Former Microsoft exec takes on Reichert in the swinging 8th

Published 10:21 pm Wednesday, August 4, 2010

BELLEVUE — Four years ago, Republican Rep. Dave Reichert won his first bid for re-election by just 7,341 votes. Two years later, the same opponent raised $1.5 million more than he did. He won again, by a wider margin.

As Republicans across the country fell in both elections, Reichert, the former King County Sheriff, held onto the 8th District, which stretches from the suburbs east of Seattle south into rural Pierce County.

This year a new opponent, former top-level Microsoft executive Suzan DelBene, wants to change Reichert’s knack for beating the odds.

“He’s never been in a position where people have felt strongly supportive,” said DelBene, who has emerged as the top rival for Reichert in the state’s Aug. 17 top-two primary. She has been endorsed by the Democratic Party and has raised more money than all other challengers.

Both Reichert and DelBene are preparing for what may be another long and expensive campaign in a complex swing district that includes some of the state’s richest residents, high-tech workers and blue-collar rural communities.

“There’s a lot of Democrats. Yet Reichert gets elected. That’s what makes that one a perennial swing district,” said pollster Stuart Elway. The 8th District has never sent a Democrat to the House of Representatives since its inception in 1980. But its voters backed President Barack Obama, and have elected other Democrats for president, governor and local legislative seats in recent elections.

But in a recent interview, Reichert projected confidence.

“You know, it’s my neighborhood. She’s welcome to visit,” he said with a laugh about DelBene. “I don’t have to wear a T-shirt that says Dave Reichert… I just like to stay connected to my community.”

Reichert, who rarely talks about politics without mentioning his life in law enforcement and his time as King County Sheriff, enjoys high name recognition in the district.

“I think he’s a straight arrow and he’s got the good of the people at heart, instead of political power,” said 72-year-old Libby Paine of Yarrow Point

One of DelBene’s main challenges will be to market her largely unknown name.

“I’m hoping (this year) is not three-peat of failures,” said 42-year-old Mercer Island resident Ari Salomon, who voted against Reichert.

DelBene is counting on discontent with incumbents and the economy. Reichert hopes that 8th District constituents are unhappy with the way Democrats and Obama over bank bailouts, health care and the national debt.

“It’s like DelBene is really the incumbent, the candidate of 2010,” said Luke Esser, chairman of the Republican Party of Washington.

People “are angry at everybody in office. They feel the primary issues aren’t being addressed,” DelBene said.

Reichert and DelBene had raised a combined $3.4 million as of June 30 for their bout. DelBene has given $684,000 of her own money.

DelBene has been a top executive for two technology startups, including Drugstore.com, a leader in online medicine retail. She was also an executive at Microsoft, handling part of the software giant’s mobile ventures.

Her Microsoft background and lack of political experience, echo Darcy Burner, the challenger who lost to Reichert in 2006 and 2008, proving more popular with liberal activists than with voters in the district. Burner lost badly in the Pierce County section of the district, with Reichert taking 58 percent of the vote there in 2008.

Like Burner, DelBene will try to make the case that Reichert has been ineffective in Congress, someone who chooses his votes to stay in office.

Reichert uses his voting record to show he is moderate. He stands by his no votes on health care overhaul, the stimulus package and TARP, but he shows off his support for a cap and trade system for carbon emissions. He said he played a role in getting emergency funding to fix the Howard Hanson Dam in King County, and talks of his work on the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area, which added 22,000 acres of forest protection.