Washington's 8th congressional district

"This article refers to the congressional district. For the highway, see Washington State Route 8."Infobox U.S. congressional district
state = Washington
district number = 8


image width = 300
image caption =
representative = Dave Reichert
party = Republican
english area =
metric area =
percent urban =
percent rural =
population = 654905
population year = 2000
median income = 63854
percent white = 84.1
percent black = 2.0
percent asian = 7.9
percent native american =0.9
percent hispanic = 4.0
percent other race = 0.9
percent blue collar =
percent white collar =
percent gray collar =
cpvi = D+2

The Eighth Congressional District of Washington includes most of the region known as the Eastside and the mostly-rural eastern parts of King and Pierce Counties. It is currently represented in the U.S. House of Representatives by Republican Dave Reichert.

Since its creation after the 1980 Census, the Eighth has been the only Republican bastion west of the Cascade Mountains; it has never elected a Democrat to Congress. In recent years, however, the changing demographics of the Puget Sound region have made the Eighth significantly less conservative, with voters in the district narrowly favoring Democratic presidential candidates Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004.

2006 Election

In 2004, Reichert, at the time serving as the sheriff of King County, beat his Democratic opponent Dave Ross by 52% to 48%, a surprisingly small margin, in the race to replace retiring Rep. Jennifer Dunn; that year, voters in the district favored Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. Responding to Reichert's perceived vulnerability, former Microsoft project manager Darcy Burner (D) challenged Rep. Reichert in 2006, in what was widely expected to be a close election. Influential election analyst Charlie Cook listed the contest among 68 competitive or potentially competitive House races to watch in 2006, categorizing it as a "toss-up" (defined as "the most competitive; Either party has a good chance of winning." [Cook, Charlie. [http://www.cookpolitical.com/races/report_pdfs/2006_house_comp_oct11.pdf "2006 competitive House race chart."] "The Cook Political Report", October 11th, 2006. (warning: PDF)] Burner was one of 22 House challengers selected by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) for fundraising assistance with its "Red to Blue" program, aimed at unseating vulnerable Republican incumbents around the country. [Hearn, Josephine. [http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/042706/news2.html "Internal DCCC list pins hopes on 22 challengers."] "The Hill", April 27, 2006.]

In the end, Reichert won reelection, defeating Burner by just 7,341 votes out of more than 250,000 cast. [Office of the Washington Secretary of State. [http://vote.wa.gov/Elections/general/Results.aspx?o=7b7f42a5-3c6e-4bd1-92d5-0e11d5bd6d16 2006 General Election Results.] Accessed January 3, 2007.] The outcome of the race was not decided for almost a week after the election, as severe flooding in the eastern part of the district delayed the counting of absentee ballots.

Representatives

ee also

*United States House of Representatives elections in Washington, 2004
*United States House of Representatives elections in Washington, 2006

External links

* [http://www.house.gov/reichert/ Web site of U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert]
* [http://www.darcyburner.com/ Web site of Democratic challenger Darcy Burner]

References