Washington US Senator Patty Murray won a narrow victory on Thursday, surviving voters’ backlash against Democrats and ensuring that US President Barack Obama’s party will keep 53 seats in the 100-seat chamber.
Murray, for whom Obama had campaigned, claimed victory over Republican Dino Rossi after three days of tallying, preserving breathing room for the Senate’s shrunken Democratic majority.
Republicans made inroads on Tuesday and took control of the House of Representatives for the rest of Obama’s first term.
Alaska remains the only remaining undecided Senate race.
Murray’s win was secured on Thursday as tallies pushed her lead to about 46,000 votes out of more than 1.8 million counted, or about 51 percent to 49 percent. About three-quarters of the expected ballots had been counted in unofficial returns.
Hundreds of thousands of ballots still await processing, but an Associated Press analysis determined Murray’s lead would be insurmountable.
At a Thursday night news conference, Murray thanked Rossi and his family, saying he had been gracious in defeat. Murray said her priorities in a fourth term will include securing tax cuts for the middle class and helping the Boeing Co win a lucrative Air Force refueling tanker contract.
“Now we have to get to work,” Murray said. “I want to make sure Washington state has what it needs to get its economy back on its feet.”
Rossi conceded defeat in a statement issued on Thursday evening. He also called on the new-look Congress to focus on the economy and strive for cooperation.
Murray’s campaign offered a strong defense of her ability to win federal spending, even in a year when economic jitters threatened to derail that traditional strength for sitting senators. The list of projects she touted was seemingly endless: bridges, highways, veterans’ hospitals, dams, port construction and more.
Murray also sought to paint Rossi as a friend of big business, pointing to his call to repeal the Democrats’ new Wall Street regulations.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
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