Associated Press
SEATTLE – Sen. Slade Gorton, a fixture in Washington politics since 1958, and Maria Cantwell, who was born that year, were locked in a seesaw battle for a plum Senate seat tonight.
With more than a million votes counted, the pair was separated by just 10,000 votes – with Cantwell polling 49 percent and Gorton 48 percent. Jeff Jared, a Kirkland lawyer running on the Libertarian ticket, was far back, at 2 percent.
Republican Gorton, 72, a three-term incumbent who became a powerful budget chairman and counselor to Majority Leader Trent Lott, drew a spirited and well-heeled opponent in Cantwell, a woman 30 years his junior.
Cantwell plowed $10 million of her personal wealth into an ad-drenched, campaign that suggested Gorton was increasingly out-of-step with the electorate. Gorton retorted that he was the candidate with new ideas. He said his power and seniority serve the state well and that represents the whole state, not just Seattle.
Long after Al Gore was declared the winner in Washington and Democratic Gov. Gary Locke buttoned down another term, neither Senate candidate was declaring victory.
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