2004 Washington Attorney General election

2004 Washington Attorney General election

←  2000 November 2, 2004 (2004-11-02) 2008  →

Nominee Rob McKenna Deborah Senn Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 1,425,368 1,163,964 Percentage 52.98% 43.27%

County results McKenna:      40–50%     50–60%     60–70% Senn:      40–50%     50–60%

Attorney General before election Christine Gregoire Democratic Elected Attorney General Rob McKenna Republican

The 2004 Washington Attorney General election was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004, to elect the attorney general of Washington, concurrently with the 2004 U.S. presidential election, as well as elections to the U.S. Senate and various state and local elections, including for U.S. House and governor of Washington.

Incumbent Democratic Attorney General Christine Gregoire retired to run for governor. Republican King County Councilor Rob McKenna defeated Democratic former state Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn to succeed Gregoire. ^[1] Primary elections took place on September 14. ^[2]

Democratic primary

Candidates

Nominee

• Deborah Senn, former insurance commissioner of Washington (1993–2001) and candidate for U.S. Senate in 2000 ^[3]

Eliminated in primary

• Mark Sidran, former Seattle City Attorney (1990–2002) and candidate for Mayor of Seattle in 2001 ^[4]

Endorsements

Mark Sidran

Statewide officials

• Gary Locke, incumbent governor of Washington ^[4]

Polling

Poll source	Date(s) administered	Sample size [a]	Margin of error	Deborah Senn	Mark Sidran	Undecided
SurveyUSA [5]	September 10–12, 2004	471 (LV)	± 4.6%	47%	47%	6%

Results

Democratic primary results ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Deborah Senn	365,922	50.68%
	Democratic	Mark Sidran	356,125	49.32%
Total votes			722,047	100.00%

Republican primary

Candidates

Nominee

• Rob McKenna, King County Councilor (1996–2005) ^[7]

Eliminated in primary

• Mike Vaska, attorney ^[8]

Results

Republican primary results ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Rob McKenna	366,906	77.61%
	Republican	Mike Vaska	105,848	22.39%
Total votes			472,754	100.00%

Libertarian primary

Candidates

Nominee

• J. Bradley Gibson, attorney ^[9]

Results

Libertarian primary results ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Libertarian	J. Bradley Gibson	12,710	100.00%
Total votes			12,710	100.00%

General election

Endorsements

Rob McKenna (R)

Newspapers

• The Seattle Times ^[10]

Polling

Poll source	Date(s) administered	Sample size [a]	Margin of error	Deborah Senn (D)	Rob McKenna (R)	Other / Undecided
SurveyUSA [5]	October 29–31, 2004	617 (LV)	± 4.0%	43%	49%	8%

Results

2004 Washington Attorney General election ^[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Rob McKenna	1,425,368	52.98%
	Democratic	Deborah Senn	1,163,964	43.27%
	Libertarian	J. Bradley Gibson	56,792	2.11%
	Green	Paul Richmond	44,020	1.64%
Total votes			2,690,144	100.00%
	Republican gain from Democratic

