Democratic congressional candidate Darcy Burner has raised $1.1 million in her race against Republican Congressman Dave Reichert, R-Auburn. In her filing to the Federal Election Commission due July 15 Burner will report $754,800 cash on hand, according to her campaign manager, Zach Silk. In the three months ending last week Burner raised $581,000.

Silk said there will be some fine-tuning of the numbers before the FEC filing is due. But he's confident any changes will be minor and he's thrilled with the totals. Reichert likely had a good quarter of fundraising, too, including an event headlined by President Bush. (I've just asked Reichert's campaign for numbers too.) In the last reports Reichert showed more than $1.3 million raised while Burner had about $536,000.

With Burner's most lucrative quarter yet, Republicans will have to find a new spin to put on her fund raising success. Last quarter, Burner raised more than Reichert and, according to the King County Journal,
GOP chairwoman Diane Tebelius said, "That's her early money. We'll see what happens after the early money comes in."

As reader Will pointed out first in comments on an earlier post, the new Republican candidate against Congressman Jay Inslee does not live in the 1st District.

Not yet at least. Issaquah School Board Member Larry Ishmael has sold his house on the Sammamish plateau and he and his wife are moving to a Kirkland condo this summer, campaign manager Will Niccolls told me. Ishmael will also soon be resigning from the school board.

It's not required, though. House rules and state law say that lawmakers need only live in the state they represent, not the district. Republicans faced this in 2002 when their candidate against Congressman Adam Smith in the 9th District lived outside the boundaries, and also against Smith in 1998. In the '98 race, the Republican candidate, Ron Taber, found a carpet-bagging solution that required the shortest of commutes.

Taber says he has moved into a rental home he owns just over the creek from his Thurston County ranch. The ranch is in the 3rd District. Over a creek at the edge of the property is the 9th, and his new home.

Days will be spent on the ranch, tending to animals and running the campaign. But at night, Taber said, he will return to his bed in the 9th.

Weekly editor-in-chief Knute "Skip" Berger gave notice and leaves the paper in six weeks. He made the announcement public Monday afternoon on his new blog:

"As I told the staff, I've been through four ownership groups, five publishers, and have seen the paper into the online era. Now we're six months into the Village Voice/New Times merger era, and I've decided it's time to be a free-range mossback again."

Berger is a wise man among too many wise guys in journalism. I wish him well.

An Associated Press story on the Cantwell-McGavick race has gotten heavy play in recent days around the country. The piece by Dave Ammons, dean of the state political press corps, focuses on unhappiness with Cantwell from anti-war Democrats.

It includes this line:

Republicans clearly relish the schism, with Cantwell's main GOP opponent, Mike McGavick, saying, "The senator and I agree on Iraq."

Not really, though. I can see how if that were the case it could be beneficial to McGavick in Washington state. And it may have been true, in a generic way, when McGavick said it. But that was before last month's Senate votes on troop withdrawal resolutions. Cantwell voted for a measure calling on the Bush Administration to start bringing troops home by the end of the year. McGavick spokesman Elliott Bundy said McGavick opposed that move. Cantwell's position on Iraq still doesn't satisfy anti-war activists in her party. But there is a difference between her position and McGavick's.