We're going to have to stick with this morning's special edition of Jolt for the day's official winners and losers: 1) Private contractors whose bid to take over the state's liquor distribution system was rejected (big losers) and 2) the liquor privatization campaign, which saw the semi-privatization move as potentially damaging to their ballot measure (big winners).

But in keeping with our Afternoon Jolt tradition, here's an honorable mention for state AG Rob McKenna.

For the second month in a row, national political blog Politico has declared advantage McKenna in the closely watched 2012 Washington State governor's race. (Politico had regularly been giving the advantage to Inslee over the summer—mistakenly, I thought—but has shifted McKenna's way so far this fall.)

They write:

3. Washington


Rep. Jay Inslee isn’t wasting any time framing state Attorney General Rob McKenna as outside the mainstream, tying him to every Republican villain from the tea party to Karl Rove. But some of the home state press corps are reading the scorched-earth tactic as a sign of unpreparedness and weakness. Appearing on PBS, Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Joel Connelly, who normally tilts to the left, eviscerated Inslee’s recent riffs on the stump, concluding there’s little evidence the Democrat has thought seriously about state issues and remarking that he has the “attention span of a hummingbird.” McKenna slightly outraised Inslee in September, allowing him to keep pace in a contest that’s already hit the $4 million mark.

Who won October: McKenna

Latest poll: McKenna 44 percent, Inslee 38 percent (The Washington Poll, Oct. 10-30, 938 registered voters)