By county

County [11]	Deborah Senn Democratic		Rob McKenna Republican		Various candidates Other parties		Margin		Total
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Adams	1,322	27.59%	3,340	69.71%	129	2.69%	2,018	42.12%	4,791
Asotin	3,124	38.37%	4,716	57.93%	301	3.70%	1,592	19.56%	8,141
Benton	17,716	28.49%	42,465	68.28%	2,011	3.23%	24,749	39.79%	62,192
Chelan	8,759	31.52%	18,176	65.41%	852	3.07%	9,417	33.89%	27,787
Clallam	13,938	41.34%	18,321	54.34%	1,459	4.33%	4,383	13.00%	33,718
Clark	64,613	41.53%	85,111	54.70%	5,874	3.78%	20,498	13.17%	155,598
Columbia	572	29.24%	1,331	68.05%	53	2.71%	759	38.80%	1,956
Cowlitz	19,097	48.18%	19,138	48.28%	1,405	3.54%	41	0.10%	39,640
Douglas	3,850	30.22%	8,547	67.09%	342	2.68%	4,697	36.87%	12,739
Ferry	1,114	36.19%	1,810	58.80%	154	5.00%	696	22.61%	3,078
Franklin	4,828	31.05%	10,266	66.02%	455	2.93%	5,438	34.97%	15,549
Garfield	348	28.95%	821	68.30%	33	2.75%	473	39.35%	1,202
Grant	7,252	29.46%	16,575	67.33%	789	3.21%	9,323	37.87%	24,616
Grays Harbor	11,897	44.93%	13,566	51.24%	1,014	3.83%	1,669	6.30%	26,477
Island	14,425	40.28%	20,228	56.48%	1,159	3.24%	5,803	16.20%	35,812
Jefferson	9,438	53.17%	7,503	42.27%	808	4.55%	-1,935	-10.90%	17,749
King	421,843	50.39%	383,397	45.80%	31,953	3.82%	-38,446	-4.59%	837,193
Kitsap	48,133	42.55%	60,644	53.61%	4,347	3.84%	12,511	11.06%	113,124
Kittitas	5,372	35.48%	9,213	60.85%	556	3.67%	3,841	25.37%	15,141
Klickitat	3,506	41.63%	4,540	53.91%	375	4.45%	1,034	12.28%	8,421
Lewis	9,209	30.20%	20,124	65.99%	1,161	3.81%	10,915	35.79%	30,494
Lincoln	1,507	27.71%	3,758	69.09%	174	3.20%	2,251	41.39%	5,439
Mason	9,770	41.08%	12,909	54.29%	1,101	4.63%	3,139	13.20%	23,780
Okanogan	5,399	36.03%	8,877	59.24%	710	4.74%	3,478	23.21%	14,986
Pacific	4,711	49.28%	4,411	46.14%	438	4.58%	-300	-3.14%	9,560
Pend Oreille	2,199	37.58%	3,382	57.80%	270	4.61%	1,183	20.22%	5,851
Pierce	126,703	42.42%	161,770	54.16%	10,233	3.43%	35,067	11.74%	298,706
San Juan	5,054	53.42%	3,776	39.92%	630	6.66%	-1,278	-13.51%	9,460
Skagit	20,310	40.89%	27,594	55.55%	1,767	3.56%	7,284	14.66%	49,671
Skamania	2,068	43.76%	2,363	50.00%	295	6.24%	295	6.24%	4,726
Snohomish	118,422	42.18%	152,846	54.44%	9,480	3.38%	34,424	12.26%	280,748
Spokane	73,132	38.08%	113,682	59.19%	6,254	3.26%	40,550	21.11%	193,068
Stevens	5,973	31.28%	12,280	64.30%	845	4.42%	6,307	33.02%	19,098
Thurston	43,051	40.44%	58,156	54.63%	5,254	4.94%	15,105	14.19%	106,461
Wahkiakum	850	42.78%	1,035	52.09%	102	5.13%	185	9.31%	1,987
Walla Walla	7,092	33.09%	13,665	63.76%	676	3.15%	6,573	30.67%	21,433
Whatcom	36,899	44.51%	42,061	50.74%	3,935	4.75%	5,162	6.23%	82,895
Whitman	6,612	39.83%	9,284	55.93%	704	4.24%	2,672	16.10%	16,600
Yakima	23,856	33.96%	43,687	62.18%	2,714	3.86%	19,831	28.23%	70,257
Totals	1,163,964	43.27%	1,425,368	52.98%	100,812	3.75%	261,404	9.72%	2,690,144

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

• Benton (largest city: Kennewick)
• Clallam (largest city: Port Angeles)
• Clark (largest city: Vancouver)
• Cowlitz (largest city: Longview)
• Franklin (largest city: Pasco)
• Grays Harbor (largest city: Abderdeen)
• Island (largest city: Oak Harbor)
• Kitsap (largest city: Bremerton)
• Kittitas (largest city: Ellensburg)
• Mason (largest city: Shelton)
• Pend Oreille (largest city: Newport)
• Pierce (largest city: Tacoma)
• Skagit (largest city: Mount Vernon)
• Skamania (largest city: Carson)
• Snohomish (largest city: Everett)
• Spokane (largest city: Spokane)
• Thurston (largest city: Lacey)
• Wahkiakum (largest city: Puget Island)
• Whatcom (largest city: Bellingham)
• Whitman (largest city: Pullman)
• Yakima (largest city: Yakima)

Notes

1. Key:
   A – all adults
   RV – registered voters
   LV – likely voters
   V – unclear

References

1. https://www.seattlepi.com/seattlenews/article/mckenna-commands-solid-lead-1158375.php
2. https://www.seattlepi.com/seattlenews/article/attorney-general-senn-takes-slim-lead-in-race-to-1154166.php
3. https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2003/dec/02/four-running-for-ag/
4. https://www.seattlepi.com/seattlenews/article/sidran-runs-for-attorney-general-1140395.php
5. SurveyUSA
6. Reed, Sam (September 14, 2004). "Elections Search Results September 2004 Primary Attorney General". Secretary of State of Washington . Retrieved January 15, 2026.
7. https://columbiabasinherald.com/news/2004/jun/17/mckenna-hopes-to-become-the-peoples-attorney-2/
8. https://www.seattlepi.com/seattlenews/article/issaquah-lawyer-to-run-for-attorney-general-1131073.php
9. https://www.sos.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2022-05/Voters_Pamphlet_2004.pdf ^{[ bare URL PDF ]}
10. Editorial Board, The Seattle Times (October 31, 2004). "The Seattle Times endorses ..." The Seattle Times . Retrieved January 15, 2026.
11. Reed, Sam (November 2, 2004). "Elections Search Results November 2004 General Attorney General". Secretary of State of Washington . Retrieved January 15, 2026.