It was obvious last year that the 8th Congressional District race was a priority for Republicans who badly wanted Congressman Dave Reichert to keep his seat. Since Reichert's re-election, details have emerged about the extent of that effort. When the House earlier this year began investigating Karl Rove's blending of politics and government operations, we learned Reichert was at the top of the list for help from D.C.

A PowerPoint done by a Rove deputy to the General Services Administration — made public by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform — showed Reichert got a boost from 585,164 GOP voter contacts, 41,666 on election day alone and more than 100,000 above what was done in any other district.

Now the Washington Post provides the most detailed look yet at how hard Rove worked to make sure the Bush administration was doing everything it could to help Republican candidates.

The staging of official announcements, high-visibility trips and declarations of federal grants had to be carefully coordinated with the White House political affairs office to ensure the maximum promotion of Bush's re-election agenda and the Republicans in Congress who supported him, according to documents and some of those involved in the effort.

"The White House determines which members need visits," said an internal e-mail about the previously undisclosed Rove "deployment" team, "and where we need to be strategically placing our assets.

The Post says that Rove and his deputies gave political briefings more than 100 times so far in Bush's two terms in office. The paper points out that Rove and his deputies were careful about keeping their activities within the law and cautioned against violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits political activity by federal employees.

The political sessions touched nearly all of the Cabinet departments and a handful of smaller agencies that often had major roles in providing grants, such as the White House office of drug policy and the State Department's Agency for International Development.

Was Reichert a beneficiary of Rove's work? A look at Reichert's press releases from 2006 show he had grants to announce and administration officials to appear at his side for press conferences and public appearances. (I've listed those below.) The "news" and events certainly sound like the kind of coordination Rove was looking for to help Republican candidates.

I asked Reichert's chief of staff, Mike Shields, if the campaign benefited from Rove's coordination of administration activities.

"The real answer to that is, you have to ask them. We would have no way of knowing why they are offering to help us with something, If they say, 'Would you like to have a cabinet person travel out to the district,' we don't know what the motivation would be. We just know they are offering to send someone out."

Obviously there are legitimate reasons for administration officials to travel to the Seattle area. This month alone, Shields said, there were seven or eight visits from administration officials. Reichert was not involved with any of those.

"It's hard to know, are they doing it because they are pursuing their own agenda or are they doing it because we are there? I would argue they didn't send the trade representative out last week to help us. They just give us a head's up that she was going to be here."

There have been plenty of offers of help from D.C. In fact, even given the administration appearances in the district and grant announcements, more often than not, Shields said, Reichert "respectfully declined their offer to have someone appear out here." Shields has a view of the White House political operation that differs some from the accolades Republicans have for Rove and Democrats' picture of him as the evil genius of the Bush political operation.

"Actually we have been quite frustrated with the administration when they did things that we didn't want them to do, or when they have done things that were politically not very helpful to us."

Here are a couple of examples. In 2005, the Office of National Drug Control Policy released some TV ads designed to fight meth. ONDCP officials appeared in Seattle, with Democratic Sen. Patty Murray. Just last week the Department of Transportation announced it was giving King County a grant of $138.7 million as part of a new program to fight traffic jams. one of the first communities to participate in a new federal initiative to fight traffic gridlock. Murray was the only member of Congress quoted. The money will be used on SR 520, which is in Reichert's district. Shields said:

"I did ask the White House why that happened."

Shields said that Murray's office seems to have better communication with the administration than his office. (Shields says I overstated this. He said Murray's office does "seem to be able to get a heads up quicker than us very often" but that is not to say that in general her office has better communication with the administration. Fair clarification.) It matters, he says, because "there is a game played in Washington state about who can get their press releases out faster to make an announcement." That can determine who the press gives credit to for congressional action.

"Most of the time it appears that even though Dave is a ranking member on a homeland subcommittee in the House, many, many times we find that she has gotten a head's up about information like that from people before we have."

That said, Reichert last year had news and announcements throughout his campaign against Democrat Darcy Burner:

Oct. 25: Reichert issues a press release praising the Federal Emergency Management Agency "for their expedited action in signing a Letter of Map Revision (LOMR) to allow the construction of a new biodiesel production plant" in Grays Harbor.

Oct. 11: Reichert appears at a Bellevue fire station with Admiral Thomas J. Barrett, administrator of the U.S Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. They announce a Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness Grant.

September 25: Reichert issues a press release announcing "port security funds he has advocated for were awarded to the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma."

July 11: Reichert issues press release saying he helped to secure "a $2 million grant the City of Renton received from the U.S. Economic Development Administration."

April 10: Reichert holds a field hearing on emergency preparedness and appears at a press conference with George Foresman, Under Secretary of Preparedness for the Department of Homeland Security.

March 21: Reichert holds roundtable discussion with local law enforcement officials and John Walters, Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. A press release says: "The topic of the roundtable will be the successes King County and Pierce County have achieved in their fight against meth."

Reichert and Walters also tour the Pediatric Interim Care Center in Kent and hold a press conference together.