BURLINGTON, VT – The results of the gubernatorial race are too close to call, Doug Racine declared Wednesday morning. “We are seeing discrepancies in the online, unofficial results, and we want to wait for the official results before making a decision about next steps,” Racine explained. “I have not conceded and I have talked with Peter Shumlin, who has agreed that we should see the official results before announcing a winner.”
The Secretary of State indicated to Racine that the official results would be available sometime between Friday and Tuesday.
From the e-mail I just received from the Shumlin campaign:
Thanks to your incredible support, it looks like we have won the Democratic gubernatorial primary!
Personally, I’m waiting for the official results.
A few quick thoughts/questions:
1. Shumlin can legitimately claim “it looks like we have won”
2. Racine can legitimately claim that the race isn’t over until the results are certified.
3. If the certified results are approximately the same as the unofficial results (Shumlin up by 175-200), would a two-week recount end up hurting the Democratic cause in November?
4. If the certified results show Racine behind by less than 100 votes, the case for a recount becomes stronger.
5. The AARP should postpone their debate scheduled for tomorrow night for about two weeks – AARP shouldn’t be in the position of forcing Shumlin to show up at the debate, or forcing Racine to call for a recount before certified results are available.
(I hope.)
I’m just flummoxed by how many people seem to think that a recount would somehow harm the Democrat candidate. This seems to rest on the idea that the candidate must be known today in order to begin the campaign against Lt. Gov Dubie.
The number of people who are undecided and making their decision about a November election in the week before Labor Day is negligible. The money that would be there this week will be there next week. Shumlin is certainly already lining up influential supporters of Markowitz & Dunne; there’s no reason to wait. Heck, after a long campaign, the winner was probably going to take a few days off anyway.
On the plus side, it puts the winner in the limelight for free for a week; it highlights the tremendous voter turnout; it lets people calm down and take a breather so that they can put a smile on their faces and support the winner. Dubie has to put off the attack machine until he has a winner. It’s all good.
And, of course…if Racine really won…wouldn’t we rather know that?
Why not just have all 3 top finishers start on Dubie. Showing a strong democratic party and signaling a (sort of) unified message could be a strong way to start off.
All three can play nice, and when we have a winner, the remaining can play defense and the winner can play offense.
…for all but declaring a victory when the results are this close, and not yet certified. A better man would have done the principled thing and said “let’s all wait for the certification.” If he IS the winner, it would cost him nothing to look like a principled, “good sportsman” guy for a couple of days, and if he is NOT the winner, he wouldn’t end up looking like a jerk for boasting prematurely. Not a good start, in my opinion, for our potential new governor.
1) Shumlin is saying exactly what he should be saying.
2) Racine is saying exactly what he should be saying.
3) Markowitz is saying exactly what she should be saying.
The horse race analogy is just that, an analogy. This isn’t a game. This is real life, and each candidate is in it to win and if you take their ability to freely display that attitude then you are depriving YOUR candidate of the single most powerful tool she/he has.
Let the candidates be in it to win …. that’s what you want in the end, right?