Reichert clings to shaky lead over Burner

U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert held a tenuous lead over Democrat Darcy Burner on Wednesday night, apparently ducking the wave that swept many other Republicans out of office.

With more than half of the district's expected ballots now counted, more conservative Pierce County voters continued to inoculate Reichert against an upset.

In King County, where Burner must outpoll Reichert to win, she led by less than a percentage point. Her campaign had hoped Wednesday's count of absentee ballots would break more heavily in her favor.

Overall, Reichert leads by less than two percentage points — about 2,700 votes out of more than 152,000 counted thus far.

Reichert, a first-term Republican, is trying to hold steady against a wind of discontent that gave Democrats control of the U.S. House for the first time in 12 years. His race against Burner, a former Microsoft manager, was the most expensive in state history, and the candidates traded hostile ads and allegations that the other was misrepresenting their position.

Bruce Boram, Reichert's political consultant, said he expected the race in the Eighth Congressional District — the eastern suburbs of King and Pierce counties — to be tight. "If these numbers hold stable, I feel good," he said.

King County has counted about 72,000 of the roughly 125,000 mail-in ballots it has received so far; it plans to release more results about 6 p.m. today. Pierce County officials have counted about two-thirds of the absentee ballots it has received thus far.

The results from Tuesday's election may spell a troubling trend for the GOP: The Eighth District may be slipping from Republicans' grasp.

The district has voted Democrat in presidential races since 1992, and is increasingly sending Democrats to the state Legislature.

In this election, Democrats were leading in 13 of 21 legislative seats that are primarily within the Eighth District, a reversal of political power if the trend holds when all the votes are counted.

Christian Sinderman, a Democratic consultant, said Reichert, if he wins, will likely face another strong challenge in two years.

"What we're seeing is a district that has clearly swung," Sinderman said. "That congressional seat is sandwiched between very strong Democratic performance at the state and federal level."

Reichert seemed well aware of the changing nature of his district during the campaign, emphasizing his independence from his own party. That helped Reichert, as well as his name recognition and Burner's relative newcomer status, said David Wasserman, who tracks House races for the University of Virginia's Center for Politics.

"When someone has a strong profile in the community, it assists them in differentiating themselves from the party leadership and their president," Wasserman said.

The closeness of the race raises a familiar word for Washington voters: recount.

State law requires a recount if the voting ends with the candidates a half percentage point or less apart. But if that threshold is not met, Burner could pay for a recount, as did Gov. Christine Gregoire in the controversial 2004 election.

Burner's campaign spokeswoman, Jaime Smith, said the campaign had not discussed that possibility, but suggested that Burner could take legal action if she believes votes are being excluded.

"I don't want to say that it is expected at this point, but it is a possibility at this point," she said.

But Smith could not say what problems a lawsuit would remedy. "No one is seeing a problem with the processing of ballots at this point," she said.