I’m supposed to be finishing another story tonight, but I’ve just come from Darcy Burner’s primary night party...and I have in front of me the results of the important races tonight in Washington’s newfangled "top two" primary.

It is unfair to extrapolate the results of elections in the "People’s Republic of Washington" directly onto a national map, but as I look as these results it seems fair to say that if any Republican strategists aren’t sweating bullets this morning it’s because they’ll be hustling for votes in towns like Maggie Valley, North Carolina (don’t forget to stop by Saratoga’s for the Wednesday night jazz...)...or, perhaps, Bessemer Bend, Wyoming.

For the rest of the Republican community, tonight’s events are not good news.

We have a fair amount to cover, so let’s get to it.

Almost every Tuesday is primary day somewhere, it seems, and today Wyoming and Washington state get the honors.

The most hotly contested primary race of interest is the Republican race in Wyoming's at-large U.S. House district, where Republican Barbara Cubin's retirement has created an exciting open-seat race.

Orange to Blue Democrat Gary Trauner is the Democratic nominee, while four Republicans (two of them serious candidates) squared off for the nomination.

The GOP nomination, which was contested primarily between wealthy rancher Mark Gordon and Wyoming State Treasurer Cynthia Lummis, has apparently gone Lummis' way. She won by 9 points, 46% to 37%.

That's just fine for Trauner, as he won't have to face Gordon's self-funding capabilities ($1 million of his $1.2 million raised was out of pocket), nor his favorable profile (seems to be a good fit for Wyoming, as a rancher).

Lummis has won statewide office before, it is true. But she also has a longstanding feud with popular Democratic Governor Dave Freudenthal, which may spur the Governor to campaign harder for Trauner this cycle than he did during Trauner's narrow 2006 loss.

As mcjoan noted earlier, this was an exceptionally ugly primary, and there may well be bad blood between Lummis' supporters, and Gordon's, for several months. Also, both GOP candidates have dumped their financial resources into this race, while Trauner, running unopposed, sits on a nice nest egg of $660,000.

Meanwhile, it is also primary day in Washington State, and the inaugural primary for their "top two" system. This is somewhat similar to Louisiana's old "jungle primary" in that the top two finishers advance to the general, regardless of party. However, unlike the jungle primary, you can't win the whole thing by getting 50% on election day; it is a real primary election.

There are no real competitive primaries at the federal level in Washington state this time out, so this is essentially a beauty contest for general-election candidates. Turnout is expected to be high for a primary in Washington, due to their mail-in ballot system. As such, some were touting the Washington primaries as a preview of the general election matchups between Governor Christine Gregoire and her Republican opponent Dino Rossi, and between Republican Rep. Dave Reichert and his opponent, Orange to Blue Democrat Darcy Burner.

If they are previews of the general, however, we haven't learned anything we didn't know before; both election are going to be very close.

Gregoire is currently edging Rossi, 48% to 46%. She will likely finish the night with a slim lead as well.

Meanwhile, Burner trails Reichert, 47% to 44%, as of last note. However, the total Democratic vote in WA-08 currently exceeds 50%, which is good news.

Given the vagaries of the mail-in system, it's unlikely that results will be official until tomorrow or even Thursday. So good night to you all; we will post the percentages for WA-Gov and WA-08 as soon as we can.

Update: It's now 9 AM Eastern, and well under 50% of precincts are in, both statewide and in WA-08. This may take a while.

On the web:
Darcy Burner for Congress
Gary Trauner for Congress
Orange to Blue ActBlue Page

Darcy Burner is  trailing Reichert a bit in the Washington open primary, but still very fired up.

There has been a lot written in recent weeks about the "ground game" in this election campaign and its potential importance in key November races.

I have been canvassing for Darcy Burner in the East side suburbs of Seattle for the past two weeks. Today was primary day in Washington state. With our new "top two" primary system, the candidates (Democrat and Republican) were running directly against each other even in the primary. If there were two strong Democrats running in one district, it would be possible to have them push the Republican off the November ballot.

Well, the Washington Secretary of State has just posted the results.  Unfortunately they forgot the numbers.  I'll keep updating this as the night goes on.

Link is here.

While Darcy Burner is unopposed in her primary election tomorrow, the race will still provide a bit of a preview for November. Washington state has adopted a ridiculous "top-two" primary system, with every candidate listed on the ballot and their party "preference" indicated rather than a real party identification. The top two vote getters from tomorrow's primary will advance on to the general election--in most cases there isn't any question who will be the top two, so the outcome is pretty much already determined. Like I said, ridiculous.

And not particularly popular, with very poor turnout expected, given the lack of suspense. So far, only about 27% of ballots have been returned (Washington has high absentee/mail-in voter participation). Despite the low turnout projected, the primary could still provide a bit of a preview of November.

