Search Results for: Dave Reichert

The second quarter fundraising period ends tonight at midnight, and Darcy Burner is still $7,000 short of her goal. The further we put her over the top, the easier it will be for Burner to raise money in the third quarter, and money has become more important to this race than ever now that Dave Reichert has Karl Rove and President Bush pulling out all the stops on his behalf.

So please give now, directly via Burner’s website, or through my Act Blue page. And while you’re at it, be sure to drop a few bucks into the campaign of 5th Congressional District Democratic challenger Peter Goldmark.

Goldmark is the real deal. Let’s help give him a real chance at winning in November.

Tomorrow is the end of the fundraising quarter and Darcy Burner is still $30,000 short of her goal. What with the huge amounts of cash President Bush has already pumped into Dave Reichert’s campaign, Burner’s ability to raise money becomes more important than ever, and big donors will be watching closely to see if she continues to build momentum.

No longer able to promote himself by abusing his congressional franking privileges, Reichert is no doubt preparing to hit the airwaves with his first round of advertising. How well Burner will be able to weather the inevitable attacks partially depends on how much she can spend in response.

So if you haven’t already given to Burner, or you plan to give more, now would be a great time to open your wallet. Please contribute directly via Burner’s website, or through my Act Blue page.

And if you do go to my Act Blue page you will notice that I have added a second candidate, 5th Congressional District Democratic challenger Peter Goldmark. I’m pretty damn stingy with my call to actions, but Goldmark is the real deal, and with a big enough Democratic wave he really does stand a chance of winning if he can afford to get his name, face and message out in front of voters.

So please give generously to Burner and Goldmark. And give now.

It was hot. It was muggy. It was the end of a very long day. So what better way to cool down than to dive into the politics of personal destruction? Both freshman King County Councilman Raymond Shaw Reagan Dunn (who Seattle P-I columnist Joel Connelly referred to as "the Dunn Dauphin") and freshman Rep. Dave Reichert provided amusing fodder for our sodden antics.

Joining me and Joel in reasoned, objective political discourse were Mollie, Will, Carl and Daniel. Topics of discussion included Shaw’s Dunn’s self-published King County Guide to Do-It-Yourself Identity Theft, the empty head underneath Reichert’s impressive hair and how that impacts the race for the 8th CD, the impressive cowboy hat atop the equally impressive head of Peter Goldmark and how that could help Democrats win in Eastern Washington… and the need for a Democratic blogger out in Eastern WA to help make that happen.

The show is 55:49, and is available here as a 36.3 MB MP3. Please visit PodcastingLiberally.com for complete archives and RSS feeds.

[Recorded live at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. Special thanks to Confab creators Gavin and Richard for producing the show.]

Reporter Neil Modie takes down King County Councilman Raymond Shaw Reagan Dunn in this morning’s Seattle P-I… and it’s well deserved.

If identity thieves needed assistance plundering King County’s records for sensitive personal data about its citizens, County Councilman Reagan Dunn may have unwittingly helped them out Monday.

Dunn held a news conference to call attention to the fact that the county Records, Elections and Licensing Services Division posts documents containing Social Security numbers and other personal data online for “potentially thousands of current and former King County residents.”

[…]

Sandeep Kaushik, a spokesman for King County Executive Ron Sims, Logan’s boss, added, “Here’s a situation where there’s no indication that any kind of identity theft has occurred before, and now there’s a public announcement out there drawing people’s attention to it.”

Oy.

See, here’s what I’m guessing happened. Shaw Dunn thought he had a sexy story on his hands — one of those golden opportunities for some free press — and all he needed to do to cash in was take yet another cheap shot at outgoing KCRE director Dean Logan. This was a freebie.

But in his haste, Shaw Dunn simply didn’t think through the consequences, for in publicizing this issue he likely made the problem much worse by telling aspiring identity thieves exactly where to find the personal information they are looking for.

Ooops.

And when you look at the chronology of events, Shaw’s Dunn’s defense of himself comes off as a bit disingenuous.

When asked why he held a news conference to highlight the problem instead of drafting legislation to remedy it, Dunn said he wouldn’t have done so “if the director had been willing to work with us on this. … I couldn’t get Records and Elections to do anything about this.”

That’s right, Shaw Dunn could get Logan to do anything about this… for an entire day.

