WASHINGTON — Sen. Maria Cantwell was still working the Senate dining room right up until yesterday's vote on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Cantwell was just finishing lunch when she spied Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. "Hey, chick," Cantwell called, as she left her seat and ran to Landrieu's side.

Cantwell needed one more vote to produce a 50-50 tie, and she walked Landrieu into the Senate and hovered during the tally.

In the end, Landrieu, whose constituents include major oil companies, voted to permit drilling. Though Cantwell lost her ANWR budget fight 51-49, she may come out of this a winner, say members of both parties.

Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate Democratic leader, tapped Cantwell to lead the ANWR fight. But it was Cantwell tapping Reid the night before the vote, urging him to put pressure on uncertain Democrats.

Cantwell, a first-term senator, is considered even by members of her own party one of the most vulnerable senators up for re-election in 2006. This was the most high-profile issue on which she has taken the lead.

The ANWR drilling budget amendment was debated within the party as an issue on which Democrats would either solidly unite or cede more ground, symbolically as well as literally, to the GOP majority. If Cantwell could not win, it was crucial that she not lose by a large margin.

Cantwell addressed the Senate five times in the 24 hours before the vote, including late the night before. She made one last plea yesterday morning, saying, "If you decide to drill in Alaska, what will stop the administration from doing this in other parts of the country?"

In the end, she lost only Landrieu and the two Democrats from Hawaii, Daniel Akaka and the veteran Daniel Inouye. Inouye has been Cantwell's mentor and friend since she came to the Senate in 2000. But he has been friends much longer with the Republican who led the ANWR drilling fight, Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.

ANWR opponents have limited options, but with such a close vote, it is likely they will try again to block the measure later this spring.

Alicia Mundy: 202-662-7457 or amundy@seattletimes.com