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Cantwell officially gets her victory
After recount, she ousts Gorton by 2,229 votes
Saturday, December 2, 2000
By KATHLEEN BEST
She had to wait through an election night that lasted 24 days, but Maria Cantwell finally stepped forward last night to declare "a long-awaited victory" in the closest U.S. Senate race in state history.
She did it by carrying only five of the state's 39 counties -- a fact that was clearly on her mind. "My challenge will be to get better known" outside the Puget Sound region, she said. And she plans to start delivering on her promise to unite the state with trips next week to Vancouver, Spokane and the Tri-Cities.
Gorton, in a brief concession speech from Bellevue last night, urged Cantwell to represent all of Washington.
"I have, of course, paid particular attention to those parts of our state -- and to those people -- who have not shared in the impressive economic growth of the last two decades," he said. "And I hope that they will not be forgotten in the future."
Cynthia Bergman, Gorton's spokeswoman, said there would be no challenges to the recount.
"The results are in and the election is over," she said.
Cantwell's victory will give Democrats 50 of the Senate's 100 votes when the new Congress is sworn in Jan. 3. She also will become the 13th woman in Congress' upper chamber. And she will make Washington one of only three states represented by two women senators.
Yesterday's results also ended a long wait for Washington secretary of state candidates Sam Reed and Don Bonker. Reed, the Republican, won the race by 10,222 votes in the statewide recount.
Reed said one of his first acts as secretary of state will be to support legislation that would speed up the state's vote counting. He will ask for a change in the law to require absentee ballots to be received on Election Day, rather than mailed on Election Day. Only Washington, West Virginia and the District of Columbia accept ballots put in the mail the same day voters go to the polls.
The machine recount in King County also confirmed the worst fears of both state parties that the Washington House will again be split, 49-49, between Democrats and Republicans.
Two legislative races in the 47th District fell within the one-half of 1 percent margin that automatically triggers a recount. And the outcome for both remained the same: Republican incumbent Jack Cairnes defeated Democrat Debbie Jacobson and Democrat Geoff Simpson beat Republican incumbent Phil Fortunato.
But lawmakers in both Washingtons may not have to put up with equal partisan divides for long.
In Olympia, Rep. Renee Radcliff, R-Lynnwood, announced Thursday that she was resigning from the House. A Republican will be appointed to replace her temporarily, but Democrats will get a chance to win back the seat next year.
In Washington, D.C., the partisan makeup of the Senate may hinge on who becomes president.
If Al Gore wins the presidency, his running mate, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, will have to resign. The Republican governor of Connecticut will pick Lieberman's replacement, giving the GOP a 51-49 edge.
If George W. Bush wins, his running mate, Dick Cheney, would give the GOP a one-vote edge because the vice president presides over the Senate and can vote to break ties.
But those advantages depend on the uncertain health of two Republican senators -- Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and Jesse Helms of South Carolina. The governors of both states are Democrats and would appoint Democrats to replace either man if he were forced to resign.
Although Cantwell will be the most junior member of the Senate, she is not a stranger to Washington. She served one term in the U.S. House before being ousted in a Republican sweep that returned control of both chambers to the GOP.
She accepted a job as an executive with RealNetworks, an innovative Seattle-based Internet firm, that turned her into a millionaire. And she used some of those millions to finance a television advertising blitz that introduced her to voters statewide at the same time it raised questions about Gorton's age, his ties to the mining industry and his commitment to health care for the elderly.
Reports on file with the Federal Election Commission show that Cantwell contributed $6 million to her campaign directly and lent the campaign another $1.5 million through Oct. 18. Gorton, also a millionaire, neither lent nor contributed any of his personal wealth to his re-election effort.
She declined to say last night whether she will seek repayment of that loan from her campaign. But she did pledge to make campaign finance reform one of her top priorities.
Cantwell, who has been on leave from her post at RealNetworks, said she will resign from the company. But she said she wants to apply some of the lessons she learned there to governing. The speed with which information can be exchanged via the Internet may lead to a "better decision-making process," she said.
She also expressed interest in a post on the Senate Commerce Committee, which deals with technology, marine and other issues close to Washington's economic heart.
Cantwell said that a reorganization of the Senate will probably not happen until the presidential race is decided. If Democrats control 50 votes in the new upper chamber, she said the party also should get half of all seats on Senate committees.
Kathleen Best is assistant managing editor for metro news. She can be reached at 206-448-8030 or kathybest@seattle-pi.com
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF
A statewide machine recount of nearly 2.5 million votes showed yesterday that Cantwell, a Democrat, defeated three-term incumbent Republican Slade Gorton by 2,229 votes.
"My challenge will be to get better known" outside the Puget Sound region, Maria Cantwell said last night. P-I Photo.
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