From: Barringer, Christopher
Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2006 1:10 PM
To: Logan, Dean
Cc: Dunn, Reagan; Axe, Casey
Subject: REALS Information

Mr. Logan,

Attached is an urgent letter from Councilman Dunn. If you would like to speak with Councilman Dunn over the phone, please do not hesitate to call me […] I will do my best to put you in contact with him or his Chief of Staff, Casey Axe.

Here is a copy of the letter sent out by Shaw’s Dunn’s staffer on Thursday afternoon. At 9:28 AM the next morning, Logan forwarded the letter to staff, and by that afternoon he emailed back a detailed, three-page response. Shaw Dunn held his press conference the next business day, at 11 AM Monday morning.

Didn’t exactly give KCRE much time to “work with us on this,” huh?

See, this is exactly the kind of ill tempered, ill thought out, partisan sniping that has Logan leaving for greener pastures, and several of the top management slots at KCRE left unfilled. I mean really… who the hell would want to work in an environment where every communication with a Republican council member must be assumed to be a setup for a media assault and a personal attack?

The responsible thing for Shaw Dunn to do would have been to really attempt to work with Logan instead of immediately going for the easy media hit. It also would have been the smart thing for Shaw Dunn to do, for unless he takes a step back from the KCGOP’s angry, right-wing base and starts governing like a grownup, he’s going to permanently alienate himself from the independent and centrist Eastside voters he’ll need if he’s ever going to fulfill is political promise.

No doubt, Shaw Dunn is the anointed one; if Darcy Burner defeats Dave Reichert this November, dollars to doughnuts she’ll be facing off against Shaw Dunn in 2008.

But first impressions count, and so far Shaw Dunn isn’t making a very good first impression.

INSIDE JOKE ALERT:
FYI, the whole “Raymond Shaw Reagan Dunn” schtick is, of course, a Manchurian Candidate reference, and while the excellent original starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh and a chilling performance by Angela Lansbury is the only version worth seeing, it’s Liev Schreiber’s character in the disappointing 2004 remake to which Dunn eerily resembles in appearance, manner, and um… circumstance.

I actually cringed reading the piece on Rep. Dave Reichert in this morning’s Seattle Times. It starts out so fawning and trite, I would have shredded the paper to pieces if I wasn’t reading it online. But as the piece continued, it started to reveal the real Reichert to readers. I just hope most people read as far as I did.

I don’t know if it was the reporter’s fault or that of the editor, but if you only read the headline and the first half of the article you’d think Reichert was a rising superstar, instead of the fumbling, pretty-boy loyalist he’s proven to be during his first term. But in that sense this piece is kind of the perfect metaphor for Reichert himself: all hairdo, no head.

While you may have trouble keeping your breakfast down reading about Reichert’s supposed “courage” and “old-fashioned grit,” keep reading until you get to the heart of the piece:

Tall, with a strong resemblance to actor Leslie Nielsen, his demeanor reflected “suave” and “aw, shucks” simultaneously. Capitol Hill papers called him a potential star.

“He’s right out of central casting,” Peter King, R-N.Y, said.

But Reichert’s shiny finish began wearing off almost as soon as he was sworn in.

He was late setting up his office, and finding advisers and issues

It’s not surprising, but it’s important news nonetheless: EMILY’s List has just endorsed Darcy Burner in her race for WA’s 8th Congressional District.

“Darcy Burner is an accomplished businesswoman, an active leader in her community, and a dedicated mother,” said Ellen R. Malcolm, president of EMILY’s List. “Darcy knows how to get things done, and I am confident she will represent her district in Washington with the same vigor and integrity that she brought to the high-tech world. This is the Northwest’s most competitive Congressional race, and EMILY’s List will devote its significant energy to ensuring Darcy Burner’s victory. “

With over 100,000 members (over 4,400 in WA), EMILY’s List is the largest political action committee in the nation, with an impressive track record of helping to elect women, including 61 to the U.S. House, 11 to the U.S. Senate and eight governors.

In addition to the resources EMILY’s List can bring to bear in this campaign, the endorsement is also significant in that it demonstrates to other potential donors and endorsers how winnable Burner’s race really is. EMILY’s List is nothing if not politically savvy, and they don’t throw away money or toss out their endorsements willy-nilly. This is yet another indication that the people who know, know Burner can win.

That said, Burner is in the middle of a push to raise $75,000 in response to President Bush’s visit on behalf of Dave Reichert, and she’s only a little more than half-way to her goal just two days before Friday’s deadline. So please give now to help push Burner over the top, either directly to the campaign or through my Act Blue page.

