In 2006 Darcy Burner came out of nowhere and transformed a race everybody thought would be a blowout by incumbent Republican Dave Reichert, into a narrow loss of only 7,000 votes, or about 5 votes per precinct, out of 250,000 votes cast.
It was the best result any Democrat has ever had in Washington State's 8th district.
Despite the setback, Darcy renewed the fight last year, getting off to an earlier start, and is probably by now already $800,000 ahead of her record fundraising pace of 2006. Much of that is due to the remarkable efforts of the netroots.
Things won't be any easier though. Her opponent is bringing in big money as well. In August of last year President Bush came to Bellevue for a fundraiser for Dave Reichert. He had also done so a year earlier and raised quite a lot of money for Reichert in 2006 from that visit, but this time the netroots fought back.
We organized a four day online fundraiser that raised $123,000 from 3200 donations, over a weekend, at the end of the summer holidays! In contrast Bush's visit seems to have raised only $135,000, and Reichert got only $35,000 of that after the state party got their cut and expenses were paid. As a consequence Darcy raised more money than Reichert that quarter. She repeated the feat in Q4, and she is now $140,000 ahead in cash on hand as of the end of last year.
As a bonus of the netroots fundraiser, her only Democratic opponent, Rodney Tom, declared shortly afterward that he was terminating his challenge and dropped out of the race.
Reichert is not the sharpest tool in the shed. The contrasts were clear at the October 2006 debates. However, ironicly he may have won the 2006 election on the strength of a sexist ad that portrayed Darcy as a ditz. Reichert is a tool of the Republicans and while he tries to take safe votes, he will always vote with the Republicans when it really matters. Unfortunately, the media always only focuses on the final passage votes and lately, while he opposes legislation every which way he can, if he needs to cast that safe vote on final passage, he will.
So now it is now six months after George Bush's second visit, and another Bush is coming to town on Wednesday. This time it is the president's wife, Laura.
I'll let Darcy explain:
Let's show the Bushes once again that we're not sitting by idly while they have their big money private fundraisers. The Burn Bush for Burner netroots drive is on once again. Our goal is the same as last time: to send a message to Reichert, Bush and other Republicans that would seek to go up against netroots candidates that there are more of us than there are of them!
Please donate now here.
(Cross posted at On The Road To 2008)