Burner doesn’t make case for ousting Reichert

THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Published: October 20th, 2006 01:00 AM

Any other year, the race between Republican U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert and Democratic challenger Darcy Burner would be easier to call.
The 8th Congressional District contest pits a moderate incumbent with a long record of public service against an overtly partisan political novice. Who is a better fit for the independent-minded 8th Congressional District wouldn’t be hard to figure.

But this isn’t any year, and it isn’t any district. The 8th’s swing voters in East Pierce and King counties are front and center in a Democratic fight to win back the House of Representatives. Burner makes no secret of her enlistment.

She casts Reichert as a symbol of the Republicans’ failure to stand up to the administration and frames her candidacy as a referendum on President Bush. Her pitch resonates — to a point.

Certainly, voters have good cause to be concerned about the course of the country and the possibility of two more years of Republican rule of Congress and the White House. For voters whose main concern is winning a Democratic House majority to check the presidency, Burner is a solid choice. The former Microsoft manager clearly is smart and a quick study.

As much as this editorial board shares those concerns about what’s happening on the national political stage, it gives greater weight to what’s best for the district and the value of incumbency. Burner might present a convincing case for booting Republicans out of power, but she doesn’t convince us that Reichert himself has got to go.

In just his freshman term, Reichert has proved willing to step outside the GOP party line. He voted against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, against intervening in the Terry Schiavo case, for overriding Bush’s veto of embryonic stem cell research, against an effort to weaken the Endangered Species Act and against giving companies that make the gasoline additive MTBE immunity from lawsuits.

Burner argues that Reichert’s votes were gimmes from Republican leadership worried about hanging onto Reichert’s seat. Maybe some were; others genuinely rankled his party colleagues. The point is that his voting record matches his district. Burner, on the other hand, offers straight Democratic positions.

And then there’s the matter of experience. Reichert’s 32-year career at the King County Sheriff’s Office should not be dismissed. Given his background and his potential vulnerability back home, Republican leadership handed him the plum assignment of a Homeland Security subcommittee chairmanship. He has handled the assignment well. Reichert won passage of much-needed legislation to establish the capability for emergency crews to communicate across agency, city and county lines — a defect that hampered responses to both the 9/11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina.

Reichert wasn’t able to attach funding to the bill, however, a sign that he needs to continue building the level of influence in Congress that will allow him to take care of the district. Amassing that kind of clout takes more than two years.

Reichert has proved himself up to the task, having surprised some political observers with his growth in the job. Voters in the 8th District should return Reichert to Congress.