WASHINGTON | 11 Electoral Votes |
Kerry's improvement upon Gore's showing can be attributed in large measure to his very strong showing in the Seattle area. Statewide the Democratic ticket's plurality increased from 138,788 votes in 2000 to 205,307 votes in 2004. In King County, where Gore had obtained a plurality of 203,529 votes (25.62 percentage points), Kerry achieved a plurality of 279,335 votes (31.36 percentage points).
Ryan Pennington, who directed the Democrats' coordinated campaign, observed that:
Our strategy from the very beginning was to capitalize on the tremendous volunteer energy in the Democratic base to a) identify as many likely Democratic and Republican voters as possible (WA does not have party registration), b) register as many new voters as possible in key geographic areas and demographic constituencies, and c) execute an unprecedented GOTV effort, using the WA 2000 Coordinated Campaign as a model. We succeeded in every one of these initiatives. We had to battle constantly to put together the resources and infrastructure necessary to manage the onslaught of volunteers but, in the end, our plan was executed perfectly. We increased the Democratic margin over George Bush significantly from 2000, padded Senator Murray's comfortable margin over George Nethercutt, and (given that the gubernatorial race was decided by fewer than 300 votes) we were heavily responsible for electing Governor Gregoire, particularly since the Gregoire campaign had no field effort of its own. None of the Democratic 527 groups were active in WA.Jon Seaton, who ran the Bush campaign, stated that, "We were in it to win it." Specifically, Seaton, said, the campaign sought to win on the ground, by building a grassroots network which ultimately included some 35,000 volunteers, chairs in targeted precincts, and a number of active coalitions. Although Bush-Cheney did not carry the state, the ticket did improve upon its 2000 performance by almost 200,000 votes and increased its share of the vote from 44.57% to 45.64%.
Bush-Cheney '04 | Kerry-Edwards 2004 |
Organization details... | details... |
BC'04 State
Chair: Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn
Exec. Director: Jon Seaton Comm. Director: Leah Yoon Office: 2101 112th Ave., Bellevue Republican Party of Washington
|
KE
State Director: Sam Rodriguez
Comm. Director: J.B. Tengco Office: 1848 Westlake Ave, Seattle Coordinated Campaign Director: Ryan Pennington Democratic Party of Washington
|
Travel compare...
BUSH-CHENEY | KERRY-EDWARDS |
Final Month (Oct. 2-Nov. 2, 2004) | |
George
W. Bush - 0 visits
Dick Cheney (and Lynne Cheney) - 0 visits Laura Bush (solo) - 0 visits |
John
Kerry - 0 visits
John Edwards - 0 visits Teresa Heinz Kerry (solo) - 1 visit (1 day) Elizabeth Edwards (solo) - 0 visits |
Eight Months (March 2-Nov. 2, 2004) | |
George
W. Bush - 2 visits (3 days)
Dick Cheney (and Lynne Cheney) - 2 visits (2 days) Laura Bush (solo) - 0 visits Lynne Cheney (solo) - 1 visit (1 day) |
John
Kerry - 2 visits (4 days)
John Edwards - 0 visits Teresa Heinz Kerry (solo) - 2 visits (3 days) Elizabeth Edwards (solo) - 0 visits |
Newspaper Endorsements
BUSH
King County Journal [Bellevue] (10/24/04) > Spokesman-Review [Spokane] (10/17/04) > The Columbian [Vancouver] (10/10/04) Yakima Herald-Republic The Daily News [Longview] The Chronicle [Centralia] |
KERRY
Port Townsend Leader (date?) The Olympian (10/24/04) Tacoma News Tribune (10/24/04) > *Tri-City Herald [Richland] (10/24/04) *Bremerton Sun (10/24/04) Everett Herald (10/24/04) *Walla Walla Union Bulletin (10/22/04) Grand Coulee Star (10/13/04) Seattle Post-Intelligencer (10/10/04) > *Seattle Times (08/27/04) |
King County
.2000 |
|
.2004 | ||||
Gore/Lieberman (D) |
476,700
|
(60.02%) |
|
+Kerry/Edwards (D) |
580,378
|
(64.95%) |
Bush/Cheney (R) |
273,171
|
(34.40%) |
|
Bush/Cheney (R) |
301,043
|
(33.69%) |
Nader/LaDuke (G) |
37,383
|
(4.71%) |
|
Nader/Camejo (I) |
6,468
|
(0.72%) |
Others (7) |
6,942
|
(0.87%) |
|
Badnarik/Campagna (L) |
3,533
|
(0.40%) |
Total |
794,196
|
|
Others (5) |
2,112
|
(0.24%)
|
|
Total |
893,552
|
|||||
31.93% of statewide
total
|
Gore
plurality:
203,529 (25.62%) |
31.30% of statewide
total
|
Kerry
plurality:
279,335 (31.26%) |
Pierce County
.2000 |
|
.2004 | ||||
Gore/Lieberman (D) |
138,249
|
(51.50%) |
|
+Kerry/Edwards (D) |
158,231
|
(50.50%) |
Bush/Cheney (R) |
118,431
|
(44.12%) |
|
Bush/Cheney (R) |
150,783
|
(48.12%) |
Nader/LaDuke (G) |
8,749
|
(3.26%) |
|
Nader/Camejo (I) |
2,436
|
(0.78%) |
Others (7) |
2,998
|
(1.12%) |
|
Badnarik/Campagna (L) |
1,084
|
(0.35%) |
Total |
268,427
|
|
Others (5) |
797
|
(0.25%)
|
|
Total |
313,331
|
|||||
10.79% of statewide
total
|
Gore
plurality:
19,818 (7.38%) |
10.97% of statewide
total
|
Kerry
plurality:
7,448 (2.38%) |
Snohomish County
.2000 |
|
.2004 | ||||
Gore/Lieberman (D) |
129,612
|
(51.65%) |
|
+Kerry/Edwards (D) |
156,468
|
(53.04%) |
Bush/Cheney (R) |
109,615
|
(43.68%) |
|
Bush/Cheney (R) |
134,317
|
(45.53%) |
Nader/LaDuke (G) |
9,023
|
(3.60%) |
|
Nader/Camejo (I) |
2,268
|
(0.77%) |
Others (7) |
2,717
|
(1.08%) |
|
Badnarik/Campagna (L) |
1,213
|
(0.41%) |
Total |
250,967
|
|
Others (5) |
731
|
(0.25%)
|
|
Total |
294,997
|
|||||
10.09% of statewide
total
|
Gore
plurality:
19,997 (7.97%) |
10.33% of statewide
total
|
Kerry
plurality:
22,151 (7.51%) |
Spokane County
.2000 |
|
.2004 | ||||
Gore/Lieberman (D) |
74,604
|
(43.35%) |
|
Kerry/Edwards (D) |
87,490
|
(43.19%) |
Bush/Cheney (R) |
89,299
|
(51.88%) |
|
+Bush/Cheney (R) |
111,606
|
(55.09%) |
Nader/LaDuke (G) |
6,250
|
(3.63%) |
|
Nader/Camejo (I) |
1,830
|
(0.90%) |
Others |
1,959
|
(1.14%) |
|
Badnarik/Campagna (L) |
748
|
(0.37%) |
Total |
172,112
|
|
Others (5) |
913
|
(0.45%)
|
|
Total |
202,587
|
|||||
6.92% of statewide
total
|
Bush
plurality:
14,695 (8.53%) |
7.10% of statewide
total
|
Bush
plurality:
24,116 (11.90%) |
Washington State Coordinator (volunteer):
Sally Soriano, a member of the Seattle School Board
Copyright © 2005 Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in Action.