was reduced to 129 votes. Washington's Republican leadership then filed suit, claiming that hundreds of votes, including votes by felons, deceased voters, and double voters, had been counted, but on June 6, 2005, Judge John E. Bridges ruled that the Republican Party had not provided enough evidence that the disputed votes were ineligible—or for whom they were cast—to overturn the election. On October 28, 2004, the Seattle Times reported that out-of-state donors were contributing heavily to Gregoire's campaign. Trial lawyers who had worked closely with Gregoire on the 1998 tobacco settlement gave the Democratic Governors Association more than $1,000,000. According to the Times'''s analysis, nearly half of Gregoire's 2004 campaign contributions came from out of state. 2008 gubernatorial election During the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton heavily lobbied Gregoire for her endorsement as a superdelegate. Gregoire officially endorsed Obama on February 8, 2008, hours before an event at KeyArena in Seattle where she introduced him before a crowd of 18,000 people. The Washington caucuses were held the next day; Obama beat Clinton in every county. Gregoire began her reelection campaign at her late mother's former employer, the Rainbow Café in Auburn, Washington, on April 7, 2008. Immediately after her announcement, she began a biodiesel bus tour of the state. Her opponent in the race, Dino Rossi, had announced his candidacy in October 2007. Gregoire and Rossi fast approached fundraising records early in their campaigns. In April, Gregoire hosted a fundraiser with Bill Richardson at the Seattle Westin that netted the campaign over $300,000. In July, she held another large fundraiser with Michelle Obama at the WaMu Theater, with 1,600 attendees raising over $400,000. The Seattle Times reported that Gregoire gave cost-of-living increases to state employees who hadn't received raises in "many years", and funded voter-approved initiatives to raise the pay of schoolteachers, all groups that gave money to her 2004 recount campaign. Gregoire won Washington's first ever top two primary on August 19, 2008, with 49% of the vote. She advanced to the general election against Rossi. The general election was expected to be close, but Gregoire benefited from large turnout among Democrats to vote for Obama in the concurrent presidential election and won with 53% of the vote. There was a marked geographical split in the 2008 election: the more populous and Democratic-leaning Western Washington counties supported Gregoire, while the less populous and more