Sen. Patty Murray holds lead, too close to call Senate race (watch live results here)

WASHINGTON STATE -- Democratic Sen. Patty Murray has held her toughest re-election contest yet, holding a small but clear lead over Republican Dino Rossi as mail-in ballots trickled into county elections offices.

Click here for up-to-the minute live results of the race.

This is not the first time Washington State has had to wait for winners in a major election. In 2004, Rossi’s campaign for governor didn’t end until the following summer, and in 2000 Democrat Maria Cantwell beat Republican Sen. Slade Gorton by about 2,000 votes after a re-count.

The Murray-Rossi  2010 contest is not in that league but it is too close to call.

KING 5 News reported that with more than half the expected ballots counted, Murray led with about 50.5 percent to Rossi's 49.5 percent. Her margin was about 14,000 votes out of more than 1.4 million already counted.

Rossi was leading in Pierce County in late returns Tuesday while Murray was leading in King and Snohomish Counties.

Murray sounded very confident she would win.

"We are winning tonight," said Murray. "And we are going to win even bigger tomorrow. We are going to win this race."

Rossi thanked supporters who were aware they probably weren't going to know who won Tuesday night.

"Unfortunately, we don't know what's going to happen in this race yet," Rossi told supporters in Bellevue. "There's still a lot of ballots to count, you know. But it's Washington state. What are you going to do?"

"The good news is that the areas we do quite well in have a bigger turnout," said Rossi. "but, we got a lot of counting still to do."

If the Murray-Rossi contest is too close to call on Tuesday and control of the Senate remains in question, then all eyes would turn to Washington State.

Rossi’s argument against Murray is that she’s a tax-and-spend liberal and touts himself as a successful real-estate investor and former state legislative budget writer to show he’d be better at controlling federal spending and aiding the economy.

Murray has spent about $15 million on her campaign, Rossi has spent about $2.5 million.

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Source: KING 5 News, CNN State Results