The blaring headline at the Seattle Time's, what passes as Seattle's "leading" paper, Darcy Burner's claims of a Harvard degree in economics aren't true" and the subsequent story would lead one to think Darcy Burner was a serial liar.
Until someone asks the real question, which Matt Stoller did:
Burner has a degree in computer science and economics from Harvard, as her website says. Having gone to Harvard, I know how this works. You get a degree under one department, take classes in another, write a thesis joining the two, and that thesis is reviewed by professors from both departments. It's actually much harder to get a joint degree, but the registrar shows a degree only from one department because Harvard doesn't have minors. In fact, economics is a fairly easy degree to get, while computer science and economics takes a lot more work.
Heffter took this to mean that Burner made up her Harvard degree, and misquotes Harvard officials to prove the story. Heffter quotes Harvard computer science professor Harry Lewis, who supervised the computer science students when Burner attended Harvard.
"She doesn't have a degree in economics," he said. "It's a specialty within the computer science degree that she has."
Here's Harry Lewis's recounting of the conversation.
Talked to her and told her you had a degree in CS with a specialization in Ec. She said you were claiming to have a degree in Ec and I just repeated myself. She asked me what that consisted of and I said a block of Ec courses. She started to ask me if that would make you qualified ... and I cut her off, saying I couldn't judge economics qualifications. She thanked me and said that was helpful.
Meanwhile, the real story happening in the 8th Congressional District, which the Times intrepid reporter seems intent upon ignoring, is the illegal loan Reichert has received to run his advertising.
Bellevue (October 22) – The campaign of 8th District Democratic congressional candidate Darcy Burner today filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission over a six-figure illegal loan provided to the campaign of Republican incumbent Dave Reichert by his media buying firm.
The complaint comes in response to the Burner campaign’s discovery last Friday that Reichert had secured more than $1 million in television advertising time for the closing two weeks of the campaign despite being short of cash.
Reichert is able to run the ads only because he is receiving an illegal corporate loan from his media purchasing firm, Media Plus+, which is guaranteeing to pay television for the ad time after the election. The firm appears to be loaning the money so Reichert can purchase at least $580,000 of television time that he lacks the funds to pay for. That is a clear violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act, which "prohibits corporations from making contributions or expenditures in connection with Federal elections," according to the complaint filed with the FEC, see document.
That's on top of the NRCC's massive investment in his race, more than has gone into any other Republican incumbent's race. HorsesAss has more on the illegal loan. Reichert can't pay for his own media because he hasn't been able to match Burner in fundraising. Another story beyond Seattle Times reporter Emily Heffter seems incapable of following.
Don't hold your breath waiting for Heffter to report on this story of Reichert's skirting the law, either. The shiny object of Burner's college degree is just far too distracting for this "reporter."
On the web:
Darcy Burner for Congress
Orange to Blue ActBlue Page
Update: Heffter "reports" on the FEC complaint:
Reichert campaign spokeswoman Amanda Halligan said Media Plus+ pays for the ads and then sends the campaign a bill. They pay it, she said, "like any other business."
"There’s no loan associated with it," she said.
Which ignores the fact that the ad buy puts Reichert about $580,000 in the red. This would make the ad buy by Media Plus an illegal campaign contribution, according to the FEC: "prohibits corporations from making contributions or expenditures in connection with Federal elections." They're footing the bill for the ads now.
Update II: It gets even better. In an update to his story, Stoller has a link to the Times own bio for Darcy, which states, very clearly:
Education: Harvard University, B.A. in computer science with a special field of economics, 1996.