I live in Washington's First Congressional district, about four hundred yards north of the boundary with the Eighth Congressional district. (In fact, my state legislative district has two half-representatives, one for each of the two congressional districts which overlaps us. Yes, it's odd.) Today, CNet's Stephanie Condon has an article on the race down South, and it's annoyed me enough to write a short diary on the topic.
Dear Ms. Condon:
I understand why you were surprised by Darcy Burner's success this year, given the sources you drew upon. Unfortunately, your choice of sources shows that you don't know very much about the district in which she's running.
First, you cite the 2000 edition of the Almanac of American Politics in support of the claim that the Eighth is heavily republican, and, second, mentioned that the eighth hasn't elected a Democrat in 25 years. Both claims are true, but kind of naive. Prior to Rep Reichart's election in 2004, the district had been represented by Jennifer Dunn since time immemorial (1980-2004); her biennial reelection with at-best-token opposition had become a tradition. During that time, the district had become significantly more Democratic, as a cursory investigation of voting records would have shown -- it voted for both Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004, hardly the signature of the "second most Republican congressional district in the state". It might have been worth investigating the continued accuracy of an almost ten-year-old publication, particularly when it was reporting on one of the fastest-growing parts of the nation.
I don't expect most pundits to know much about us out here; Bellevue and the southern two-thirds of Redmond are among the least hip portions of the nation. I would, however, expect a pundit claiming to focus on politics and technology to know something of the eighth congressional district of Washington, just as I'd expect him or her to know of the 15th and 16th congressional districts of California. Failing that, I'd at least expect her to know about Wikipedia -- I've fact checked the article on WA-8, and it would have told you everything I cited above.
UPDATED: Added WA-08 to the title and corrected a couple of minor typos.