Washington: Brian Baird

Eight of Washington’s nine U.S. Representatives have already punched their ticket back to Washington, D.C. with electoral victories that were known within moments of the polls closing Tuesday night at 8PM, the one exception being Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Auburn) in the battleground 8th District.

Their path was easier than one might have thought. Despite Congress currently garnering a voter approval rating below 20 percent, the power of incumbency runs strong among Washington’s U.S. Representatives.

[img_assist|nid=733|title=Rick Bart (R-Arlington)|desc=Politicker photo|link=none|align=left|width=152|height=200]A number of Washington's congressional challengers have, in lieu of being able to vote, issued their own statements on Monday's failed bailout. Ironically, the only instance in which challenger and incumbent agreed was in the deadlocked 8th District, where Darcy Burner (D-Carnation) and Rep. Dave Reichert both opposed the bill.

The National Republican Congressional Committee is going local, even here in Washington, with the scandal plaguing Congressman Charlie Rangel (D-NY). In light of the revelation that Rangel has admitted to owing thousands in back taxes, the NRCC is attempting to tie local Congressmen and candidates to Rangel, and has called on three of them -Darcy Burner (D-Carnation), Rep. Brian Baird (D-Vancouver) and Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Arlington)-to return all contributions from Rangel's PAC.

DENVER - Brian Baird walked up to the stage at this morning's delegate breakfast with a computer in his hand, opened it up, and placed it on the podium. The 3rd District U.S. Representative from Vancouver then proceeded to read excerpts from an e-mail being passed around among opponents of Barack Obama. The e-mail included a number of false and offensive claims about his history and policy plans.

"We have a responsibility to counter this," Baird proclaimed. "This is an American success story and they are slandering it."