To that end, getting the vote out for Darcy Burner tomorrow is the campaign's top priority. So folks in Western Washington, if you can help out by volunteering to work on GOTV, contact the Burner campaign to pitch in. And don't forget to vote. Even if it is a silly primary system, it's all we got.

Today I was one of 10 donors from Microsoft invited to lunch by Darcy Burner's campaign at a favorite Mexican restaurant close to campus. There were people there from her old team, some MS activists, and your truly who became a citizen almost a year ago.

She obviously took pleasure in talking with a simpatico crowd. Like they say, smart as a whip. She stressed the importance of the primaries (below). She talked fluidly and intelligently about healthcare and energy. She marveled at the huge increase in Democratic registration in the 8th (and listened patiently to my anecdote about all the new Democrats being created out of us long-time residents). Yes, Darcy, that was me, hi!

More...

This is a great two for one special. I've got my own Two for One Special. For every dollar donated to candidates at Two For Tuesdays I will donate two dollars (up to the first $100 donated).

For every rec I get, I will donate $.25 cents to our candidates. Up to 250 recs.

Darcy Burner's strong campaign and phenomenal fundraising has the Republican incumbent Reichert, and his GOP buddies, more than a little concerned. Which has led them to a really not politically smart effort:

Just before the August recess, a group of well-connected young Republicans calling themselves Club 218 attempted to make up the difference, arranging a fundraiser for Reichert, according to news reports.

The problem?

Roll Call recently listed some of Club 218’s members, including Mike Chappell, a lobbyist for the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. at Fierce, Isakowitz and Blalock; and Christopher Cox, a D.C. Navigators’ lobbyist for Alabama Aircraft Industries, which is fighting Boeing on a tanker maintenance contract.

EADS is teamed with Northrop Grumman in the tanker competition, to assemble the tanker in Mobile, Ala.

There are some 19,000 Boeing employees in Washington's 8th district. Now, the Club 218 people are probably smart enough to make sure that none of Boeing's competitor's lobbyists are going to show up on Reichert's FEC filings. According to the Roll Call article referenced, the event was a joint funder with Darren White, running for NM-01. Undoubtedly, all of the anti-Boeing lobbyists' money was directed to White's campaign rather than Reichert's. But at the same time, these anti-Boeing lobbyists were involved in quietly organizing a lucrative, private special interest funder for Reichert at the Capitol Club.

And it doesn't change the fact that there is an incestuous web of ties between Republican industry lobbyists and Republican members and Reichert is smack dab in the middle of it. All those Boeing employees in his district have the right to question where his loyalties really lie.

On the Web:
Darcy Burner for Congress
Orange to Blue

We are trying to give money to Candidates today and we haven't had any takers. The Progressive Electorate is the proud sponsor of Two For Tuesdays.

We made a pledge last night that we would match dollar for dollar (up to $150) any donations made. Well lets make it a little more enticing. We will match 2 for every dollar up to $150. So we are putting $300 on the table, plus for every rec we get for this diary we will donate 50 cents (up to 250 recs). So we are putting an easy $125 on the table as well as an additional $300 for candidates like

Rick Noriega - TX- Sen, Ronnie Musgrove MS-Sen, Jeff Merkley - Oregon-Sen, Jim Martin - GA Sen;

Congressional Candidates = Josh Segall (AL), Glenn Melancon (TX), Martin Heinrich (NM), Dan Seals (IL), Heather Ryan (KY) and Darcy Burner  (WA)

...to speak to the MSPAC.

For those of you who don't know, MSPAC is Microsoft's Political Action Committee, and basically is a way for employees to meet and listen to various candidates, and ask those candidates questions about usually tech issues, but really anything they want.

Darcy Burner (who worked at Microsoft in case you didn't know) came to speak today, and this was my first chance to hear her in person.

Some snippets of developments in races we are watching. We have a group called Two For Tuesdays. This started as a community group that we were asking for some increment of $2 every tuesday.

Here are five candidates that we want to raise a cummulative $255  for this weekend and hit $3,000 raised this cycle

1. Ronnie Musgrove Miss Senate.

2. Martin Heinrich - NM-01

3. Darcy Burner - WA-08

4. Daniel Johnson - NC -10

5. Glenn Melancon - TX 04

Make the thermometer go up (We will even throw in an extra $20 to whomever wins the poll; as long as we get at least one other new donation)

July started out incredibly badly for Darcy Burner and her family. While the family is still dealing with the loss of pretty much everything they owned, Darcy's future remains as bright as ever. That's in large part thanks to the netroots, who stepped up to help make sure that her campaign could go on in the face of her family's catastrophe.

Saying that we stepped up is putting it mildly:

Burner's campaign has just turned in their pre-primary filing with the FEC, and she's reporting to have raised nearly $351,000 in the month of July, ending the period with close to $1.5 million in the bank. Those are monstrous numbers, especially when you consider that only $18,000 of her total came from PACs.

Reichert's numbers are in, too, and and it doesn't look good for the incumbent. His July take, was just $115K.

