Senn maintains lead; McKenna dumps Vaska

SEATTLE – Apparently unharmed – and perhaps helped – by $1.4 million worth of attack ads paid for by big business, lawyer and consumer activist Deborah Senn was leading late Tuesday night in the race to become the Democratic candidate for attorney general.

Late Tuesday, Senn had 54 percent, to fellow Democrat Mark Sidran’s 46 percent.

“The voters of this state have really rejected the lies, distortion and smear tactics of the special interests,” Senn said at her party at a Seattle Italian restaurant.

Sidran said he was hoping to be buoyed by later returns in his strongest areas: Puget Sound’s large counties.

“It’s still a very close election,” he said.

On the Republican ballot, three-term King County Councilman Rob McKenna easily beat “superlawyer” Mike Vaska, 77 percent to 23 percent. McKenna was the party’s pick from the start, and Vaska trailed him in name recognition and money.

McKenna campaigned on a law-and-order platform, saying he’d also work to ensure that state agencies don’t exceed their authority. Vaska appealed to voters’ pocketbooks, saying that lawsuits and settlements are costing state taxpayers millions of dollars a year.

“Rob McKenna has run a good campaign. He’s obviously raised a lot of money,” Vaska said as the first returns rolled in, showing him far behind. “When I started this race, I never underestimated the challenge.”

The Democratic primary was thrown a curve ball late in the campaign, when the United States Chamber of Commerce secretly bankrolled more than $1.4 million in ads attacking Senn. In her second term as state insurance commissioner, Senn in 1997 agreed to suspend most of a $700,000 settlement with Prudential Insurance if the company paid the salaries and benefits for four new staffers for Senn’s office. Senn defended the decision, saying the workers were hired to help oversee Prudential’s subsequent behavior.