Reichert's Fundraising Numbers Full of Holes

While the Republicans try to spin a mathematical formula that makes Dave Reichert's Q2 fundraising tally of $569,076 somehow greater than Darcy Burner's total of $590,460, it is interesting to also take a look at how well Dave Reichert is reporting his numbers in the first place.

OpenSecrets.org maintains charts showing the Quality of Disclosure. They explain how to read the charts in the following manner:

Federal election laws require that all contributions of more than $200 be itemized, with the donor's name, address, occupation and employer fully disclosed. Most candidates fully identify the great majority of their donors' occupations and employers - an important point, if voters are to see the economic interests giving to the candidate. The chart at left lists the quality of disclosure of donors' occupations and employers for each candidate in the race.

METHODOLOGY: The numbers on this page are calculated from contributions of more than $200 from individuals, as reported by the candidates to the Federal Election Commission. PAC dollars are not included.

NOTE: All the numbers on this page are for the 2005-2006 House election cycle, based on Federal Election Commission data released on Monday, July 10, 2006. Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics.

While OpenSecrets.org reports Burner at 100% full disclosure, Reichert lags badly at only 82%, with almost $106,898 of itemized contributions lacking any information about the donor's employer and/or occupation, and $8,199 more in itemized contributions with incomplete or vague information.

That's very sloppy reporting by the Reichert campaign and by far the worst quality of disclosure of all the candidates for all the congressional races in Washington, House or Senate.

Here's the complete list as reported at OpenSecrets.org:

%Full Disclosure/Race - Candidate

100% Sen - Aaron L. Dixon (G)
100% 08 - Darcy Burner (D)
100% 05 - Cathy McMorris (R) *
100% 04 - Richard Wright (D)
100% 04 - Claude Lloyd Oliver (R)
100% 03 - Brian Baird (D) *
  99% 08 - Randolph Ian Gordon (D)
  99% 04 - Doc Hastings (R) *
  99% 02 - Douglas Robert Roulstone (R)
  97% 07 - Jim McDermott (D) *
  97% 06 - Norm Dicks (D) *
  97% 02 - Rick Larsen (D) *
  96% 01 - Jay Inslee (D) *
  95% Sen - Maria Cantwell (D) *
  95% 09 - Steven Charles Cofchin (R)
  95% 09 - Adam Smith (D) *
  94% Sen - Michael McGavick (R)
  82% 08 - Dave Reichert (R) *

* indicates incumbent

Come on Dave Reichert, get with the program and provide full disclosure on all your itemized contributions - voters shouldn't have to wonder what you might be hiding be leaving out the missing information.