u 2010 Washington General Election

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Democratic incumbent Patty Murray has expanded her lead over Republican challenger Dino Rossi in the latest Washington state Senate vote totals. Read more

The tight race for U.S. Senate would have to get noticeably tighter to trigger a mandatory recount.Although tens of thousands of ballots have yet to be counted statewide, including more than 100,000 in King County alone, incumbent Democrat Patty Murray’s current lead over Republican challenger Dino Rossi (722,396 to 708,391 as of the latest election night tabulation) is beyond the one half of 1 percent margin that would trigger a mandantory machine recount under state law.A machine recount also can triggered in statewide races if the the margin between the candidates is less than 2,000 votes. … Read more

Patty Murray and Dino Rossi both think the numbers are on their side for a win in Washington’s close U.S. Senate race.Republican challenger Rossi’s campaign released a statement late Tuesday night citing his favorite statistics that would make the race go his way. Among them are that Republicans usually gain a couple percent in ballots counted after election day and that he’s doing very well in Spokane County, which still expects to count large numbers of ballots.Democratic incumbent Murray’s campaign countered just after midnight with a different analysis, noting that King County, where she was polling about 62 percent of the vote, may have as many as 350,000 votes left to count.As morning dawns Wednesday, they are separated by about 14,000 votes, or 1 percent of those counted so far. … Read more

Washington Republicans were lifted by a national tide in Tuesday’s elections, one that cost Democrats at least one of the state’s congressional seats and left a key U.S. Senate seat in doubt. Early returns indicate the tide will carry more Republicans into the still solidly Democratic-controlled Legislature in Olympia, and to the already Republican-dominated courthouse in Spokane. Because Washington votes will continue to arrive in the mail for more than a week, close races might not be decided until right before Thanksgiving. Read more

Candidates up and down the ticket scrambled for votes on Election Day. Read more

Candidates for Washington’s top electoral prize, a U.S. Senate seat that could determine which party controls that chamber of Congress for the next two years, started their full final day of the campaign at dawn, on opposite sides of the state.Republican challenger Dino Rossi had breakfast at a downtown diner, greeting the morning crowd at the counter and telling eight longtime supporters “We’re getting there.” Rossi said he tries to stop at Frank’s Diner just south of the Maple Street Bridge whenever he’s in town. … Read more

Washington’s U.S. Senate candidates spend Election Day eve attacking the Puget Sound from different directions.Republican challenger Dino Rossi started south and moved north along the I-5 corridor. He began with a morning rally in Vancouver, had a noon rally in Puyallup and a Bellevue rally in the evening.Democratic incumbent PattyMurray started north and worked her way south along the corridor. … Read more

Democratic incumbent Patty Murray and Republican challenger Dino Rossi wrapped up their road trips today as volunteers on both sides lit up phone lines and knocked on doors — even in chilling fall weather — to drum up every vote they could muster. Read more

Washington’s U.S. Senate race comes to Spokane Saturday as both Patty Murray and Dino Rossi are scheduled to make stops on their final campaign swings through the state.Murray, the Democratic incumbent, has a get out the vote bus tour across the state that starts in Spokane at 8 a.m. at Hamilton Studios, 1427 W. Dean (also known as Toad Hall, that’s the site where Democrats will be gathering in advance of the “Rally to Restore Sanity” at Riverfront Park at noon, to watch the Washington, D.C., version.) She also has a 12:30 p.m. … Read more

Three polls of Washington’s U.S. Senate race released in the last 24 hours have different numbers, but actually conclude the same thing: The race is very close.Rasmussen Research late Thursday had the race at 47 percent Dino Rossi, 46 percent Patty Murray. It’s a survey of 750 voters, has a margin of error of 4 percent. So in other words,it’s tied, although Rasmussen notes that Murray was up 49-46 in a similar poll last week.Also on Thursday, SurveyUSA had the race in an actual tie at 47 all in a poll it did for KingTV.  It’s a survey of 678 voters, with a margin of 3.8 percent.At noon today, the Washington Poll, conducted by the University of Washington, had two figures from two sets of 500 voter surveys. … Read more

The fight for Washington’s U.S. Senate seat is not just waged at rallies, in debates and on the airwaves. It’s a daily e-mail battle from the two sides trying to get attention from local and national press on their key talking points of the day. Read more

First Lady Michelle Obama tried to help get Patty Murray re-elected by telling a luncheon crowd to get “fired up.” U.S. Sen. John McCain tried to boost Republican Dino Rossi’s chances of joining him in the Senate by saying Murray “engages in a corrupt practice.” With eight days left in the election, Washington’s Senate race was dominated by surrogates Monday. Read more

First Lady Michelle Obama tried to help get Patty Murray re-elected by telling a luncheon crowd to get “fired up.” U.S. Sen. John McCain tried to boost to Republican Dino Rossi’s chances of joining him in the Senate by saying Murray “engages in a corrupt practice.” Read more

First Lady Michelle Obama campaigned for Patty Murray today in Bellevue.The Spokesman-Review didn’t send a reporter. No disrespect to the First Lady, but our closest reporter is in Olympia, and while he made the trip to Seattle for the president, and another to Tacoma earlier this month for the vice president, the accountants are startingto wonder about all this mileage he’s been racking up, plus the 2+ hours it takes to crawl up I-5 at any time between 6 a.m. … Read more

U.S. Sen. John McCain tried to give a boost to Republican Dino Rossi’s chances of joining him in the Senate by saying Democrat Patty Murray “engages in a corrput practice.”McCain stepped an inch back from calling Murray, a three-term incumbent with whom he’s had significant disagreements, corrupt.”I think (use of earmarks) is a corrupt practice. … Read more

After President Barack Obama stopped in a Seattle neighborhood for a “backyard conversation,” the Washington State Republican Party complained that this was nothing but a political event for which Sen. Patty Murray’s re-election campaign should be charged. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. The 35 or so folks gathered in the Wedgwood backyard were polite – “Seattle nice” was the phrase some local reporters used – and while several said their questions weren’t pre-approved by White House staff, many prefaced their remarks with praise for what he’s done or thanks for coming to town. Read more

After President Barack Obama stopped in a Seattle neighborhood for a “backyard conversation”, the Washington State Republican Party complained that this was nothing but a political event for which Sen. Patty Murray’s re-election campaign should be charged.Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. The 35 or so folks gathered in the Wedgwood backyard were polite – Seattle nice, was the phrase some local reporters used – and while several said their questions weren’t pre-approved by White House staff, many prefaced their remarks with praise for what he’s done or thanks for coming to town.Murray was on the deck with him, and while Obama didn’t mention her opponent Dino Rossi, he did suggest folks be skeptical of people calling for big cuts in the federal budget without saying what they’d cut. … Read more

SEATTLE – Voters should be skeptical of Republican candidates calling for smaller budgets and ask what they’d cut, President Barack Obama said Thursday. Appearing in a northeast Seattle neighborhood for a “backyard conversation” with about 35 local residents, Obama hit on two things that could be key to Washington’s U.S. Senate race: Federal spending and female voters. Read more

SEATTLE — President Barack Obama used a “backyard conversation” in a northeast Seattle neighborhood to defend his policies and ask voters to demand details from Republicans. Read more

SEATTLE — President Barack Obama said skeptical voters should challenge Republican candidates who are calling for smaller  budgets, demanding  that they explain how they’d shrink the government.Appearing in a northeast Seattle neighborhood for a “backyard conversation” with about 35 local residents, Obama defended policies his administration and Congressional Democrats have pushed through in the last 21 months. … Read more