WA-08: Burner Concedes; Reichert Takes One Last Swipe

Last night, the AP called the WA-08 Congressional Race for freshman GOP incumbent Dave Reichert. Democratic candidate Darcy Burner called Reichert last night to concede, and then followed up with a public meeting with her supporters this morning.

Reichert's reaction, according to the Seattle Times, : "I am a little surprised it was as tough as it was, because of the inexperience of my opponent. The national environment played a significantly higher role, and had more of an impact, than I expected it to play." (During the campaign, Reichert had stressed Burner's inexperience as a key reason not to vote for her.)

Meanwhile, the bloggers who supported Burner weighed in with strong expressions of gratitude for her run--and pointed to her strong showing despite starting from near-zero name recognition.

Kos hopes Burner will run again. NPI reminds us how hard it is to take down an incumbent. David Kurtz at TPM points out that Darcy's impressive race caught the attention of national Dems. Daniel Kirkdorffer says Reichert claimed much greater independence from Bush than the warrants, essentially pulling a fast one on the voters. Darryl Holman reminds us that Burner's strong showing forced the GOP to spend heavily to defend Reichert's seat, pulling resources away from other races where Democrats prevailed.

Mickeleh's Take: I wish Darcy had won. I'm proud of the showing she made. But, frankly, both sides in this race spent -- including the DCCC and RCCC--way too much money on obnoxious TV advertising. There has to be a better way to run elections.

(Tags: WA-o8, Elections, Democrats, Darcy Burner, Dave Reichert)