B4
B
KLMNO Win the Bush and Franken way recount from B1 Now, with less than three weeks until
Election Day, polls show that at least a half-dozen Senate races are too close to call, and perhaps four or five times as many House contests are undecided. Of course, not all of these races will end in uncertainty, but on Nov. 3, the country could wake up and find it has several re- counts on its hands. With so much at stake this year, and with the lessons and emotions of Minne- sota 2008 and Florida 2000 lingering, re- counts will almost certainly trigger an all- out assault from Washington-based elec- tion stars such as Marc Elias, who over- saw Franken’s legal team; Ben Ginsberg, who was instrumental in helping George W. Bush beat Al Gore; and Chris Sautter, the Democratic recount guru who has been involved in just about every major recount since 1984. The parties are al- ready mobilizing their volunteers and lawyers. Election laws and standards vary from
state to state, so no recount is the same. (Bush v. Gore was about shutting down the Florida recount, for instance, while Franken v. Coleman was about looking under every rock for more votes.) Fraud and shenanigans are rare. The results don’t get twisted; they get verified. But they get verified differently. Some
states have mandatory recounts, trig- gered by margins of less than, say, one- half of 1 percent. Others, such as Nevada, which could be a recount hot spot next month, simply allow the trailing candi- date to call for a recount if he or she thinks victory is at hand and is willing to pay for it. The odds are not great; flipping an election result via a recount is unusu- al, hinging on how many mistakes elec- tion officials made or how many previ- ously uncounted or miscounted votes the losing candidate can pick up. And in a midterm election, with lower turnout than in presidential election years, mis- takes are likely to be fewer. Still, if a candidate really wants to “pull
an Al Franken” — as tea party challenger Joe Miller suggested Sen. Lisa Murkowski might be doing when she hired a lawyer to prepare for a possible recount in Alas- ka’s Republican primary in August — or, for that matter, “pull a Bush” (minus the help of the Supreme Court), there is much to be learned from those 2000 and 2008 recount battles. A few of the key lessons:
If you’re a candidate who hasn’t hired a recount lawyer yet, you’re probably too late. In 2008, Franken’s campaign had a local lawyer working on detailed recount plans a month before the election, way before Coleman’s side. You also need to prepare early for a potential trial, or at least a series of recount-related legal hearings. In 2008, Franken’s lead trial lawyer was on site in November prepping for courtroom action; Coleman didn’t hire his lead trial lawyer until days before proceedings began in January. Guess who won the trial.
Set some campaign funds aside to cov- er costs. Few recounts are likely to cost the $20 million that, according to my cal- culations, Coleman and Franken com- bined to spend during their saga, but gen- erally they cost a bundle. In 2000, the Gore and Bush camps spent a total of $17 million during their 36-day recount. Washington lawyers don’t come cheap.
If you’re behind after election night, your new favorite sentence is: “Let’s make every vote count.” That is your new man- tra. Your job is to inform the public so it understands that a recount is part of the process, not a ploy. Praise the local elec- tion officials — they are in charge of re- counting the votes, after all — but aggres- sively suggest that there are votes some- where that may not have been counted. Ask Franken.
If you’re the candidate who winds up ahead by a narrow margin on Nov. 3, you should also have a sound bite ready: “It’s time to come together” is always a good one. That said, don’t assume a win. Elec- tion night results always shift as votes from far-away precincts arrive, absentee ballots are opened and provisional bal- lots are examined. If you are ahead, find- ing a way to shut down the recount is a nifty idea. Ask Bush.
Ahead or behind, ask your supporters — via text, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube — about any irregularities they saw that might have cost you a vote here or there. Such electoral crowd-sourcing might un- cover misdeeds by your opponents’ back- ers. In Minnesota, one month into the re- count, Franken’s side produced an effec- tive Web video featuring aggrieved voters whose absentee ballots were inexplicably turned down. It was picked up by local television stations and helped flush out
other potential votes.
As the recount unfolds, understand that it exists on three levels: legal, politi- cal and public relations. To help control the narrative, identify a strong spokes- person and stick with him or her. In 2000, James Baker became the credible face and voice of the Bush recount effort. Eli- as, based in Washington, was Franken’s surrogate in Minnesota’s recount saga. Of course, you can’t pick local election
officials and can only hope that they’re fair, unbiased and not obsessed with the spotlight. Florida Secretary of State Kath- erine Harris in 2000 was none of the above, while Minnesota’s Mark Ritchie was the admirable opposite.
Remember that a recount is really an extension of the campaign. In this over- time period — whether you’re ahead by 200 votes or trailing by 300 — stay behind the scenes. Don’t look pushy. Don’t act desperate. Let your campaign and law- yers do the dirty work. When in doubt, or when ambushed by a reporter or a video camera-toting campaign staffer for your opponent, declare faith in the system.
If, after the process has played out, you find yourself the losing candidate, con- cede gracefully. Being on the short end of a recount is painful, but there’s nothing worse than a sore loser. Set up a think tank, file your lobbyist papers. Move on. And who knows? There might be a Nobel Prize or an Academy Award in your fu- ture. Ask Gore.
