Patty Murray Has Thin Lead in Washington Senate Match-Up with Dino Rossi

Former state senator and unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi is expected to officially enter the race Wednesday against three-term Democratic Patty Murray and a new poll shows him to be a far greater threat to the incumbent than the field of declared GOP candidates.

Murray has a small 44 percent to 40 percent lead over Rossi with 12 percent undecided and the balance of voters preferring someone else, according to a University of Washington poll conducted May 3-23. The margin of error is 2.8 points. Thirty-six percent say they are certain of their support for Murray compared to 28 percent for Rossi. Each candidate has 7 percent of supporters who say they could change their mind.

One finding suggesting Murray's vulnerability despite Washington's blue-state leaning is that when matched against a generic Republican, she leads by only 42 percent to 39 percent with 14 percent undecided.

The poll did not test the already-declared Republican candidates but other surveys had her comfortably ahead in those match-ups.

Rossi lost what became the closest gubernatorial race in U.S. history in 2004 -- a race so close that he was certified as governor-elect before a hand recount reversed the outcome and awarded the seat to Democrat Christine Gregoire by 133 votes.

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