Rossi concedes defeat; Gregoire eyes stimulus

OLYMPIA _ Trailing by more than 100,000 votes and well behind in several counties he easily won four years ago, a somber Dino Rossi on Wednesday conceded that he’d lost the race for governor.

“From the beginning, my mission was to change Olympia,” the Republican businessman told reporters at his Redmond, Wash., campaign headquarters. He vowed to work with Gov. Chris Gregoire, but said that voters should hold her to her campaign pledge to not raise taxes.

Gregoire, meanwhile, hinted at a statewide economic stimulus plan that she intends to unveil as early as next week, followed by a second proposal she’ll introduce for the Legislature in January.

Despite Republican hopes of capturing the governor’s mansion after Gregoire’s 133-vote victory over Rossi four years ago, the Democratic governor clearly got a lift from the popularity and high voter turnout for President-elect Barack Obama.

But even in suburban and some rural areas, the governor was doing markedly better this time. She lost Spokane and Clark counties by 8 percentage points to Rossi in 2004. In the counting so far this time, she’s within 2 points of Rossi in Spokane and nearly beat him in Clark.

Gregoire wouldn’t say much about her economic stimulus proposal, calling it a work in progress. But in discussions with Obama, she said, she stressed that “we don’t need a stimulus package with one $300 check. We need a stimulus package that puts people back to work.”

On the national level, she suggested, that means having road, water and other projects “ready to go” for any federal stimulus plan that emerges from Washington, D.C.

Rossi and Gregoire both sounded relieved that the hard-fought campaign is over. Rossi said he looks forward to being home again with his wife and four children.

“I have a list of honey-dos as long as your arm,” he said. A real-estate investor, he said he intends to return to the business world.

“I was happy before I got into politics, and I will be happy after,” he said.

He refused to speculate about why he fared worse against Gregoire this time.

Gregoire said that her campaign’s polls, however, showed Rossi’s support waning when he said he’d be open to a lower minimum wage for young workers, as well as reducing unemployment benefits.

“I think that spoke loudly to the differences … between Dino and myself,” Gregoire said.

Both sides and their allies spent well over $40 million trying to outdistance the other in the rematch. Although most polls this year showed Gregoire ahead of Rossi, it wasn’t by much. Both sides also upped the ante with more attack ads.

“Do you have any idea how nice it was to wake up this morning and see no ads?” said Gregoire.

Among those disgusted as the attack ads mushroomed this fall: Spokane’s Erin Davis. In the end, she cast her ballot for a third party.

“I voted for my dog,” the 30-year-old manager at an insurance company said. “I actually wrote her name into that little box and checked it.”

Four years ago, she said, she voted for Rossi, feeling that he was more trustworthy than Gregoire.

“This year, I didn’t want any of them near” the governor’s mansion, she said. “It’s been a lot more ruthless, a lot more personal.”