The Darcy Burner campaign announced today that they have raised more than $300,000 in the third quarter of 2007. She has a much better start than she did in the last attempt to unseat Dave Reichert from the 8th District. Reichert hasn’t reported in yet, but he has so far fallen well behind his fundraising when compared to the last election cycle.

If money were all that mattered, then it is looking more likely than ever that Burner could take the swing 8th District next year. However, she still has to campaign effectively. The thrust of her entire campaign so far has been the anti-Bush candidate and the anti-Reichert candidate. She has had little success in promoting much of a positive image about herself. Instead, she has tied Bush to Reichert like an anchor, hoping to drag Reichert down. And with Bush having a 20% approval rating in WA, that may seem like a good strategy. Indeed, a huge chunk of her fundraising this quarter came from an event staged to protest a Bush/Reichert fundraising junket.

The trouble is, that is what she did last time, and it didn’t work. Reichert, widely regarded as one of the least competent Republicans in congress, is still happily representing the 8th District.

Like Hillary, Burner has become the defacto front runner for the next 8th District campaign. Her once primary opponent has bowed out already without even getting his campaign off the ground. I hope she wins, because Reichert is a douche bag, and she’s right that he is a shill for all of Bush’s worst policies. But she is going to have to up her game if she doesn’t want to repeat her loss a second time. Tieing the Bush anchor to Reichert is only half the battle. She needs to more effectively promote her positive attributes, and not spend all her time hounding Reichert’s (considerable) negatives.

On a positive note, with all the money she’s raising, hopefully she can do better than this next time: