Washington: Kevin Parker

Almost $22 million was spent by independent parties on behalf of candidates in this year’s election, about ten percent of which was done at the legislative district level.

Leading the charge were three of the Republicans top challengers. Outside interests spent $172,548 on Kevin Parker’s (R-Spokane) behalf in the 6th District and $147,143 on Jan Angel (R-Port Orchard) in the 26th. Both won their races to become the first Republicans in years to take back a Democratic seat.

The same trend that saw Dino Rossi close the gubernatorial primary's 4 point election night gamp down to less than two is guiding state Republicans toward gains in Olympia.

Despite being down by narrow margins in most competitive races on November 4, late vote tallies have either closed the gap or erased it completely in a handful of state races that could results in a net gain of a handful of state House seats for the GOP.

Everyone is a pundit these days, telling anyone who will listen who they think will win the governor’s races, the 8th Congressional District race, the presidency and their own local elections. So PolitickerWA.com decided to help fan the flames of the state of punditry by giving some prominent political people a venue in which to share their prediction skills.

PolitickerWA.com received predictions on a handful of important races across the state from a number of elected officials, staffers, bloggers and academics. See what they had to say below.

Two weeks ago in Denver, Washington state Speaker of the House Frank Chopp (D-Seattle) remained hopeful of the Democrats' long term strategy for maintaining a large House majority, but after August's "top two" primary, House Republicans are as hopeful as ever.