Reichert widens his lead over Burner

Republican Rep. Dave Reichert further widened his lead over Democrat Darcy Burner today in their close race for the 8th Congressional District.

Reichert continued to pull ahead in King County, which makes up about 80 percent of the district. Burner initially was leading in King County.

Reichert was winning handily in the part of Pierce County that makes up about 20 percent of the district.

Over all, Reichert was leading by 6,400 votes this afternoon out of more than 260,000 counted so far.

Elections divisions in King and Pierce counties were still receiving ballots in the mail, and an estimated 60,000 ballots — about a quarter of the expected district turnout — remained to be counted.

Burner, a former Microsoft manager who lost narrowly to Reichert in 2006, was not conceding Friday. Her spokesman, Sandeep Kaushik, acknowledged the trend but said there were so many ballots left to count that it was difficult to know how the race would shake out.