Vote update

Votes are still coming in via the U.S. Mail causing leads to shrink and expand all over the state.

In the governor's race, Dino Rossi has cut Chris Gregoire's lead by a point after two more days of returns, from a four point deficit to what is now 48.8 percent for Gregoire and 45.7 percent for the Republican. He has also erased Gregoire's lead in the two Eastern Washington counties she once held, Spokane and Asotin.

Rossi has also take over Clark and Cowlitz Counties, making the updated Spokesman-Review map look a lot more red (although Gregoire does lead in Mason County despite what they show). The new map looks a lot more like the one that depicted the 2004 race, but with Gregoire taking back the key Puget Sound counties Pierce and Kitsap. However, much the Gregoire campaign's cheer on Tuesday night came from apparently winning exactly those counties that Rossi now leads.

In legislative news, Republican Marco Brown continues to lead partymate "Blue Collar" Brad Gehring for 2nd place in the 35th LD, position 2 House race, but the lead is even smaller now - a mere 24 votes. Reuven Carylye, in the 36th LD, has increased his lead over fellow Democrat John Burbank from 9 to 360 votes. And in the 8th LD, Brad Klippert has extended his lead over Skip Novakovich to 432 votes in their fight to be the Republican to take on Democrat Carol Moser in the general election.

Just for fun, here are the state's top ten vote getters, as of Friday, August 22 at 12:05 PM.

*Brian Sonntag, auditor (D): 609,310
*Sam Reed, secretary of state (R): 604,915
*Rob McKenna, attorney general (R): 579,917
*Mike Kreidler, insurance commissioner, (D): 545,525
*Brad Owen, lieutenant governor (D): 532,220
*Chris Gregoire, governor (D): 524,847
*Doug Sutherland, lands commissioner (R): 514,786
Peter Goldmark, lands commissioner (D): 496,643
Dino Rossi, governor (R): 491,662
Allan Martin, treasurer (R): 455,135

*denotes incumbent