Leadership and structure at the federal and state levels continues to take shape as the week ends.

Federal
On Thursday evening Dino Rossi conceded the U.S. Senate seat  to Patty Murray. As of Thursday night, Murray led Rossi by more than 46,000 votes statewide, taking 51% to Rossi’s 49%.

Results for the 2nd Congressional District seat remain undetermined. As ofyesterday, Democrat Rep. Rick Larsen maintained a narrow lead over Snohomish County Councilman John Koster in the latest vote tallies.

Larsen trailed on Election Day by about 1,200 votes. On Thursday, he had pulled ahead by 1,451 votes, or 0.66 percent. A recount is required if the candidates are less than one-half a percentage point and fewer than 2,000 votes apart.

State
At the time of this blog, the Democrats appear to be retaining control of both the Washington House and Senate. Though no final determinations have been made for a handful of Senate and House seats.

It is also unclear whether or not a recount will be triggered. In Washington a machine recount is automatic when the difference is less than 2,000 votes and 0.5% of total votes cast for both candidates.

A manual recount is triggered when the difference is less than 1,000 votes and 0.25% of total votes cast for both candidates for statewide offices; and 150 votes and 0.25% of total votes cast for both candidates for regional and local offices.

Regardless of the outcome, the majorities in both chamber will be much smaller than in the prior biennium.