The candidates for governor were in a tight race late Tuesday, with Democrat Christine Gregoire clinging to a small lead over Republican Dino Rossi.
It’s likely that the race will not be decided until absentee and challenged ballots are counted. Snohomish County plans to count ballots again on Friday.
The race is one of the costliest gubernatorial campaigns in state history. Entering the final week of campaigning, Gregoire had spent $5.6 million and Rossi $5.67 million.
Neither candidate conceded late Tuesday. Both told their supporters they were optimistic, but didn’t expect results for several more days.
“The counties that favor Dino Rossi have already come in, and we’re ahead in the larger counties, and that will grow,” Gregoire spokesman Morton Brilliant said.
Gregoire was watching returns with her family and top aides. “She’s upbeat,” Brilliant said.
The Rossi camp also was upbeat.
“We’re still optimistic,” said Rossi spokeswoman Janelle Guthrie. “A lot of counties haven’t reported yet, and we believe they will be trending our way. We also did the traditional chase of absentee ballots and Dino worked on get-out-the-vote calls.”
Early results showed Gregoire, the state’s attorney general since 1992, leading Rossi, a former state senator. The seat was up for grabs after Democratic Gov. Gary Locke chose not to seek a third term.
If Rossi wins, he would be the first Republican to win a gubernatorial election was John Spellman in 1980. If Gregoire wins, she would be the state’s fourth straight Democrat since Booth Gardner in 1984.
Gregoire, 57, of Lacey in Thurston County, announced her campaign for governor last year. The former director of Department of Ecology was elected attorney general in 1992, 1996 and 2000.
As attorney general, she aggressively pursued cases involving the safety of workers at the Hanford nuclear waste site, and online sex predators. Her biggest legal win came in 1998 when she helped engineer a national settlement between tobacco conglomerates and several states. She gained national praise, and Washington won a $4.5 billion share of the outcome.
In the primary, and again in the general election, Gregoire faced strong criticism for her office’s handling of a high-profile case in which three developmentally disabled men sued after being abused in a state-licensed facility. Her office missed the deadline to file an appeal in the case, and that resulted in the state paying $18.5 million to the men.
Many considered Rossi, 44, of Sammamish in King County, as the GOP’s best chance to win since Spellman.
Rossi is a commercial real estate salesman who served seven years in the Legislature. As chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee in 2003, he helped write and pass the current state budget.
Rossi enjoyed strong support early from President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, and won late endorsements from several newspapers in vote-rich Western Washington, including The Herald.
Facing no opponent in the primary, Rossi campaigned on a theme that he would be an agent of change to bring a friendlier attitude toward business to state government and end the Democratic Party’s two-decade hold on the governor’s seat.
Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@ heraldnet.com.
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