At least for now we’re calling it “The David Goldstein Show”, every Sunday night from 7PM to 10PM on Newsradio 710-KIRO. But despite it’s rather bland name tonight’s show is jam-packed with interesting guests.

7PM: King County Council President Larry Phillips is going to join me at the top of the hour for an update on the future of vote-by-mail in the wake of Dean Logan’s departure. Then King County Executive Ron Sims will join me for the rest of the hour to take questions from callers.

8PM: 8th Congressional District Democratic challenger Darcy Burner will give us her take on President Bush’s trip to Seattle on behalf of his buddy, Rep. Dave Reichert. Then Seattle P-I columnist Joel Connelly will call in from a phone booth on Whidbey Island to discuss that and other issues of the day.

9PM: It’s “The Blogger Hour” with Podcasting Liberally regulars Will from Pike Place Politics and the Liberal Girl Next Door, Molly. Let’s see if they’re as entertaining and interesting sober as they are drunk.

Tune in or stream live and join the debate tonight from 7 to 10PM. Call me at 877-710-KIRO (5476) or leave a comment here, and I promise I’ll actually try to read the thread.

Betcha this is a picture we see over and over again in campaign literature come November. Democratic campaign literature that is.

“Everything I know tells me we need to change course… I am going to defeat Dave Reichert because he will never stop George Bush. But together, we will.”
— Darcy Burner, Westlake Center rally, 6/16/2006

President Bush is coming to Seattle today to raise a stunning $800,000 for Rep. Dave Reichert, and I urge all of you to join a rally 11:30 AM at Westlake Center (400 Pine St., Seattle) to send a message to Bush that his failed policies and his rubber-stamp Congress are not welcome in Washington State!

Democratic challenger Darcy Burner will be there to fire up the crowd, along with a host of other local elected officials. Please show your support.

When President Bush touches down in Seattle tomorrow to headline a high-donor fundraiser for Rep. Dave Reichert, it will mark a historic first for both the President and his uber-political advisor Karl Rove: Democratic challenger Darcy Burner now has the honor of being the first “Netroots endorsed” candidate to be targeted with a presidential visit.

Don’t underestimate the significance of this event. Rove is nothing if not clever (well… maybe “evil”,) and he knows a political danger when he sees it. In the past the Netroots have focused on supporting progressive underdogs, campaigns where our financial and media resources could have the most relative impact. But Burner is different. Burner has the opportunity to give the Netroots our biggest victory to date. Burner is in a strong position to win.

But no candidate can be expected to compete in a media intensive market like the 8th CD while being dramatically outspent by their opponent, and Bush’s visit tomorrow is intended to be a financial sledgehammer that Rove can use to smash the Burner campaign and the Netroots strategy. We can’t let that happen.

Burner just posted a “diary” to Daily Kos, and I urge all my readers with active DKos accounts to go there and recommend it NOW. We need to get her struggle out in front of the national Netroots so that they can respond immediately with their support.

I also urge all of you to go and read Burner’s diary on Daily Kos, for no other news article or post or piece of campaign literature I have seen so clearly lays out the candidates, the issues and what is at stake for our region and our nation in this election.

President Bush’s visit tomorrow will pump a startling half million dollars $800,000 or more into Reichert’s coffers, and is clear confirmation that both Rove and Bush believe that the silver-haired, leaden-tongued first term congressman is a loyal Bush Republican. We cannot allow Reichert to be coddled by the White House and the GOP House leadership on the one hand, and to claim independence on the other. We cannot allow this enormous influx of presidential money to come without a political cost.

If you have any plans to give to the Burner campaign at any time this year, now is the time to do it. And if you can afford to max out your contributions, now is the time to max out. Burner has set a modest goal of raising $75,000 in response to President Bush’s visit… but I’d like to see us blow past this target. So please, give directly to Darcy Burner today. Or if you prefer, you can give to Burner via my Act Blue page, and we’ll add the Netroots contributions into her total.

We can take back Congress. But we need your help.

Did the world change last weekend when 1200 bloggers converged on Las Vegas and yours truly invaded the local airwaves? N and Ellen just returned from Yearly Kos and joined the panel to talk about an amazing weekend that will surely be looked back on as a seminal event in the development of the netroots. Or so they say.

