Oregon Public Broadcasting

It looks like Washington State is in for another close governor’s race. At least if the primary election results are any indication.

With votes still being tallied Washington Governor Chris Gregoire currently has about a four percent lead over Republican challenger Dino Rossi. Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins reports.

The primary election affirms the conventional wisdom -- this rematch between Gregoire and Rossi is hotly competitive.

Gregoire’s campaign is confident when all the ballots are counted she will have won more than fifty percent of the vote. And Democratic strategist Cathy Allen is already anticipating that Gregoire’s lead will expand to five points over Rossi.

Cathy Allen: “I’m breathing a sigh of relief that we’re five percentage points ahead and I think that’s going to last given the number of votes still to come in from the greater King County area.”

But Republican strategist Randy Pepple says Gregoire underperformed in the primary.

Randy Pepple: “What is hard to explain is why someone who has had four years of relatively good economic times, has spent a lot of money trying to make a lot of people happy throughout the state isn’t doing better.”

For a little history, former Democratic Governor Gary Locke had a 20 point lead over his challenger coming out of the 2000 primary.