If you win the recount, claim victory with humility. Take your seat, put your head down, and get to work. You may not have a strong mandate — Franken sure didn’t — but one seat may be enough to give your party control of a chamber, no matter how tiny the winning margin of its weakest member.
And that’s why any 2010 recounts are
going to be knock-down, drag-out doo- zies. The Democrats learned from their 2000 Florida defeat that they needed to be more aggressive. They brought that at- titude to the 2008 Minnesota recount, which is where the GOP discovered it needed to be more prepared, more data- focused and more exacting in its legal work the next time. That next time is coming soon. It be- gins in the wee hours of Nov. 3.
rom Florida to Washington state, several midterm races raise the specter of the contested election results in Florida in 2000 and Minnesota in 2008. Which contests might trigger recount battles starting Nov. 3?
F ANGLE Nevada’s Senate race REID
No other contest this year has been as close for as long, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) and former state assemblywoman Sharron Angle (R) running neck and neck since the June primary. T e latest Real Clear Politics average of polls shows the two tied at exactly 45.4 percent. No other race has such high stakes, either; the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee last week shiſt ed its resources out of Missouri and into Nevada aſt er Angle announced that her campaign had raised a staggering $14 million between July 1 and Sept. 30. A quirk in Nevada’s election law allowing voters to select “none of these candidates” only adds to the intrigue in a race that seems certain to go down to the wire.
SCOTT SINK
Florida’s governor’s race Did we mention that Florida has a history of this kind of thing? T e governor’s contest is a nail-biter. A Quinnipiac University poll last week in the open race showed former health-care executive Rick Scott (R) at 45 percent and state Chief Financial Offi cer Alex Sink (D) at 44 percent. Remember, Florida is slated to gain seats in Congress — and the next governor will preside over a redistricting process that could give more seats to Republicans or Democrats, depending on how the map is drawn.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2010
Recounts in waiting
BY AARON BLAKE AND FELICIA SONMEZ
KIRK
GIANNOULIAS Favre is who we thought he was favre from B1
grandfather. Actually, he is a grandfa- ther. He allegedly sent pictures of his pe- nis to 26-year-old Jenn Sterger, a New York Jets on-air personality. Sterger’s big break occurred in 2005 when she waved at the ABC cameras during a Florida State football game while wearing cut- offs and a bikini top. This led to Playboy modeling and, naturally, a job with the Jets as a pregame on-air hostess. In February, Sterger had a conversa- tion with A.J. Daulerio, the editor of
Deadspin.com, a wildly popular sports site best known for posting candid pho- tos of NFL quarterbacks Matt Leinart and Kyle Orton manning a beer bong and guzzling whiskey while sporting a neck beard, respectively. (Full disclo- sure: I wrote one article for Deadspin in 2006.) Daulerio recently wrote on the site that he had met with Sterger to dis- cuss a possible online swimsuit issue but that the conversation turned, as con- versations often do, to a discussion of athletes who text pictures of their gen- itals. According to Daulerio, Sterger con- fided that she had received the photos from Favre while he played for the Jets in 2008. She also bluntly told Daulerio that the information was not for publication. This being 2010, Daulerio waited a few months and then told Sterger he was go- ing to publish the story anyway. Sterger responded with a garbled e-mail mes- sage about a faulty BlackBerry. Daulerio took this as a go sign and posted the story on Deadspin, along with a lengthy explanation that reminded me of the ar- gument by Jeff Goldbum’s journalist in “The Big Chill” that rationalizations are more important than sex. A Minneapolis reporter later asked
Gawker Media founder Nick Denton, Daulerio’s boss, about the ethics of burn- ing a source. Denton, who has compared himself to William Randolph Hearst and convinced himself that’s a compliment, did his role model proud with his tweet- ed response: “Our ethics policy? To pub- lish the real story, the one that so-called sports journalists have spent their ca- reers avoiding.” As someone who has reported on
sports on and off for 15 years, I confess I was not aware of the grand conspiracy to cover up for jocks who send below-the- waist snapshots to the ladies. Deadspin’s standard explanation for its creative in- tegrity is that its writers are gossip mer- chants, not journalists, akin to an alco- holic proudly saying, “I’m a drunk, can’t do nothin’ about it,” right before doing donuts in your front yard. The story exploded last weekend after Deadspin purchased and published pic- tures of Favre’s alleged member from a third party. The NFL has begun an in- vestigation, one hindered by the fact that Sterger has shown no interest in cooper-
MILLER McADAMS MURKOWSKI
Alaska’s Senate race Little-known lawyer Joe Miller rode a wave of tea party support — not to mention an endorsement by former governor Sarah Palin — to a narrow victory over Sen. Lisa Murkowski in August’s Republican primary. Now Murkowski is running as a write-in candidate against Miller and Sitka Mayor Scott McAdams (D). History hasn’t been kind to write-ins; the only person to win election to the Senate without his name
ADAM BETTCHER/GETTY IMAGES
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre allegedly sent nude photos to a 26-year-old woman who works for his former team, the New York Jets.
