Rossi, Gregoire head for rematch

By Brad Shannon | The Olympian • Published August 20, 2008

Gov. Chris Gregoire built a narrow lead over GOP challenger Dino Rossi in Tuesday's first top-two primary, setting the stage for their long-awaited November rematch.

With less than 1 million votes counted, Gregoire led Rossi by a little more than 31,000 votes in a crowded field of 10 candidates -- a far cry wider than their historic 133-vote difference in the 2004 general election.

But the next-closest challenger had less than 2 percent of the vote in an election where only Gregoire and Rossi -- whose campaigns are shattering state fundraising records -- had any chance.

Both candidates claimed a victory -- although some political observers were skeptical about what could be read into a primary result in a big presidential-election year.

Gregoire, a one-term Democrat who increased state spending on education and pushed an activist environmental and transportation-tax agenda, said the result shows that voters think she and Democrats are delivering on job creation, improving health care and public safety, and boosting education.

"Candidly, from now until November, we've got the momentum. Barack Obama is going to win Washington, and I'm going to work with him," Gregoire said from her Seattle campaign party.

She added, "I take nothing for granted."

But Rossi, the former Senate budget writer, was conceding nothing while insisting that he's going to tap into Obama voters, too, with his message of change.

He predicted that voters by November will have concerns about a predicted state budget shortfall of $2.7 billion next year, which he says will lead to higher taxes under Gregoire and the Democrats if they win.

"We're moving on to the general election. But we did considerably better than in 2004, when I got 34 percent of the (primary) vote," Rossi said by telephone from his Redmond campaign party.

"Our polling shows that for the general election … we're in a statistical dead heat."

Downplayed primary

Both candidates' parties had downplayed the importance of showing well in the primary, but the campaigns and supporters went all out in a $13 million spending frenzy that included hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of television ads in recent weeks.