Map of Washington State's Eight Congressional District

Rep. Dave Reichert’s challenge to retain his seat next year is going to be difficult enough without false information getting out before the campaign has even begun.

Last Friday, the local Democrat-supported Publicola blog published a post titled “Meanwhile, in the Eighth District” in which fundraising figures were incorrectly reported for the woman who appears to be the Democrat’s anointed challenger to Rep. Dave Reichert (WA-8), Suzan Delbene.

Delbene is a former Microsoft employee as was Reichert’s opponent in the two previous races, Darcy Burner, and has produced a sizable campaign fund from which to stage an assault on one of the Democrat’s most wanted Republicans. However, just as a paymaster in Alaska’s Gold Rush days had techniques to avoid buying a fake commodity, the trick to gauging a politician’s true support is to scrutinize campaign disclosures and largely discard large contributions by the candidate to their own campaign. Erica Barnett of Pubicola goes through the motions of doing just that: [Ed. bold mine]

So far, Reichert has raised $753,099 to DelBene’s $477,851. However, federal election records reveal that in the last month, DelBene’s fundraising has eclipsed Reichert’s: $255,555 to Reichert’s $215,967. And when you look at cash on hand (meaning: The amount of money the candidates actually have to spend), DelBene is cleaning up, with $614,862 to Reichert’s $333,403.

DelBene, a vice president at Microsoft, has contributed $130,000 of her own money to her campaign. The election is in November 2010.

In truth, the heavier weight of Delbene’s war chest isn’t due to the relatively small amount of $130,000 of her own dollars but a whopping $489,033.86 in personal contributions and loans to the campaign, according to an October Federal Election Commission filing. Reviewing Delbene for Congress’s filing with the FEC for the period of July 1 through September 30, 2009, it is clear that the amount on line 11(d) of $130,000 refers only to contributions made within the reporting period that did not come in the form of loans to the the campaign. For the entire election cycle, when the amount of line 13(a) for loans made or guaranteed by the candidate ($350,000) is added to the total of all contributions made by the candidate to her own campaign ($139,033.86), the correct figure of $489,033.86 is calculated. That personal infusion of cash represents more than half of all Delbene’s campaign contributions since she began raising funds.

Publicola’s error in reporting deconstructs the central point of editor Erica Barnett’s post. Delbene’s ‘Mama Warbucks’ pile of campaign cash is comprised mostly of checks written by her and loans given to her campaign. If Barnett’s story were true, it would be a strong indication of Delbene’s political viability. As it stands, Delbene appears to be a solid newcomer to the political playing field who will undoubtedly give Reichert a good scare at the very least, but whose skill as a fundraiser is still unproven.

Publicola, whose visible means of financing comes from advertisements paid for by exclusively liberal and Democrat politicians and causes, is often linked and used as a source by legitimate news organizations such as The Seattle Times, SeattlePI.com, and local public radio.

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