The Washington Poll has tested the matchup between Senator Patty Murray and newly-minted Senate candidate Dino Rossi.  Murray sports a 51%-34% approval rating, compared with 58%-39% for the President, but leads Rossi 44%-40%.

I'm not really sure what to make of this.  Obviously it is not usually good news for an incumbent to be around 44%.  Such incumbents almost never win.  But Rossi has run and lost two statewide races in the past six years; he probably doesn't benefit from the "incumbent rule" to the same extent that most challengers would.  Murray's favorables are pretty solid, as well.  Still, it shows that Murray is in for a very, very tough race.

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