Democrat Jason Ritchie is running in Washington’s 8th Congressional District against incumbent Republican Dave Reichert. Washington state’s 10 congressional districts are currently held by 6 Democrats and 4 Republicans. Picking up an additional Democratic Congressional seat would help in the Democrat’s national effort to take back the US House of Representatives from the Republicans. Considering that President Obama won the 8th Congressional District when he ran for re-election in 2012 makes a Democratic pickup possible. The 8th CD is one of only 17 CD’s nationally where Obama won and a Republican Representative won.
Primary 2014 vote:
Jason Ritchie (D) 30,674 28.82%
Keith Arnold (D) 9242 8.68%
Dave Reichert (R) 66,532 62.5%
In 2012 Karen Porterfield was the main Democratic challenger and won the Primary to face Reichert. Both she and Ritchie were new candidates who had not run for office before and they received almost the identical % of primary votes. Keith Arnold (D) picked up more votes in 2014.
Primary 2012 vote
Karen Porterfield (D) 37,083 28.35%
Keith Arnold (D) 7144 5.46%
Dave Reichert (R) 66,220 50.62%
voter turnout statewide – 38.48%
General Election 2012
Karen Porterfield 121,866 40.35%
Dave Reichert 180,204 59.65%
voter turnout statewide – 81.25%
Money Raised – as of Oct 14, 2014
Dave Reichert – raised $1,204,328, spent $864,842
Reichert’s largest source of funds was from PAC’s – $655,890
Jason Ritchie – raised $209,748, spent $200,512
Ritchie’s largest source of funds was himself – $100,000
