Who's the boss in King County?

Today, Gregoire overtook Rossi and gained a slim lead--158 votes--in the race for the governorship of Washington.

The lead change came as a surprise, since King County (a county dominated by the Democrats) somehow came up with a lot more uncounted votes than earlier estimated.

As stated in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Gregoire edged ahead by 158 votes out of more than 3 million cast, after days of trailing Rossi. Democrats celebrated when they heard that election officials in King County - which favors Gregoire - discovered they had 10,000 more uncounted ballots than previously estimated.

"I'm beginning to think we might win this," said state Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt.

Rossi's campaign was thrown for a loop by the King County news - just the latest twist in the two-week roller coaster ride that is the 2004 gubernatorial election.

"Boss" Crump--of Memphis long ago--supposedly used to say: "Just tell me how many votes you need." Crump often managed to come up with the votes needed in statewide races to overcome a lead established by a political opponent in east Tennessee.

It's too bad we don't seem to have a colorful figure like Boss Crump in Seattle. It would be a lot more entertaining to wonder how the boss produced those votes, rather than simply puzzling over the substantial underestimate of ballots that remained to be counted.