Democrats need to make the right choice in WA-01.
UPDATE: edited to include the link to DelBene's FEC report.
One of the key seats Democrats need to hold in the House of Representatives to regain a majority is the new First Congressional District in Washington. The district, which spans from the suburbs northeast of Seattle all the way to the Canadian border, is a swing district that could play a major role in whether the Speaker's gavel returns to the Democrats in January. While the old First District, currently held by gubernatorial candidate Jay Inslee, was solidly Democratic, this new version could go either way.
The state of Washington has a top-two primary system, meaning that the top two vote-getters in the August primary will advance to the general election, regardless of party affiliation. But because of the swingy nature of the district, it is likely that it will be a Democrat and a Republican squaring off in November.
A number of Democrats are squaring off to advance to the November general election, including Orange to Blue candidate Darcy Burner, who came within a hair of knocking off incumbent Dave Reichert in the 2006 and 2008 elections for the old Eighth District, which has substantial overlap with the new First. In 2010, the Democratic candidate in the general election was former Microsoft Executive Suzan DelBene, who also lost to Reichert. Both Burner and DelBene could be considered frontrunners to be the Democratic standard-bearer in in the First District this November.
Heretofore, DelBene has been considered an attractive choice by the Democratic establishment because of her ability to self-fund: she is married to Kurt DelBene, who heads up the Office Division at Microsoft. But Democrats who are backing DelBene may want to start looking in another direction, given ethics violations that could very well doom her campaign in a general election.
According to the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, all candidates for federal office are required to file personal financial disclosure statements with the House Clerk. Spending over $5,000 in an election cycle triggers the requirement: once that threshold his met, the candidate has thirty days to file the disclosure form. This requirement is separate from any campaign disclosures required by the Federal Election Commission.
Here's where DelBene gets into trouble. According to her FEC reports, DelBene crossed the $5,000 threshold with her disclosure for the period that ended on March 31, 2011. But more than a year later, she still has not filed a personal disclosure form. This isn't a laughing matter: knowingly and willingly failing to file this form is a felony that is punishable by up to five years in jail and a $50,000 fine. It would be hard to claim that DelBene doesn't know that she is required to file these disclosures, given the fact that she was a candidate for roughly the same office in 2010. And based on sources who have knowledge of House Ethics Committee requirements, there are no exemptions from this: if a campaign expense is legally reportable to the Federal Elections Commission, it qualifies toward the $5,000 threshold for House Ethics rules as well.
If DelBene advances to the general election, this is guaranteed to become an albatross around her campaign's neck. The group responsible for enforcement of the applicable statutes is the Ethics Committee of the Republican-controlled House. Given the desperation Republicans will feel to win as many competitive seats as possible, it's a virtual certainty that the Ethics Committee will use their discretion to refer this obvious violation to the Department of Justice, and allow the Republican who advances out of the primary election in WA-01 to claim that DelBene is under investigation for felony charges related to ethics violations. In a swing district, accusations of that nature could prove fatal to Democratic chances of winning the seat.
Democrats should think long and hard before considering DelBene to be the "safe choice" in this district, given the damaging accusations that will engulf her campaign the moment it is to the maximum convenience of her Republican opponent, should she advance that far.