If it’s Rossi, what about those laws?
Pop quiz time for everyone awaiting Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridge’s decision on the fate of the governor’s race.
If the courts rule Christine Gregoire didn’t really win last year’s election, all of the bills that she signed from the last session are:
A. Headed for the shredder, while the Legislature rushes back into special session.
B. Valid if a majority of Republicans voted for them, but not even fit for the bottom of the bird cage if they only had Democratic support.
C. Still on the books as laws.
D. I don’t care because I don’t pay attention to the laws, anyway.
Bad news for everyone hoping to beat the gasoline tax increase or any other new law they think is onerous, but the correct answer is “C.” (This will no doubt disappoint some of the newspaper’s regular letter writers, who are convinced that Gregoire’s election, and everything it has touched, was illegal, immoral and possibly fattening.)
Whether or not there are enough questions to overturn Gregoire’s 129-vote margin is something Bridges is scheduled to decide Monday. The amount of time between that announcement and the loser appealing to the Supreme Court is expected to be a nanosecond, but eventually the state Supreme Court will review the case and issue a decision.
Even if the high court concludes that last November’s election was fatally flawed and replaces Gregoire with Republican Dino Rossi, or calls for a new election, that won’t negate the things she has done since being sworn in.
Jeffrey Even, an assistant state attorney general who handles elections questions, said Gregoire is presumed to be the rightful governor until proved otherwise.
“It’s an anti-chaos doctrine,” Even said during a break in the revote trial. “She’s validly the governor until a court order (to the contrary) is entered.”
Otherwise, anytime an election was challenged, government would grind to a halt until the dispute was settled. And as the current dispute is demonstrating, that takes several months.
On lighter notes
The two-week trial in Wenatchee featured hours of complicated and technical testimony from experts with impressive credentials in mathematics and the social sciences. Which is not to suggest it was a snooze-fest, but there were times when the only thing keeping the audience awake was the hard seats in the gallery.
There were, however, some lighter moments, such as the time when Democrats’ attorney Jenny Durkan reached for one of the long row of folders on shelves behind the lawyers’ tables and dropped it on Republicans’ attorney Harry Korrell.
“Ow, ow,” said Korrell in mock pain. “Call a lawyer.”
Then there was the time Nicole Way, a King County elections official, stopped in midsentence during her testimony and swatted the air in front of her.
“Sorry, there’s a spider coming down,” said Way, mentioning she wasn’t fond of spiders. “It’s a little one, though.”
Without missing a beat, Durkan continued her questioning with: “OK, so Miss Muffet – are you OK, or do you want to take a break?”
Way said she was fine. Bridges later said, however, that he is also not fond of spiders and if any more showed up in the auditorium that had been converted into his temporary courtroom, he might be out of there.
Later, Bridges expressed concern over the attorneys, who were showing up each morning with bigger bags under their eyes than the day before.
“You all look so tired,” the judge said at one point. “Are you sleeping?”
“Not yet, your honor,” Durkan replied.
“We sleep in shifts, your honor,” said Korrell.
Web site to remember
Want to check out what your member of Congress – or any member of Congress – has done in the way of sponsoring legislation? Try Plogress, at www.plogress.com, to track their actions by name or by state.