Governor Christine Gregoire Christine "Chris" Gregoire (born March 24, 1947) is the Democratic governor of the State of Washington. She was declared the winner over Republican Dino Rossi in the 2004 gubernatorial race after two recounts amid legal challenges and political controversy.
Biography
Gregoire was raised in Auburn, Washington, and graduated from the University of Washington and Gonzaga University Law School. She served as the director of the Washington Department of Ecology from 1988 until 1992, when she was first elected attorney general, a post to which she was twice re-elected. While Ecology director she negotiated a triparty agreement in 1989 with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy to clean up waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. As attorney general she sued several times to try to get a more adequate cleanup progress. Congress has not appropriated a sufficient level of funding to allow the pace of activity anticipated by the original agreement, now estimated to require a total of $50 to $100 billion. Dissatisfaction with the slow pace of cleanup led to a successful initiative in 2004 that requires the refusal of new waste shipments until past cleanup promises are back on track.
Gregoire was also heavily involved in the lawsuit against the tobacco industry in the 1990s and won the state a $4.5 billion share of the settlement, including a $500 million bonus for her lead role.
In the 2004 gubernatorial race, Gregoire was accused of racism when it was revealed that that she belonged to an all-white sorority while at the University of Washington. She countered the accusations by claiming to have spoken out after graduating. Gregoire defeated Ron Sims and four other minor candidates in the primary election on September 14, 2004. Sims campaigned on the need for tax reform. The racial issue was cited as a reason why Gregoire's performance among blacks and liberal whites was not as strong as expected.
During the general election against former state senator and real estate agent Dino Rossi, Gregoire proposed a major initiative in life sciences, especially stem cell research. She was criticized for being a part of the Olympia establishment but tried to counter the "time for a change" message by saying she would "blow past the bureaucracy" and bring change herself. This language surprised and disappointed many of her colleagues and supporters. She was also criticized for failing to give much mention or credit to the efforts and achievements of past Democratic governors while being quite self-congratulatory about her own public service. A major focus of ads attacking Gregoire was her failing to meet a filing deadline as attorney general that ended up costing the state millions of dollars.
The disputed election
See also: Washington gubernatorial election, 2004
The election was held on November 2, 2004. The initial count showed her trailing Rossi by 261 votes; however, a legally mandated machine recount diminished that lead to only 42 votes. On December 3, the Democratic Party requested a hand recount. They also filed a motion in the state Supreme Court to request that rejected ballots from King County that were not counted previously be reevaluated. A Pierce County Superior Court judge ruled that ballots should not be counted, but on December 22, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the rejected King County ballots should be counted. Of those 732 ballots, 566 were accepted as having valid signatures and were added to the existing total on December 23. The final results of the hand count, as of December 23,[1] (http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-12-23-washington-recount_x.htm) had Christine Gregoire ahead by 130 votes, solidifying the 10-vote lead she had before the previously rejected King County ballots were tabulated. On December 30, Republican Secretary of State Sam Reed certified Gregoire as the winner by 129 votes (he removed one vote which had been counted in Thurston County past the deadline).
The GOP claimed they knew of military voters overseas who had never received ballots from King County, saying that "wounded soldiers in Falluja" had the right to vote and trumpeting veterans to confront King County election officials; King County election director Dean Logan disputed the charge, asserting that they had sent out all the absentee ballots were sent on time, including ballots to military voters. The GOP then claimed that military voters registered in Snohomish County had not received ballots, and that King County officials allowed felons to vote. Election officials in Snohomish and King County disputed these latest charges as well. Republicans said they would use the courts to block any final election results, possibly even going to the federal courts by citing the equal protection clause in the US Constitution, or having a new vote. Gregoire's victory was certified in late December, making this the first time in Washington state history that a recount reversed an election result, and making Washington the first state with a female governor and 2 female US senators (Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell).
Republicans continued to claim vote fraud and were given a February 14, 2005 court date to hear the case.
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