Darcy's on a Roll (UPDATED)

"Dems' hopes rise in 8th, along with rookie's fortunes," reports today's Seattle Times.

A little-known candidate running in the 8th Congressional District raised twice as much money last quarter as incumbent U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, raising Democrats' hopes for a fierce race this fall."I'm not a professional politician," Burner said.

"The professional politicians seem to have gotten us into this mess. I bring to this race my experience as a mother and businesswoman, which is a very different perspective."

In February, Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, gave Burner such a strong endorsement at a gathering in Olympia that it put her on the national political radar.

Since then, Burner more than doubled her campaign fund, to $355,000 cash on hand. She raised about $140,000 of that in the past 10 days, her campaign said.

Today's Seattle P-I reports "Cheney to boost GOP hopefuls." One hopeful, Darcy's opponent, "seems less than eager to share limelight."

Mike Britt, Reichert's campaign manager, initially said Tuesday that the congressman wouldn't attend either event.

That surprised state Republican Party Chairwoman Diane Tebelius, who exclaimed: "He's not? He's not going to be at the vice president's" event?

Britt said the reasons were that that Cheney already threw a fund-raising event for Reichert in Seattle in June 2005 -- before the administration's public-opinion poll numbers plunged to their current low -- and "this (fund-raising) swing (by Cheney) is for challenger races," even though incumbents McMorris and Hastings are attending the Spokane event.

"We haven't received a request (to appear with Cheney), and the congressman is very busy," Britt said. He said Reichert also "probably" had a scheduling conflict even though Cheney is coming in the middle of Congress' two-week Easter recess -- and the day before Reichert's own campaign kickoff breakfast in Bellevue.

However, shortly after Tebelius learned of Reichert's planned no-show, and was asked why he was the only prominent Republican who was staying away, Britt phoned a reporter to say Reichert would attend the Everett event after all.

I wasn't there to confirm this, but Darcy was exepected to show up last night at Seattle's Drinking Liberally gathering. HorsesAss reports: "Burner campaign manager Zach Silk told The Stranger’s Eli Sanders that 'the blogosphere was instrumental in taking us to the next level,' and she’s coming to DL to thank us all personally."

Update: You can hear Darcy Burner being interviewed by David Goldstein on his "Podcasting Liberally" show, April 5, 2006.