As I predicted last night (and no, I did not have any advance copy), a new KING5/SurveyUSA poll has Suzan DelBene leading fellow Democrat Darcy Burner 17 percent to 13 percent in Washington's 1st Congressional District, with Laura Ruderman, Steve Hobbs, and Darshan Rauniyar trailing at 6, 5, and 2 percent respectively. John Koster, the only Republican in the race, leads all candidates with 38 percent. The poll has a 4.2 percent margin of error.

This is the first poll to show DelBene with a lead, a slight advantage she gained only after $1.9 million of personal funds bought her weeks of nearly unchallenged TV ads.

All that advertising also bought DelBene into a 42-42 head to head tie with Koster, but then Burner is also polling a dead heat with Koster, but without spending a dime on TV. Hard to see how this confirms the conventional wisdom that DelBene would be the stronger challenger in November.

In other WA-01 news, apart from DelBene's additional $900,000 contribution to her own campaign, Burner was by far the leader in contributions raised during the July 1 to 18 pre-primary reporting period, and she did it with an average of only $40 per conribution.

Burner: $61,543.53
Ruderman: $39,829.00
Koster: $15,163.00
DelBene: $14,697.55
Hobbs: $10,500.00
Rauniar: $6,273.22

But you know, who needs to go through all the hard work of calling people up, talking to them, and asking them for money, when you can just write yourself a check?