The room rumbled on Tuesday night at the Westin Hotel in Seattle as a crowd of Democratic supporters cheered for Governor Christine Gregoire in unison, “Four more years! Four more years!”
The room erupted in applause as a confident Gregoire took the stage to address her supporters at the rally after major news organizations declared her the winner over Republican Dino Rossi. With about 48 percent of the expected ballots counted, she had about 53 percent of the vote, or 755,275 votes, compared to Rossi’s 47 percent (674,445).
“All the negative ads are done,” Gregoire said and went on to thank Rossi for running and for all he has done for Washington. “It is time for us to come together as one great state,” she said.
Gregoire thanked voters for braving the long lines throughout election day and said, “As one Washington, we will work our way through those tough times and we will be better and we will be stronger. We are building a new economy and it is going to be a green, clean economy.”
Gregoire was joined on stage by U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both Democrats. The two congratulated Gregoire on her win and also predicted fellow Democrat Darcy Burner would defeat U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert in their 8th District contest.
Burner and Reichert were neck-and-neck race as the votes were counted. By Wednesday afternoon, Reichert led by about 600 votes.
The 8th District covers most of eastern King County, including Covington, Maple Valley and Black Diamond, and parts of Pierce County.
Two years ago, Burner lost to Reichert by 3 percent.
In the rematch between Gregoire and Rossi (Gregoire won in recounts in 2004), Washington State Republican Party chairman Luke Esser told supporters that Rossi had no plans of conceding defeat on election night.
Rossi addressed his supporters at the Bellevue Hyatt around 10 p.m., saying, “We can be proud of this, win lose or draw. We have shaken the Olympia establishment to its core. We’ve seen clearly in the past few weeks that they are terrified – not of me, but of you, the voters.”
The Bellevue Reporter contributed to this report.
