SEATTLE – Former Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn, a Democrat whose tough stances against big companies have drawn attack ads from pro-business groups, took on Republican Rob McKenna, a King County Councilman considered a rising GOP star, in the race for attorney general Tuesday.
McKenna was leading in early returns from around the state. With 24 percent of precincts reporting, he had collected 52 percent of the votes to Senn’s 45 percent.
State schools chief Terry Bergeson was ahead in early returns Tuesday night, leading her predecessor and challenger by 56 percent to 44 percent.
With 12 percent of precincts reporting from around the state, Bergeson had 486,152 votes to 383,128 for Judith Billings.
The race centered on controversy over the test at the heart of Washington’s education reform efforts. Bergeson helped develop and refine the Washington Assessment of Student Learning before and during her two four-year terms as superintendent of public instruction.
Billings, who stepped down from the job in 1996 after an AIDS diagnosis, believes the test has become too important and should be only one part of a broader assessment. Now, her illness in check, she sought her old job back.
The WASL, a test of reading, writing and math, is given in the fourth, seventh and 10th grades. Most of this year’s ninth-graders will have to pass the 10th-grade test to graduate from high school.
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