Washington Elects Asian-American Governor

SEATTLE (Allpolitics, Nov. 6) -- CNN projections Tuesday night showed that Democrat Gary Locke has won the race to be Washington's 20th governor. He will fill the job of retiring Democratic Gov. Mike Lowry.

Locke, a son of Chinese immigrants, rose from public housing to political power. He becomes the state's first Asian-American governor and the first Asian-American governor outside of Hawaii. The longtime Seattle legislator won support from teachers' groups by strongly supporting education throughout his political career. He is widely viewed as an expert on fiscal issues.

Locke's competition, Republican candidate and former state senator Ellen Craswell, enjoyed strong support from conservative Christians and the Christian Coalition. But her support statewide never developed; ever since September's Democratic primary, Locke has shown a commanding lead in most polls.

Nevertheless, Craswell said she would not concede until most of the votes were tallied. With six percent of the vote counted, Locke had 57 percent to Craswell's 45 percent. "This is a pretty big spread, but we still believe in miracles," Craswell said.

Craswell called herself a conservative "radical" and pledged to slash the size, cost and reach of government. Locke said Craswell's views were too extreme for the moderate state.

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