But the margin was not enough to draw many conclusions about the possible outcome of November’s highly anticipated rematch of the dramatic 2004 election.

Incumbent schools superintendent Terry Bergeson also was leading her challenger, former state Rep. Randy Dorn. Dorn mounted an aggressive campaign to unseat the three-term incumbent, and will move on as expected to campaign against Bergeson in November.

And in the race for attorney general, incumbent Republican Rob McKenna and Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg were on track to finish one-two, meaning both will advance to the general election. McKenna was leading Ladenburg statewide late Tuesday, and also had a slight lead in Ladenburg’s home county of Pierce in early returns.

The top two-style election – where the top two vote-getters advance to the general election regardless of party affiliation – added some pre-election intrigue to an otherwise lackluster primary. But it failed to deliver any major twists.

In the treasurer race, where it appeared for a while that two Democrats might receive the most votes and move on to the general election, it appeared late Tuesday that it would be a traditional ballot in November. Republican Allan Martin, the current assistant state treasurer, and Democrat Jim McIntire, a state representative and university professor, were leading Democrat ChangMook Sohn.

Before the election, both gubernatorial campaigns issued statements aimed at lowering expectations.

On Tuesday, they both declared success.

Rossi said he made a “strong showing” and was in better shape now than he was following the 2004 primary election. “To put these results into perspective, during the 2004 campaign I received just 34 percent of the vote in the primary,” Rossi said in a statement issued at a point in the evening when he had more than 45 percent of the vote.

“Fewer than half of the voters who will vote in November cast their ballots in the primary,” Rossi said.

Gregoire’s campaign did not plan on issuing a formal statement, but spokesman Aaron Toso said the governor was doing well “in all four corners of the state, including places where she didn’t do very well last time around.”

Gregoire was ahead of Rossi in Spokane, Snohomish and Asotin counties, as well as King and Pierce – where she lost by 4 percentage points in 2004.

“It’s early,” Toso said Tuesday night. “We expect the margin to be growing in the next couple of days.”

Just as in the governor’s race, McKenna and Ladenburg both said the demographics of primary voters favored their opponent. And they both claimed to be pleased with Tuesday’s results.

“Clearly it’s better to be in the lead,” said McKenna, who was ahead by 13 percent at one point late Tuesday. “These primaries always favor Democratic candidates.”

McKenna said the results “validated the work I’ve done on issues like methamphetamine, domestic violence, identity theft and mortgage fraud.”

Ladenburg said he was in good shape considering that he had not spent much money yet and considering that primary elections favor Republicans.

“I’m kind of surprised we’re doing this well,” he said.

Ladenburg said he was looking forward to a vigorous campaign. “We’re ready to go. Maybe the media and the public will start paying more attention to (McKenna’s) record.”

In other statewide races:

 • Secretary of State: Sam Reed, the Republican incumbent, was leading Democrat Jason Osgood in a four-person race.

 • Auditor: Brian Sonntag, the Democratic incumbent, was leading Republican Dick McEntee by a comfortable margin in a three-person race.

 • Commissioner of Public Lands: Incumbent Republican Doug Sutherland – the former Pierce County executive and Tacoma mayor – and Democrat Peter Goldmark, the only other name on the ballot, were within a few percentage points of each other.

 • Insurance commissioner: Incumbent Democrat Mike Kreidler was leading the three-person race, and Republican challenger John Adams was in second place.

 • Lieutenant governor: Incumbent Democrat Brad Owen and Republican challenger Marcia McCraw were leading a five-person race and were expected to advance to the general election.

Jason Hagey: 253-597-8542

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