For Bainbridge Island and North Kitsap’s legislators, the 2002 election was just like 2000, only more so.

Incomplete returns show Congressman Jay Inslee and incumbent legislators Phil Rockefeller and Beverly Woods leading their challengers, in each case by a larger margin than in their victories two years ago.

And while the county elections department Friday still had to count some 16,000 ballots from the areas in question, Kitsap County Auditor Karen Flynn did not expect the results to change.

“The late absentees can change the results in a very close race, and maybe move things one or two points,” Flynn said, “but I would be very surprised if the outcome of any of these races changes.”

U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee (D-1st District) prevailed over Republican challenger Joe Marine, logging 56 percent of the vote to 41 percent for Marine and 3 percent for Libertarian Mark Wilson.

Two years ago, he fended off a challenge from State Senate Majority Leader Dan MacDonald, winning 54-44 percent.

In one sense, Inslee’s victory this year may have been even easier than the numbers suggest, because he did not run a high-profile, media-oriented campaign.

“Winning with that margin without any TV or print advertising is very gratifying, particularly with the way things went south nationally,” the island resident said.

Inslee ran slightly stronger in Kitsap County than in the district at large. Voters in North Kitsap and on Bainbridge Island – the portions of the 1st Congressional District in Kitsap County – favored the incumbent by 58 percent.

The bulk of the district is in northern and eastern King County and southern Snohomish County.

This will be Inslee’s third term representing the 1st District and fourth term in Congress overall. He was elected to Congress from the Yakima area in 1992.

In the 23rd Legislative District, island Democrat Phil Rockefeller earned re-election over Bremerton auto-shop owner Don Large by a 60-40 margin, topping the 55-41 victory he registered two years ago over Phil Rasmussen of Poulsbo.

Despite the challenges facing the legislature, including a deficit of as much as $2.8 billion for the next biennium, Rockefeller said he looks forward to the session.

“I’m by nature an optimist,” he said. “These are issues that can be managed and we’ll do our best.”

In the other 23rd District race, Republican Beverly Woods led fellow Poulsbo resident Sherry Appleton by 51.3 to 48.5 percent, which translated to 730 votes.

Woods was confident Thursday that the outstanding ballots would not upset her lead.

Although the numbers are close, Flynn did not expect late absentee ballots to change the outcome of that race.

“It would take a complete reversal of the trend, which you sometimes see if there has been a late effort to get out the vote,” she said. “But I haven’t seen anything happening this year to lead me to suspect the absentee votes will be very different from the ballots we have counted.”

In a season that featured prominent negative campaigns in Kitsap, Woods attributed her success in part to staying out of the fray.

“I’m extremely happy with my campaign, my volunteers and the people who put my campaign together,” she said. “I’m very happy my campaign was a very clean campaign and I think the people are speaking loud and clear in re-electing me.

“Now, I’m just concentrating on transportation and budget and things like that – things I’ll be dealing with in the legislature.”

Appleton described herself as being “cautiously optimistic” about remaining ballots.

Campaign volunteers, she said, ran the best campaign possible.

“I actually have no regrets,” Appleton said. “There’s nothing I would have changed.”

Based on mid-day Friday returns, Rockefeller said it appears that the Democrats will hold the majority in the 98-member House, perhaps with as many as 52 seats.

Democratic House members will caucus next weekend in Port Ludlow, to elect their leadership and map out a plan for what Rockefeller called “the challenging months ahead.”

A critical item on his personal agenda will be to get in touch with Mike Thorne, CEO of Washington State Ferries, to say he does not interpret voter rejection of the Referendum 51 transportation package as a criticism.

“I don’t want him to think that this means his leadership is not wanted or needed,” Rockefeller said.

Nationally, Inslee said the election should serve as a wake-up call for Democrats, who lost control of the U.S. Senate and lost seats in the House of Representatives.

Normally, the party not occupying the White House makes substantial gains in off-year elections.

“Democrats shouldn’t try to gild the lily at all – this is a major victory for the president,” Inslee said.

He rejected any explanation that the election was a vindication for Bush’s economic or environmental policies, both of which Inslee criticized.

“I think there were two factors at play,” he said. “First, the strong psychological impact of the Sept. 11 attacks caused the country to rally around the commander in chief.

“Second, we bear some responsibility for not having defined the Democratic proposals and drawing distinctions. Some of our leaders did not draw clear enough lines in the sand.”

Inslee said he supports California’s Nancy Pelosi for House minority leader, not because of her liberal ideology, but because “she has been successful in defining our positions. It is an issue of clarity.”

Carrina Galloway of the North Kitsap Herald contributed to this report.