Burner: weak résumé or refreshing outsider?

In his first run for office, Rick White championed his lack of political experience as one of his best credentials for Congress.

The script sold. In 1994, the Republican attorney rode a throw-the-bums-out wave that heaved out Democrats across the country, including his 1st District opponent, then-U.S. Rep. Maria Cantwell.

Twelve years later, Darcy Burner is trying to sell the script again, this time to 8th District voters.

Like White, Burner pits her private-sector experience — as a Harvard-educated Microsoftie — against her opponent's public service. And she, too, champions her political outsider status in a year dominated by the opposing party's woes.

But unlike White, Burner is being pressed by her opponent, Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Auburn, to justify what he sees as a lack of civic résumé. Reichert, the 56-year-old former King County sheriff, is fond of noting that he has been in public service as long as Burner, 35, has been alive.

Reichert joined the sheriff's office in 1972 and rose through the ranks until King County Executive Ron Sims appointed him sheriff in 1997. He was then elected twice, and in 2004 he was named national sheriff of the year.

Burner's business résumé includes writing software code for high-tech companies in Boston and California before she was hired by Microsoft in 2000. Her last job there was marketing Microsoft's programs to smaller software firms and being an advocate for the firms within the Redmond company. She said she supervised at least five employees.

Her community service is more spare. She chaired Microsoft's women's group, which focuses on retaining and developing women employees, and had a one-year stint leading her private community's board. She sometimes reaches back to high school, when she served in the Civil Air Patrol.

Is that enough?

It could be this year, when Congress has low ratings and voters appear to be in an anti-incumbent mood, said Todd Donovan, a political-science professor at Western Washington University.

"I don't think voters really put that much stock in the previous political experience of a candidate," he said.

It is ironic that Republicans are dismissing Burner's business experience, he said: "What she has is the classic portfolio for a Republican candidate."

White, who served two terms in Congress from the First District, said the public-service contrast between Burner and Reichert is more stark than the contrast in his race against Cantwell. But he found his lack of political experience was not a deficit when he arrived in Congress.

"It's not exactly rocket science to be a member of Congress," White said. "It takes a while to see how it works, and would be quicker if you had been in the Legislature. ... But for the sort of things you do as a new member of Congress, I don't think you need a lot of experience."

Reichert's campaign centers on his long law-enforcement career, and he sounds genuinely annoyed to be in a close race with a less-experienced challenger. Given the chance to ask Burner a question during a recent debate, he faced her and asked sternly, "Simple question: What have you done for your community?"

Asked later to contrast his credentials with Burner's, he said, "I have credentials to be in Congress and she doesn't. Thirty-three years in law enforcement versus zero experience."

The state Republican Party tried to turn the contrast into a joke, via a Web site that airs the sound of crickets chirping as a blank résumé with her name on it pops up. At a GOP rally Monday, former state Sen. Dino Rossi introduced Reichert with a crack about Burner: "To be a congressman, I guess you just need to be president of the Ames Lake homeowners association."

But the GOP touted political newcomers such as like White in 1994, and celebrates business success.

According to federal financial-disclosure forms, Burner is much wealthier than Reichert, declaring assets worth between $816,000 and $2 million, including at least $100,000 in Microsoft stock. Burner did not include her waterfront home on Ames Lake, which her husband, Michael Burner, bought for $550,000 in 2002.

Reichert declared between $177,000 and $530,000 in assets, a majority of it in his and his wife's public pensions. He bought a $300,000 house in Auburn in 2003.

Burner led the Ames Lake Community Club board in 2005, after she had left Microsoft for a year of law school. The club, with 320 households as members, has exclusive access to the privately-owned lake near Carnation.

The board organizes an annual Christmas party, but it has also been roiled by a long-running land-use fight.

Jeff Cook, who preceded Burner as president, said Burner was the only resident willing to take over for a year. "I sort of begged Darcy to be the president last year, just to give myself a little breather," Cook said. "It's a pretty thankless job."

Burner, he said, was generous with the community, organizing an Easter-egg hunt and donating $1,000 for the club's insurance policy.

She has said she considered running for the Legislature before launching her congressional campaign. Asked why she chose Congress instead, Burner, who rarely strays from her campaign script, said, "The problem we have right now is a problem in the U.S. Congress, and Dave Reichert is part of that problem."

Other Democrats defend Burner's résumé as the type that Congress needs now.

"You can make a pretty good argument right now that you need a lot fewer experienced politicians and a lot more people who are connected to their community in Congress, certainly on the Republican side," U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Tacoma, said at a recent Burner rally.

She'll find out in 12 days whether 8th District voters agree.

Jonathan Martin: 206-464-2605 or jmartin@seattletimes.com