According to FEC documents filed today, Suzan DelBene has contributed another $900,000 to her own 1st CD congressional campaign. That brings her total personal contributions to $1,901,740, roughly 78 percent of the $2,440,964 her campaign has raised thus far.

Tomorrow a KING5/SurveyUSA poll is expected to drop, and I fully anticipate that it will finally show DelBene with a several point lead. That's what outspending your next closest opponent by a five to one margin can buy you.

But a word of caution to my fellow Democrats. If DelBene wins the primary, she won't enjoy a five to one money advantage in November. Oh, she'll far outspend John Koster no doubt, but not the combined resources of the Koch brothers and Karl Rove and the NRCC and the RNC and other special interests who are planning to spend big in what Republicans rightly see as a prime pickup opportunity. DelBene would have to spend the bulk of her $50 million or so fortune to buy that sort of advantage. And she's not gonna.

Say what you want about DelBene and her politics, but she has proven to be perhaps the weakest campaigner of the five-person Democratic field. (And yes, maybe even Darshan Rauniyar, who has run a game if quixotic campaign.) In forums and interviews DelBene comes off as meek and uninspiring, providing few clues as to what really motivates her beyond the vague notion that successful business people like her are good at running things. That's why it's taken a couple million dollars of unchallenged TV ads to pull the anointed party establishment favorite out of her also-ran status.

I'm not questioning DelBene's values, I'm questioning her political skills, which simply are not strong enough to parry the coming Republican attack on her as an out-of-touch one-percenter. The irony of billionaire righties attacking DelBene for her profligate self-funding will not be lost on me, but it will be lost on most voters, especially given DelBene's relative difficulty connecting with ordinary people. All Koster needs to do is keep his inner crazy tea-bagger in check for a couple months while the Super PACs do the dirty work, and my fear is that he'll wipe the floor with DelBene. Yes, I know this runs counter to conventional wisdom. But her struggles thus far have proven DelBene to be a flawed candidate. In my opinion, Steve Hobbs, Laura Ruderman, and Darcy Burner would all stand a better chance against Koster in November; voters picking DelBene largely on the virtue of her alleged electability may be sorely disappointed.

Finally, let me just say how disappointed I am in my own party for our eagerness to embrace self-funders over more qualified, capable, and progressive candidates. Our rants against the inequities wrought by Citizens United, and our claims to represent the interests of working people over those of corporations and the super rich come off as rank hypocrisy when we celebrate the ability of wealthy Democratic candidates to pump unlimited personal funds into their own campaigns. Why should any voter be offended by a Koch brother attack ad when DelBene is capable of responding merely by writing herself a fat check?

Nothing against DelBene. She's smart, she's accomplished, and she seems nice enough in person. But politically, she'd be nothing without her personal wealth but a smarter, more accomplished Heidi Behrens-Benedict.

If DelBene wins the primary, I hope I'm wrong. But self-funding candidates have a surprisingly poor track record, and given her performance thus far I wouldn't count on DelBene to be an exception.