Stage set for showdown between Patty Murray and Dino Rossi

EVERETT -- A day that began with a presidential visit ended with voters putting Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and Republican Dino Rossi on course for a showdown in November.

Murray received 46 percent of the vote in early primary results Tuesday with Rossi a clear second with 34 percent. Republican Clint Didier, a favorite of tea partiers, is running in third with about 12 percent.

"This is just a first step on the road to victory," Murray said.

It won't be an easy road to a fourth term for the state's first female senator. This may be the most unfriendly political environment she's faced, with voters frustrated by the slow economy, high unemployment and generally irritated with incumbent lawmakers.

Rossi, a former state senator and two-time candidate for governor who didn't enter the race until late May, is hoping to surf this wave of voter discontent into Congress.

While Didier garnered the backing of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, he simply could not raise the money needed to make his name as well-known to Republican voters.

"It's pretty much what we thought," Rossi said. "The fact is Patty Murray is vulnerable. I don't think the president was ever interested or planning on being here on the 17th of August."

Obama's four-hour visit -- his first to the state since his own election -- began at a bakery in Seattle where he talked of how his administration is working to help small businesses succeed.

He ate half a turkey sandwich and a small salad with berries as he chatted with Gillian Allen-White, one of the bakery owners, hotel owner Tiffany Turner, of Long Beach, and Joe Fugere, founder of Tutta Bella Neapolitan Pizzeria in the city. Also at the table were Murray and U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.

From there he headlined two fundraisers that pulled in an estimated $1.3 million to be split between Murray's re-election campaign and the state Democratic Party.

He thrilled a crowd of 1,400 inside the Westin Hotel as he described his administration's efforts to move the country forward on health care, energy, education and reform of financial institutions and jabbed at Republicans for trying to reverse course to restore Bush Administration policies.

"When you want to move forward, you put your car in D," Obama said, to a round of laughs. "When you want to go backward, you put it in R. …. That's not a coincidence."

He ended his trip with a fundraiser with 60 people at the home of RealNetworks founder Rob Glaser.

While the president didn't mention Rossi by name, he left no doubt he considered Murray's fall opponent to be on the same page as the Republican leadership in Congress.

"They voted en masse against Wall Street reform -- and now Patty Murray's opponent has earned the distinction of being the first candidate in the country to call for repeal of Wall Street reform," Obama said.

"He wants to go back to the old rules and the lack of oversight that caused the worst crisis since the Great Depression. Don't you think that's strange?" he said.

Rossi spokeswoman Jennifer Morris responded: "If someone as eloquent as President Obama can't defend (Murray's) 18-year record of spending, taxing and growing government, who can?"