OLYMPIA — Rep. Dave Reichert’s campaign says the Republican actually brought in less money than Democratic challenger Darcy Burner in the latest congressional fundraising period.
Reichert aide Mike Shields told The Associated Press on Monday that some $47,000 in refunds listed on Reichert’s federal campaign filing would be repaid, after mistakes splitting up money from an August fundraiser headlined by President Bush.
On Wednesday, however, Shields said he had “screwed up” his explanation of the numbers.
Shields said Reichert actually raised about $295,000 in the quarter. Burner, meanwhile, raised about $305,000 in the quarter. Reichert narrowly defeated Burner last year to win a second term.
Shields said he misunderstood what the campaign fundraiser and treasurer told him about the numbers, which led to him giving the wrong information to reporters.
“I’ll take responsibility for it,” he said. “It’s my fault.”
Burner spokesman Sandeep Kaushik said he wants a more detailed explanation of how the mistake happened.
“Certainly, the appearance is that there was an effort made to the press and public to create a false impression of Congressman Reichert’s fundraising,” he said. “There’s a whole series of questions.”
Kaushik said the campaign would look at the filings and decide whether it’s appropriate to file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission.
“Even the numbers they were claiming were anemic,” he said. “For them to have to come out and report having raised less money than Darcy Burner did, even with the hundreds of thousands of dollars that came into their campaign coffers, would have created a devastating, but accurate impression of how poorly they’re doing.”
Shields said there was no attempt to mislead anyone. He said it was a simple case of him trying to get information to the news media before he fully understood the numbers.
He said that even with the lower numbers, the campaign is still strong.
“We still feel very good about raising over $700,000 this year,” he said. “We’re not focused on what anyone else is doing. What we’re focused on is how much we need to raise to be successful next fall.”
Overall, Reichert has already cashed about $200,000 from the Bush visit to Bellevue, with more expected to roll in as officials continue splitting up the money, Shields said, though he didn’t know how much.
Burner, meanwhile, collected her own windfall from the president’s appearance: an Internet-fueled fundraiser that brought about $123,000 in just a few days.
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