Sen. Patty Murray Keeps Seat in Washington State

Democrats have managed to hang on to another Senate seat. Patty Murray has won the tight race in Washington state against GOP challenger Dino Rossi following a third day of vote counting. Challenged strongly by Rossi amid anti-incumbent sentiment nationwide, Murray featured a strong defense of her role in securing federal spending, highlighting specific bridges, dams, highways, and other projects she has helped deliver.

In the Senate, that leaves only one race undecided, in Alaska. Write-in ballots accounted for 41% of the votes counted so far, with most of them presumably belonging to Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski—the most prominent of some 160 registered write-in candidates. Republican Joe Miller trailed with 34.2% of the vote. Election officials set Nov. 10 as the date for counting write-in ballots. (More Election 2010 stories.)