Congressman Dave Reichert, R-Wash., who is locked in a fierce re-election battle with Democratic challenger Darcy Burner in Washington's 8th congressional district, has sent voters another glossy mailing using taxpayer dollars, according to the Burner campaign.
House rules prohibit such mailings 90 days and less before an election. But Reichert appears to have exploited a little known loophole in House rules that allows committee and sub-comittee chairs to send mailings, according to a Burner campaign news release.
Reichert is chair of a subcommittee attached to the Homeland Security Commitee.
The mailing in question, a four-color pamphlet, is titled "Homeland Security-Protecting our Families" and includes a quote from former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. It arrived "just a few weeks" before the Nov. 7 election, according to the Burner campaign.
It's not the first time Reichert has been questioned about his use of the franking privilege. KING-TV in Seattle reported in July that Reichert had spent over a half million dollars on the franked mailings. You can view that report in "wmv" format
here.
Goldy at HA wrote in June that while bulk mailings can take a week or more to cross the country, it also could have been mailed in the region.
Whatever the exact date the current mailing hit, it seems a safe bet that it did not take 80 days to arrive.
The front page of an earlier Reichert mailer was scanned by Goldy in June and can be viewed here. As Goldy put it at the time:
Looks like a pretty typical piece of campaign literature, huh? An oversized, glossy, folded pamphlet touting Rep. Dave Reichert's reelection.
Only it's not a piece of campaign literature, it's a piece of congressional franking, paid for with our taxpayer dollars, and a clear violation of the spirit of the franking rules, if not the law itself. Oh... and it's only one of six such mailings Reichert's office has recently sent to voters.
"This is an unacceptable use of taxpayer dollars and a clear attempt to use a leadership position for personal political gain," commented Zach Silk, Campaign Manager for Darcy Burner. "Reichert is using a loophole in the franked mail system as well as his chair position to send campaign mail out on the taxpayers' dime."
Correction A previous version of this diary mistakenly linked to the the scanned image of a Reichert mailing from earlier in the year without stating that image is not of the current mailing. The mistake was mine and has been corrected.
MORE In July, blogger Daniel Kirkdorffer
wrote about a mysterious, unsolicited franked letter he received from Reichert at that time. Kirdorffer has links to scans of the letter and envelope.