Joining me, N and Ellen in self-congratulatory lovefest were Mollie, Will, Carl, and Nick. Topics of discussion included Yearly Kos and the incredible convergence of bloggers, politicians and the press, my new weekly gig on 710-KIRO (Sundays, 7-10PM), President Bush’s upcoming visit to Seattle to raise money for struggling sycophant Dave Reichert, Peter Goldmark and his soon to be hot race in WA-05, Carl Ballard’s "three county strategy," house warming presents for Dean Logan, and of course… Tim Eyman’s many failures.

The show is 55:55, and is available here as a 36.1 MB MP3. Please visit PodcastingLiberally.com for complete archives and RSS feeds.

[Recorded live at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. Special thanks to Confab creators Gavin and Richard for producing the show.]

Will from Pike Place Politics will join me in the studio to talk about the state GOP convention, immigration policy, and Dave Reichert.

Darcy Burner will join us a little later on.

Am I a great dad, or what? I mean, really… how many dads manage to get a picture of their daughter’s beloved teddy bear into the local paper? Sure, I’m somewhere in the picture too, but well… been there, done that.

Of course, the accompanying story isn’t about my daughter’s teddy bear at all… it’s about how us local bloggers are beginning to impact local politics.

Democratic congressional candidate Darcy Burner can’t match the public-service record of her Republican opponent, Rep. Dave Reichert, but she can make one claim in their contest that’s hers alone: She used to be a blogger.

That experience, and the Internet savvy that goes along with it, has led Burner to reach out actively to the regional left-leaning blogger network — a connection that may have played a key role in helping her meet a crucial fund-raising target. The Burner-blogger relationship could point the way to the political future, in which Web-based activism exercises a growing influence over regional, statewide and even national elections.

The Seattle P-I‘s Gregory Roberts describes how WA state’s emerging local blogosphere is beginning to inch from advocacy to full blown activism, and I remain convinced that if the “netroots” are going to have a major impact on local politics, it’s going to happen here first.

The Burner fund-raising drive could signal a change in the blogs’ role, Goldstein said.

“We’ve been doing advocacy; now we’re finally going to see some sort of impact in terms of activism,” he said.

“The blogosphere is just maturing to the point where we can get people out there moving, and digging into their pockets.”

Man, that David Goldstein guy really knows what he’s talking about.

No doubt Burner deserves most of the credit for her strong fundraising and growing buzz, but it’s clear we’ve contributed something to her early success. And while I don’t want to over-hype the impact of bloggers in the current election cycle, I do think that some critics are missing the larger picture:

To Clay Shirky, an adjunct professor in the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University, the larger question is whether blogs can change voting patterns.

Their rabid partisanship attracts mostly true believers, and they end up screeching to the choir.

“Blogs are good for motivating the base,” Shirky said. “They’re not good for convincing swing voters.”

Yeah, well… maybe so. But motivating the base is exactly what Burner needed in the early going. Her task was to convince Democrats that she could excite people… that she could raise money… that she could win. And with our help, Burner did exactly that.

Convincing the swing voters, well, that’s Burner’s job. But at least now she’ll have a chance to do it on a more equal footing.

UPDATE:
I just saw a PDF of the P-I‘s front page, and all I can say to Stefan is: mine’s bigger than yours. (Also, both Apple Computer and the fisherman glove industry owe me a promotional fee.)

Our good friend Stefan over at (un)Sound Politics is gloating over a report in The Hill that 8th CD challenger Darcy Burner did not make the Democrats “Red to Blue” program after all. But The Hill got it wrong, and not surprisingly, so did Mr. Lazypants Sharkansky:

The Nutroots might not understand this, but grown-up campaign operatives apparently do: The most promising place to invest scarce resources is not with a candidate who has no relevant accomplishments and whose only selling point is that she’s not a Republican.

Well, Stefan and his readers may not understand this, but the best way to determine who is or is not in the DCCC’s program is to, um… call them up and ask them. That’s what I did (it’s called “reporting,” Stefan) and regional press secretary Kate Bedingfield told me that The Hill’s (and uSP’s) report was based on a “lack of understanding of how the program works.”

The DCCC always intended to roll out the program in staggered waves, so as to concentrate the focus of donors on small groups of candidates, thus maximizing contributions. And the chronology of the rollout has absolutely nothing to do with the priority of the individual races.

