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Cantwell wins after final votes counted

Wednesday, November 22, 2000

By KATHLEEN BEST AND JAMES G. WRIGHT
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF

Democrat Maria Cantwell won the U.S. Senate race yesterday, but will have to wait at least a week for confirmation.

Final returns from all 39 counties show a narrow margin of victory over incumbent GOP Sen. Slade Gorton -- 1,953 votes. An automatic machine recount starts Monday and will not be completed before Dec. 1.

Cantwell, appearing more exhausted than jubilant, made a brief appearance at her campaign headquarters, saying, "I feel very pleased by the results today."

While she predicted the recount would confirm her election, she declined to declare absolute victory.

"We're not popping the champagne corks quite yet," Cantwell said.

Gorton issued a written statement, but made no public appearance yesterday.

"Prior to this week's tally of special ballots, I was cautiously optimistic, now I'm cautiously pessimistic about the outcome," Gorton said. "This election has had a number of surprising twists and turns and with that, I expect to wait for the end of the recount to make another statement."

If confirmed by the recount, Cantwell's election would cause a 50-50 partisan tie -- the first even split in the Senate in a century.

That could be critical if the legal wrangling over the presidential election ends up before Congress. The evenly divided Senate would take office Jan. 3, allowing Vice President Al Gore to provide the tie-breaking vote until his term expires Jan. 20.

But the Democratic advantage would be short-lived.

If Gore wins the White House, his vice presidential running mate, Joe Lieberman, would have to give up his Senate seat. A replacement would be appointed by the Republican governor of Connecticut, giving the GOP a 51-49 majority.

And if Texas Gov. George W. Bush wins the White House, his vice president, Dick Cheney, would be able to break ties in a 50-50 Senate, effectively giving the GOP a 51-50 majority.

Those high partisan stakes -- and Washington's slow vote count -- have made the state's Senate race one of the most closely watched in the nation.

They also made it one of the most expensive contests in state history.

Cantwell, 42, a dot-com millionaire, poured $10 million of her personal fortune into her campaign, eschewing contributions from political action committees. Gorton was expected to match that spending with donations from individuals and PACs.

While the candidates remained circumspect last night, their supporters were ready to declare victory -- or urge that the fight continue.

"We are all just stunned with happiness," said Paul Berendt, chairman of the Washington Democratic Party. "If you come from a working class background, you're going to have a hero in the U.S. Senate."

But Republican political consultant Brett Bader said the election was so close that Gorton should ask for a hand recount in targeted counties and precincts.

"The GOP should explore every option available" giving the importance of the race in Washington state and Washington, D.C.

Cantwell took the lead Tuesday after a glut of absentee votes from King County put her ahead for the first time since election night. Unofficial returns show she won King, Thurston, Snohomish, Jefferson and San Juan counties while Gorton carried the rest of the state.

Cantwell would become the 13th woman in the Senate -- a record -- and Washington would become the third state to be simultaneously represented by two women senators.

The daughter of a state legislator from Indiana, Cantwell earned her fortune as an executive at RealNetworks, a Seattle-based Internet company she joined after being ousted from the U.S. House after one term. She took a leave from the firm to run for the Senate.

Gorton's defeat would bring to an end a three-term Senate career and 42-year political career that included stints as a state legislator and state attorney general.

In the Senate, Gorton, 72, championed causes that sometimes put him at odds with liberals on the western side of his state. He was a champion of business, arguing that industry was overregulated by environmental bureaucrats. And he earned the enmity of Native Americans by arguing that their sovereignty rights should be weakened.

The Republican's career also was notable for his ability to take on the political oddsmakers and win, although often by narrow margins. Washington's last recount for a statewide office, for example, was in 1968, when Gorton was elected Washington's attorney general.

"This has been an incredibility hard-fought campaign and in the days before the election, the Democratic base was very fired up," Berendt said last night. "Gorton never let up since Labor Day. In the end, when Cantwell ran a very positive ending -- going entirely positive -- it lifted the tenor the debate and lifted her positives and brought her over the top. It reinforced people's belief that he is "Mean Slade."

The slender margin separating Cantwell and Gorton forces a machine recount under Washington state law.

But voters here will not be subjected to the same sort of electoral sideshow that has divided Florida and provided fodder for talk-show hosts and TV commentators nationwide.

Washington's machine count does not require county election officials to try to divine the intent of voters. Instead, the ballots are loaded directly from the box into the machine.

David Brine, spokesman for Secretary of State Ralph Munro, said the goal is to finish recounting votes from all 39 counties by the end of next week.

Each county will conduct its own recount, then report the results to Munro's office. King and Pierce counties could take as long as three to four days to tally their votes.

Munro will certify the results Dec. 7. Only then could candidates ask for hand recounts of specific counties or precincts. And they have to be willing to back up their requests with cash.

Under state law, the candidates have to pay the costs of a hand recount they request -- including an upfront deposit of 5 cents for each vote to be recounted. The fee is waived if the recount changes the outcome of the race.

Brine said he could recall no statewide recounts that involved hand-held examinations of ballots.

And statewide machine recounts here are relatively rare. The state has had only three in the past 25 years, all involving statewide initiatives.

P-I assistant city editor Chris Grygiel and chief librarian Lytton Smith contributed information for this report.

P-I assistant managing editor Kathleen Best can be reached at 206-448-8030 or kathybest@seattle-pi.com

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