Incumbent Sen. Patty Murray and challenger Dino Rossi are advancing to Washington’s November Senate election.

As expected, the three-term veteran Murray and Rossi, a former Republican state Senate budget chairman who ran for governor in 2004 and 2008,  easily emerged from a 15-person field in Washington’s primary Tuesday night. Although many votes remain to be tallied in the coming days, Murray had 46 percent and Rossi 34 percent as the election night tabulations were totalled.

Clint Didier, who was backed by Sarah Palin and many in the Tea Party movement, trailed at 12 percent and another conservative challenger, wealthy businessman Paul Akers, was far back at less than 3 percent.

In the only wide-open race for Congress, in the 3rd District in Southwest Washington, Denny Heck (prefers D) and Jaime Herrera (prefers R) emerged from the six-person field. Incumbent Brian Baird is retiring.

In the 1st District, incumbent Jay Inslee (prefers D) will meet James Watkins (prefers R) in November. In the 2nd, incumbent Rick Larsen (prefers D) faces a stiff challenge from John Koster (prefers R).

In the two Eastern Washington districts, both prefers-R incumbents, Doc Hastings in the 4th and Cathy McMorris-Rodgers in the 5th piled up big leads, and apparently will face Jay Clough and Daryl Romeyn, respectively.  Reps. Norm Dicks in the 6th, Jim McDermott in the 7th, Dave Reichert in the 8th and Adam Smith in the 9th led their fields.

Legislative returns pointed to some prospective gains for Republicans in both chambers.

Supreme Court Justice Jim Johnson apparently sealed his re-election by a strong showing against Stan Rumbaugh, but Justice Richard Sanders was hovering below the 50 percent mark in a three-person race and may be forced into a runoff with Charlie Wiggins. Chief Justice Barbara Madsen headed to the November ballot unopposed.

Turnout was stronger than expected, running nearly 27 percent on election night, with about 955,000 votes tallied. Typically between 50-60 percent of the eventual turnout is tallied on election night. Said state Elections Director Nick Handy:

“We could easily set a record for a mid-term primary here. People were obviously very fired up by this election. We couldn’t be happier with voter enthusiasm.”