ating or going public. Meanwhile, ESPN found itself in the uncomfortable situa- tion of having “Monday Night Football” broadcaster Mike Tirico — who was once suspended by the network for (wait for it!) sexual harassment — recap Favre’s telephonic exhibitionism before the Vik- ings-Jets game. These are the same Jets, mind you, who employed Favre during his suppos- edly randy phase. Their reward for 40 years of Super Bowl-free futility was be- ing featured on “Hard Knocks,” an HBO reality show starring Rex Ryan as a lik- able, 300-plus-pound head coach who flipped off Miami fans at a pro mixed- martial-arts match during the off-season and is — you guessed it — writing his memoirs. The show’s breakout moment was cornerback Antonio Cromartie hav- ing a hard time remembering the names of his seven children by six mothers in five states. Since the show aired, the team suspended a drunken-driving wide receiver (for one quarter) after he blew twice the legal alcohol limit, and it be- came embroiled in a different sexual ha- rassment issue when players and coach- es leered at a buxom Mexican broadcast- er during a recent practice. Let’s pause a moment to lather on the
Purell.
Bizarrely, the only person whose ac- tions in this whole fiasco ring remotely true is the creep in the No. 4 jersey. While the specifics couldn’t be pre- dicted, Favre’s alleged revolting behavior and subsequent tear-filled apology to his teammates for being a “distraction” were as predictable as the quarterback throw- ing into double coverage late in a game. He’s been warning us for years. Favre’s public fall doesn’t resemble the descents of Tiger Woods or Lance Armstrong, ho- lier-than-thou icons whose comeup-
pances had more to do with their self- righteousness and hypocrisy than their sins. Favre was never that guy. He’s al- ways been a redneck, an egomaniac, an addict and an eternal child. Those shocked by the allegations haven’t been paying attention. To paraphrase the phi- losopher coach Dennis Green, Favre is who we thought he was. The rest of us? We’re living in a busted
play. The media has come a long way from the days when reporters hushed up Mickey Mantle’s chronic drunkenness, behavior that obviously affected the out- come of actual games. Fans spending 90 bucks a seat deserve to know if their cleanup hitter reeks of Boone’s Farm. But now we’ve moved too far in the other di- rection. As much as we pretend other- wise, sports are an escape — we’re deter- mining who is going to make the play- offs, not who controls the nuclear football. It’s not clear whether betraying dubiously qualified broadcasters, paying sources and writing about Ryan’s recent lap-band surgery is really a value-added experience like, say, DirectTV’s Red Zone Channel. The games themselves should be the reality show. At the end of the Wrangler shoot,
Favre gave me a ride back to my car. He talked of growing up with three televi- sion channels and having the choice be- tween enduring his mother’s soap operas or going outside and playing ball in the hot Mississippi sun. He professed not to understand the modern media world. “I don’t let my daughter text or go on SpaceBook,” Favre told me. It wasn’t clear whether he was making a joke or conflating Web sites. “I don’t think we really understand what’s happening out there. I know I don’t.” He’s not the only one.
BUCK BENNET
Colorado’s Senate race T e White House has put itself on the line in Colorado, where Sen. Michael Bennet (D) is running for his fi rst full term. Bennet, who was appointed by Gov. Bill Ritter (D) aſt er Obama tapped then-Sen. Ken Salazar (D) to serve as interior secretary, struggled through a tough primary against former state House speaker Andrew Romanoff . Now, he faces an even tougher race against Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck (R), a tea party favorite who has the backing of conservative kingmaker Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). Obama headlined several fundraisers and a tele-town hall for Bennet during the primary but has yet to stump for him in the general-election campaign.
HERRERA HECK
Washington’s 3rd District Two well-regarded state legislators — Rep. Jaime Herrera (R) and former representative Denny Heck (D) — are squaring off in Washington state, where the swingy 3rd District went for President George W. Bush in 2004 and Obama in 2008. Control of the House or the Senate could hinge on the last ballots counted here. Washington is known for epic recounts; it took months for Gov. Chris Gregoire (D) to overcome an apparent 261- vote loss to beat Republican Dino Rossi in 2004. And the state’s painfully slow process for counting mail-in ballots means contests can last well past Election Day, even if there isn’t a recount.
Aaron Blake and Felicia Sonmez write for “T e Fix,” a Washington Post politics blog.
appearing on the ballot was Strom T urmond (R-S.C.) in 1954. Still, Murkowski has the benefi t of pedigree (her father, Frank Murkowski, served as a senator and governor), and polls show that the three-way race is extremely competitive.
Illinois’s Senate race Rep. Mark Kirk (R) and state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias (D) have been polling close for months. In fact, there hasn’t been a reputable, non-automated poll this year that has shown either candidate leading outside the margin of error. Both come into the fi nal weeks damaged — Kirk because of misstatements about his military record and Giannoulias because of his family bank’s loans to convicted felons. T is is President Obama’s old Senate seat, so both sides are motivated by prestige.
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