Today's Roll Call:
When Dino Rossi first narrowly won - and then narrowly lost - his race for
governor of Washington last fall, he had a choice to make.
Rossi, a Republican, could have smiled, congratulated the 129-vote winner,
Democrat Christine Gregoire, and quietly plotted his political comeback.
If Rossi had taken that path, he would have followed a trail blazed by
then-Reps. John Ensign (R-Nev.) and John Thune (R-S.D.) and then-Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.). Each of them lost a painfully close Senate contest but decided against a potentially divisive court challenge. Instead, each found vindication: Ensign and Thune won Senate bids two years after their losses, and Ashcroft was named U.S. attorney general within months of his. ...
Voters Dislike Bad Sports
In South Dakota, Thune could have easily contested his 524-vote loss to Sen. Tim Johnson (D) in 2002 because it came amid allegations of vote fraud on Indian reservations, which traditionally support Democrats.
But "South Dakotans do not like poor losers," said Robert Miller, executive
director of the South Dakota Electric Utility Companies. "If Thune had
launched a court challenge, his South Dakota rating would have fallen way
off. And if he had won the court challenge, I believe he would have set
himself up for a defeat in the next election."
Todd Epp, an attorney and Democratic activist in Sioux Falls, agreed that
Thune's actions "put himself in the good graces of South Dakota voters." If
anything, Epp notes, then-Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) - the man Thune defeated in 2004 - may have squandered goodwill when he sought and won a minor court victory over election procedure on the eve of the 2004 election.
In his book about voter fraud, Wall Street Journal reporter John Fund has a chapter about the 2002 race in South Dakota.
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