Gregoire takes lead over Rossi
67 percent of Grant County voted for Republican challenger
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) _ Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire leads Republican Dino Rossi in a rematch of their historically close 2004 election.
With about 48 percent of the expected ballots counted Tuesday, Gregoire had about 53 percent of the vote, or 755,275 votes, compared to Rossi's 47 percent, or 674,445 votes.
Gregoire said the campaign had been "a long haul."
"I was ready to wait, but it's sure a lot better to hear tonight," she said in Seattle.
Gregoire, a former state attorney general, emerged the victor in their 2004 contest by the closest percentage margin of any governor's race in U.S. history - just 133 votes out of about 2.8 million cast, after two recounts and an unsuccessful Republican court challenge.
Gregoire thanked supporters at the Westin hotel in Seattle in a speech, saying she looked forward to working with president-elect Barack Obama in January.
"The blue wave has swept into Washington and helped her candidacy," independent pollster Stuart Elway said.
Rossi refused to concede, with his spokesperson saying the campaign was waiting to see later returns.
"At this hour, fewer than 50 percent of ballots have been counted statewide," Rossi
spokeswoman Jill Strait said in a statement. "We saw in 2004 and again in the primary this year that later votes cast and counted trended heavily toward Dino Rossi. If that happens again in this general election the results will change."
Gregoire was ahead Tuesday in 16 of the state's 39 counties, including eight counties that she lost in 2004.
That included Snohomish County, which she lost by 6,400 votes in 2004. With more than half of that county's vote counted Tuesday night, Gregoire was leading Rossi by more than 20,000 votes.
Four years ago, Rossi took an early lead on Election Night, and was ahead 681 votes at the end of the night. Gregoire jumped ahead of him in the following days, but 15 days after Election Day, it appeared he had beaten Gregoire by 261 votes. A machine recount narrowed the lead to just 42 votes.
A second recount, done by hand and paid for by state Democrats, put Gregoire ahead by 129 votes. Rossi sued, but Gregoire was inaugurated and the court challenge ultimately failed, although the judge threw out four illegally cast votes for Rossi, raising Gregoire's margin of victory to 133.
"I think people came into this race with the frame of mind of the last race," Elway said. "Everyone expected it to be a 133-vote race, but it was never going to be that."
One major difference this year is the absence of a third-party candidate to siphon votes.
In 2004, Libertarian Ruth Bennett got more than 2 percent of the vote in November, about 63,000 votes.
Voting began in mid-October. Because the vast majority of voters cast mail ballots, many of which come in on or after Election Day, many were expecting that a final result might not have been known for days.
But Matt Barreto, a political scientist at the University of Washington, said that Gregoire did much better this time in Eastern Washington, and in other swing counties like Pierce and Snohomish.
"Looking at the data reported so far, I cannot see a way for Rossi to win," Barreto said.
Rossi and Gregoire have raised more than $20 million combined in the most expensive election in Washington history. That amount doesn't include the millions spent by third-party groups on TV ads and mailers, most of them negative in tone.
The state economy, a projected $3.2 billion budget deficit, and the issue of taxes dominated the race.
Brad Baldwin, owner of a small wine and gift shop in downtown Yakima, said a vote for Rossi was a vote for change. He said he has the same worries as everyone else: "the economy, too much taxes, too much government."
But retired Seattle resident Reyhan Bray, 67, said she didn't hold the projected deficit against Gregoire.
"Everybody's economy is bad right now," she said.