Gorton Holds Slim Lead in Wash. Senate Race
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Three-term
Republican Sen. Slade Gorton held a
slim lead in the hotly contested U.S.
Senate election in Washington state on
Wednesday, so far defying election night
exit polls that gave his Democratic rival
Maria Cantwell a victory. Democrats,
however, gained a U.S. House of
Representatives seat, according to official
results with their candidate Rick Larsen besting
Republican John Koster by 50.4 percent to 45.7 percent.
With just under two-thirds of the votes counted, Gorton
had 849,085 ballots, for 48.8 percent of the total, to
Cantwell"s 845,364 votes, or 48.6 percent. The race was
the last outstanding election for the U.S. Senate and will
determine whether Republicans keep their majority,
51-49, or whether the body would be split 50-50 with the
election of Cantwell. In either case, however, Republicans
would keep control. Election officials said only 1.7 million
of 2.7 million expected ballots were counted on Tuesday
night, a result of a quirky, but increasingly popular mail-in
voting option in Washington.
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