UPDATED: Gregoire, Rossi spin quickly into position for November

It happens this way in a lot of unfinished wars. Gov. Chris Gregoire and Republican challenger Dino Rossi are both spinning a tale of victory out of tonight’s primary election results.

Hey, who can blame them? After Gregoire spent $5.1 million and Rossi another $4 million, what else are they going to say? — “We wasted our dumb donors’ cash”?

You've probably looked it up yourself already, but Gregoire finished in first place but with just over a 31,000-vote advantage. Compared to their 133-vote November finish in 2004, that’s a landslide.

Moreover, Gregoire claimed victories in a pair of Eastern Washington counties, namely Asotin and Spokane, and that shows they are carving into Rossi’s turf, her spokesman Aaron Toso said.

“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 told me in a hurry-up phone call from her Seattle campaign party, adding: “I take nothing for granted. …”

Republicans’ spin was solidly in the other direction: State party chairman Luke Esser said Rossi’s finish with more than 45 percent of the vote was the highest primary share for a Republican candidate for governor in three decades.

And Rossi promised he would carve off “tens of thousands of Obama voters” attracted to his message of “change” in Olympia. he accused Gregoire of a "bitter" campaign that included attacks on his Italian heritage and his family's dog (named W after an unpopular president back when he was popular).

Not everyone was as impressed as the candidates — whose campaigns have seen $13 million spent so far. Of that, the candidates shot through $9.1 million and independent groups favoring one or the other candidate blew through another $4 million.

UPDATED at 11:50 p.m. to reflect Gregoire's larger edge in votes.

“The showing in the primary means absolutely nothing,” University of Washington political science professor John Gastil said in an email sent before the votes were counted. “I think both campaigns have shown a lack of restraint in beginning such serious ad buys at this early stage. Political insiders make hay of primary results in cases like this, where the result is a foregone conclusion, but such results are not, in fact, predictive of election outcomes.”