Bedingfield confirms that Burner most definitely is in Red to Blue — a program she describes as “very exclusive” — and that Burner is scheduled to roll out on June 1st… perfectly positioned to extract the maximum benefit from the program during the crucial, end-of-quarter, fundraising push. Burner has been personally assured by DCCC chair Rahm Emanuel that WA-08 remains a top priority, and that she will receive all of the support she has been promised.

And if that’s not clear enough, DCCC communications director Bill Burton just emailed me the following:

Darcy Burner is running one of the strongest Democratic campaigns in the country. The DCCC has included her in our Red to Blue program as a sign of our confidence that she is the candidate for change who will unseat Dave Reichert in the fall. The Red to Blue program is staggered in order to direct as much donor attention as possible to each qualifying campaign. Darcy Burner’s extraordinary campaign qualified easily for the program and will receive the full force of DCCC financial and strategic aid.

So as much as the head-in-the-ground wing of the local GOP might want to deny it, Burner really is a strong candidate, and the DCCC knows it. Even some Republican operatives have privately told me that if Reichert’s not worried, he sure as hell should be.

As for Stefan, well… I know from personal experience that sometimes, us bloggers just get stuff wrong. But let’s see if he’ll follow my lead and be man enough to admit it.

AP political writer David Ammons, the dean of our state Capitol press corps, focuses most of this week’s column on the tight race in WA’s 8th congressional district.

Washington already has a heavily Democratic congressional delegation, but hungry national Democrats are hoping to pick up at least one more House seat here.

They’re taking on The Sheriff, freshman Rep. Dave Reichert, in the increasingly independent 8th District east of Seattle. As President Bush’s poll ratings fall, Democrats say Reichert could be the most visible victim in Washington this year.

From the opening paragraphs a clear theme emerges… that changing demographics and crumbling national support for President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress have conspired to put Reichert’s hold on office at risk.

And no doubt, these two factors are huge.

But I think many analysts and pundits have largely overlooked two additional, important factors: challenger Darcy Burner’s surprising strength as both a fundraiser and a campaigner… and incumbent Reichert’s surprising weakness in those very same areas.

The most obvious evidence that Burner is running an exceptional campaign is the very fact that she’s now garnering so much attention. That wasn’t the case a few months back, when only a handful of local bloggers were touting the race as a nail-biter. And yet, the two contributing factors that everybody cites most — WA-08’s changing demographics and the anti-Republican political climate — have both been in play since well before Burner announced her candidacy.

What’s changed in the district to suddenly throw the race into the “toss-up” category? The Burner campaign, that’s what.

When people like me started talking up Burner on the blogs, it wasn’t just wishful thinking. We repeatedly met with the candidate, we argued policy and strategy… and we grilled her mercilessly when she showed up at a NW progressive bloggers’ forum in Olympia this past January.

I personally have known Burner for nearly a year, yet I didn’t start actively promoting her campaign until February, after I became absolutely convinced that she was not only a candidate who could win, but who would well serve the interests of the 8th district and the citizens of WA state. During that time I’ve watched her grow from just another passionate Camp Wellstone classmate, into a compelling campaigner and a formidable fundraiser. And the more I learned about her personal story, the more I became convinced that she was the perfect candidate to represent the demographically diverse 8th district.

“I’m very confident. Not nervous at all,” [Reichert] says. After a pause, he laughs and adds a postscript, “Maybe I should be.”

Well, he should be nervous, because he and his handlers have underestimated his opponent from day one, and that’s the worst mistake a politician can make in a swing district like WA-08, regardless of the political climate.

On the flip side, I’ve become convinced that most observers have overestimated Reichert, the “Hollywood-handsome sheriff” who claims to have tracked down the Green River Killer. His infamous temper, his inability to think on his feet, his stunningly poor public speaking skills when forced to talk off the cuff… all of this detracts from the notable advantages of incumbency.

But even more damning is his stance on the issues and his first-term voting record, both of which are out of touch with the majority of 8th district voters despite Reichert’s relentless efforts to recast himself as a moderate. Reichert is an extremist on reproductive rights, stem cell research and other social issues, while his legislative record on votes that count marks him as a near-rubberstamp for the disgraced Tom DeLay.

As voters learn more about Reichert, they will learn that he is part of the problem in Washington D.C., not part of solving it.

So yes, the race for WA-08 could never be so tight if not for the current political climate and the changing demographics. But the fact that it is so tight six months out from the November election is directly due to Burner’s strengths, and Reichert’s weaknesses.

Just wanted to give credit where credit is due.