime issues and on social issues, I think the court does lean more liberal, certainly," McCabe said. "But on issues of election fairness and propriety, I don't think I could characterize this court as partisan."

Supreme Court justices are elected to six-year terms, but the races are nonpartisan.

McCabe said he thinks the court sides consistently with the secretary of state's offices on election cases. Secretary of State Sam Reed took a largely middle-ground approach to Rossi's legal challenge, sometimes backing Democrats and other times backing Republicans.

But, McCabe said, "if it did go on to the Supreme Court, I don't think the secretary of state would be on Dino Rossi's side."

Chief Justice Gerry Alexander said he was "reluctant to get into something with Mr. Rossi." But he said there is no basis to Rossi's assertion.

"I've been on the court for 10 years and the court simply does not have a partisan bias," Alexander said. "In the 10 years I've been here, I don't think the court has ever said anything or written anything that could lead someone to that conclusion."

Alexander said Supreme Court justices come from different professional and partisan backgrounds. But judges set those things aside when they come to the court, he said.

The court has frequently had members who once held partisan political office. But Alexander said he doesn't know of any current members with that background.

"In the history of the court, and I'm a bit of a history buff, I would say we probably have the least in the way of partisan backgrounds of any court," he said.

What's he talking about?

Former Justice Phil Talmadge said he, too, was perplexed by Rossi's comment.

Talmadge has a long history in Democratic Party politics. He served for 16 years in the Legislature and ran for a while in last year's Democratic primary for governor.

During his time on the court, Talmadge said, "I tried to not let my past partisanship get in the way of my decision-making as a judge. ... Everybody comes to the court with backgrounds. They don't come to the court with a blank slate. Does that mean it's politicized? No."

Talmadge said the late Justice James Dolliver, a Republican, had his office decorated in an elephant motif — the Republican Party symbol.

"But that didn't mean that Jim couldn't put the partisanship aside," Talmadge said.

Berendt yesterday called Rossi's comment about the court "ethically challenged."

"That was totally inappropriate, that Dino Rossi would slam the state Supreme Court for his own benefit," Berendt said.

At a news conference in Seattle, Berendt also suggested that King County's Elections Office could be best reformed by an elected county auditor to supervise elections. The King County elections director is appointed by the county executive.

"The judge talked about accountability, and being an elected county auditor provides accountability," Berendt said.

Vance, though, said the best way to do that would be to defeat King County Executive Ron Sims in November.

"What the people of King County need and deserve is a new county executive who will truly change the culture of the elections office, and all of King County government," Vance said.

Renewed diligence

It also became clear yesterday that Rossi's unsuccessful lawsuit will bring a new front in election disputes. "We are going to be 10 times as diligent and aggressive now in fighting on these issues," Vance said.

Vance noted that Democrats in pretrial motions said some Republican claims of illegal votes should be tossed out because suspect voter registrations should be challenged before the election, not after.

"The Democrats taunted us that we needed to go out and challenge people's voter registration," he said. "OK, we will. We're going to spend the time and money to comb through the voting rolls to find the problems there before the elections. We're going to harass King County and make sure they mail out their military ballots on time."

Vance also said Bridges did not take seriously Republican theories about felon voters.

Republicans wanted to apportion illegal votes in a precinct by the same percentage as the overall vote in that precinct. They called that proportional deduction; in the end Bridges said it was not a scientifically sound method and he would not accept it.

Vance said Bridges wanted "absolute proof" of how each felon voted. But that proof is unreliable, he said, because felons aren't likely to testify that they cast an illegal vote or tell the truth if they thought it would hurt the candidate they supported.

"This case is over," Vance said. "What I think the public should focus on now in terms of the future is the precedent this ruling set is a ridiculously high standard for what it takes to contest an election."

Seattle Times reporter Jonathan Martin contributed to this report.

David Postman: 360-943-9882 or dpostman@seattletimes.com.

Ralph Thomas: 360-943-9882 or rthomas@seattletimes.com