Scooped.

I guess I should be a little sheepish about getting Upper Left news from the other Washington, but Jesse Lee at The Stakeholder has the scoop on WA-8, offering an article from The Stranger as a textbook example of what the DCCC can do where it matters.

Reichert, who led former KIRO talker Dave Ross, the Democratic candidate, by 16 points in an early September pre-primary poll, has now fallen 10 points behind Ross according to a poll of 500 likely voters conducted between September 29 and October 3 and released last week. Much of the shift appears to be due to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's hard-hitting attack ads, which portray Reichert as unready for federal office and too socially conservative for the swing district.

Why do I keep posting a link to the Upper Left Majority Makers page? Because it works. But don't take my word for it, or the D-Trip's for that matter. Ask Chris Vance, the Washington State Republican chair...

Vance admits, though, that the Democratic ads have had an effect: "They did a very smart thing by being ready to go right after the primary. They stole a couple of weeks on us."

It ain't over, of course, until it's over.

The National Republican Campaign Committee and the Reichert campaign have begun their own major ad campaigns, which include sharp attacks on Ross, and Reichert is sharply curtailing his mano-a-mano face-offs with Ross, where his less-than-sturdy grasp of policy questions has sometimes been apparent.

We're winning, but we haven't won, so here's that link again.