Here's the breakdown in their reports for July and for the election cycle to date.

Total for July:
Burner: $350,897.68
Reichert: $115,474.88

From Individuals:
Burner: $329,022.30
Reichert: $49,159.88

Small Individual Donations:
Burner: $186,832.07
Reichert: $8,544.00

Total for Cycle from Individuals:
Burner: $1,995,109.43 (85%)
Reichert: $1,084,379.23 (58%)

PACs for July:
Burner: $18,100.00
Reichert: $62,250.00

Total for Cycle from PACs:
Burner: $296,859.24 (13%)
Reichert: $570,645.46 (31%)

Total for Cycle:
Burner: $2,337,372.67
Reichert: $1,866,086.08

Refunded in Cycle:
Burner: $6,550.01
Reichert: $56,970.00

Cash on Hand:
Burner: $1,476,757.53
Reichert: $928,113.96

It doesn't really get better than that. The difference between a people-powered progressive campaign and that of an establishment Republican really couldn't be made more clear. Also note that Burner's ActBlue numbers are at $416,118, or just under the difference in cash on hand. One of the reasons Darcy gets so much support is because, even though she's not in Congress yet, she's already a leader.

And she'll be talking about one of her projects, the Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq, today on Meet the Bloggers (http://meetthebloggers.org/ [link corrected]) at 1:00 EDT. Her appearance will be followed by a roundtable discussion on Iraq by David Goldstein, Matt Stoller, and me. You can stream the show live and participate through the comment thread, or you can view an archive after it's posted.

This is the first TV spot from netroots favorite and Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq author Darcy Burner.  Now, Darcy ran in 2006 under the thumb of DC consultants, but this time, she's running a more authentic and progressive campaign.  Comparing her bio spot this time, when she's strong enough to know how to run a campaign, with her bio spot from 2006 shows us everything that's wrong with hack cookie cutter media consultants.  Here's this year's spot:

Here's the same spot, in 2006.

SurveyUSA. 7/27-30. Likely voters. MoE 3.8% (6/18 results)

Just some float within the MoE, this thing remains tight. Independents split 45/45, while 16 percent of Democrats still support Reichert. Bringing those voters home will be important for Burner's chances of victory, and to do that, she'll need cash to deliver her message to her district's voters.

It's the end of the month, I was planning on doing a last-minute push to get her over the $150K mark we pledged after her house burned down, so she could focus on putting her life back together rather than fundraising.

Well, heading over to our Orange to Blue ActBlue page,  it turns out that the blogosphere blew by that goal -- she's at $159K. So no need for a last minute push to get her over the goal. But this isn't just a winnable race, but a chance to put a future bona fide and fearless progressive leader in Congress.

Darcy Burner is a candidate seriously worth giving to, regardless of whether we met our goal or not.

On the web:
Darcy Burner for Congress
Orange to Blue ActBlue Page

When we started the Progressive Patriots Fund in 2005, our goal was to promote a progressive reform agenda and support candidates across the country.  To date, we’ve contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars directly to Democratic candidates everywhere, we’ve come a long way on advancing the issues on which we all care for deeply, and in 2006, we hired and trained 20 grassroots activists we call the Patriot Corps, and sent them to work on campaigns across the country.  These paid field staffers were part of the movement that helped Democrats retake the House and Senate in 2006 and as many of you already know – from our emails and ads here and elsewhere online – we’re once again looking to make the Patriot Corps an important part of our effort to build on the Progressive movement sweeping through our nation.    

You can find more information about the 2008 Patriot Corps, and view a video message from me below the fold.

I am now approaching the end of my first NN and have had the privilege to see a number of the brighter lights in the Democratic firmament.  While we didn't have a current presidential candidate - unless you count Bob Barr - We had Al Gore, Wes Clark, Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, Gavin Newsom and no doubt others I'm forgetting.  These are all very big names.  Some we love, others we have a more complicated relationship with.  But each of them has undeniably played a very important role.  And yet one sweet-faced and unassuming woman who has yet to hold elective office was loved and cheered like no one else

After I get off work today, I'm going to go home and pack for Netroots Nation.  One of the items I'll be bringing with me is the custom button that Darcy Burner, our netroots favorite Congressional Candidate in Washington's 8th District, made for me at a fundraiser I helped put together for her in Los Angeles.

Despite the tragedy that befell Darcy's family on July 1st in which a fire rendered their beautiful home a total loss, Darcy will be taking the time to attend Netroots Nation as well.

Not only will she be attending, she'll be one of the celebrity bartenders (Facebook login required) at the Young Voter PAC afterparty Saturday night in Austin!  Imagine that--she loves the netroots so much she's willing to serve us all a beer.  That's family.

Regardless, though--in the aftermath of the fire that destroyed Darcy's home, we in the netroots stepped up to the fundraising plate.  We set a target, but we're still a few thousand short.

More below the fold.