Washington race gives Dems another Senate win

Combined news services

OLYMPIA, Wash. - Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray has defeated Republican challenger Dino Rossi after a third day of vote tallying in Washington state.

In capturing her fourth term, Murray adds to the Democrats' slight cushion in the Senate after Republicans made gains there Tuesday while also seizing control of the House.

The Democrats now hold a 53-46 advantage with the Alaska Senate race yet to be decided.

As of Thursday evening, Murray was leading Rossi by more than 45,000 votes, taking 51 percent to Rossi's 49 percent. That's up from a 14,000-vote lead on Election Day.

Challenged strongly by Rossi amid anti-incumbent sentiment nationwide, Murray featured a strong defense of her role in securing federal spending, highlighting specific bridges, dams, highways and other projects she has helped deliver.

The campaign was expensive and smothered Washington airwaves with advertising - much of it sharply negative in tone. Murray spent nearly $15 million through September to Rossi's roughly $2.5 million, but a flood of outside money helped Rossi keep up.

It was Rossi's third statewide loss in six years. He nearly won the 2004 governor's race, losing by just 133 votes after a long court fight. Rossi lost a second gubernatorial race in 2008. The race was too close to call on Election Day, with thousands of ballots still not tallied in the state's slow-moving vote-by-mail process.

In Alaska, incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski's campaign remained optimistic, as vote totals showed it with just over 41 percent of the vote and a 13,500-vote advantage over Republican Joe Miller.

The current vote tally exceeded the campaign's internal projections of the 40 percent and 10,000 votes necessary to stave off any legal challenges. "We're very confident," said Murkowski spokesman Steve Wackowski.

But tens of thousands of votes also have yet to be counted in Alaska, including absentee and questionable ballots.

Although election officials originally set Nov. 18 as the date when they would begin to count the write-in and absentee ballots, Alaska Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai said they were working on a plan to start counting the write-in votes earlier if possible.

In the meantime, not even Miller's supporters were optimistic about his chances. "I think it's pretty difficult to see how they're going to make it up," said Eddie Burke, a Miller supporter and former candidate for lieutenant governor."