Elections 2004

Early on in high school, Alfonso Ochoa Jr. decided he needed to get out of Armona, the tiny Central California town where he grew up. He saw his friends making bad decisions and, without a change, he figured his future looked bleak. Joining the Marine Corps was a way to escape, according to several who knew him. "Around here, there is a cycle. Families are in a cycle; people don't leave," said Bobby Peters, principal of Hanford West High School, where Ochoa attended. "He didn't want that to happen to him, and he was going to cut ties if he had to."

Democrat Christine Gregoire was sworn in as Washington's governor Wednesday, as Republican lawmakers refused to applaud and their party's candidate forged ahead with his legal challenge to her razor-thin victory. Pledging in her inaugural address to work with legislators to improve the state's ballot-counting procedures, Gregoire said: "We want every vote to count -- and to be counted right the first time." Former Republican state Sen.

A Republican state senator may not take any official action or get paid because she was not a qualified resident of Kentucky before the election, a judge ruled Friday. Franklin County Circuit Judge William Graham's temporary injunction prohibits Dana Seum Stephenson from "sitting as a state senator, from performing any official duties of the office as state senator, from receiving or accepting any pay for the office of state senator and from participating in the affairs of the General Assembly."

Hampered by staff turmoil and a shortage of money, City Councilman Bernard C. Parks is struggling to remain a viable contender for mayor of Los Angeles as supporters fret that he may have botched his campaign. The former Los Angeles police chief entered the race last spring with notable advantages, including a solid base of support among African Americans and a name familiar to voters citywide.

Two of Mayor James K. Hahn's challengers stepped up their attacks on his record and ethical standards Tuesday as one proposed toughening campaign money laws and the other unveiled a plan to hire new police officers. Taking shots at Hahn from the steps of City Hall were Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, who released his ethics reform proposal, and Sherman Oaks lawyer Bob Hertzberg, who put out his police hiring plan hours later.

One voter wrote in mayoral candidate Donna Frye's name followed by three exclamation points. Another crossed out the name of her opponent, Mayor Dick Murphy, and wrote in Frye's name. A third voter scribbled "No," next to Murphy's name, and wrote Frye's name. None of those votes -- and many like them -- counted for Frye, Registrar of Voters Sally McPherson testified Tuesday, because voters failed to darken the accompanying oval as required by state law.

A judge on Wednesday upheld the November election victory of Mayor Dick Murphy, rejecting 5,551 votes for write-in candidate Councilwoman Donna Frye because people did not fill in the oval next to her name as required by state law. "I find that [the] election code ... should be given its plain meaning.... That to cast a vote you have to fill in the oval," said Superior Court Judge H. Michael Brenner from Orange County. "Those votes should not be counted. The challenge fails."

A judge ruled Friday that even if Republicans were to win their court challenge of Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire's election, he could not legally order a revote. "The court doesn't have that authority," Chelan County Superior Court Judge John E. Bridges told a packed courtroom in Wenatchee, about 100 miles east of Seattle.

The judge presiding over a GOP challenge to Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire's close election said he is not going to be rushed. The state Republican Party had suggested an April 4 trial date. But Superior Court Judge John E. Bridges said in Wenatchee that he would not set a date until both sides had completed discovery, the legal term for the exchange of information. Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi and the GOP contend that Gregoire's victory by just 129 votes out of 2.

It hasn't been much of a political honeymoon for Gov. Christine Gregoire. In a normal political atmosphere, she would have been guaranteed time to convince voters that the 9.5-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax increase she pushed through the Legislature a few days ago was the right thing to do. Before being asked to cast their ballots again, voters might have seen the fruits of her plan to ease the Puget Sound region's mind-boggling transportation problems. But this isn't a normal political world.