Try, Try Again

It sounds like Darcy Burner 2.0: Over in the Eastside’s 8th
Congressional District, a former Microsoft manager with no previous
political experience has announced she’s running for Congress as a
Democrat. Her name is Suzan DelBene, and she arrives on the political
scene less than six months after Burner, also a former Microsoft
manager with no previous political experience, failed in her second
attempt to push out Republican congressman Dave Reichert.

“I’m a different person, so things will be a little bit different,”
DelBene said in a recent phone interview from her Bellevue office.
Indeed, while the two have some broad-brush similarities in their
résumés, DelBene, 47, is older and worked at a much
higher level at Microsoft, serving as a vice president at a time when
only 15 women held executive titles (Burner, 38, was a midlevel
manager). Born in Selma, Alabama, DelBene went to college at Reed in
Oregon and received an MBA from the University of Washington before
landing high-level roles at tech startups and, later, supervising
marketing for Microsoft’s mobile-communications arm. She was against
the Iraq war, is pro-choice, and says she is “supportive of gay unions
and having equal rights for gay couples under the law.”

DelBene said her lack of political experience won’t be a liability
and could be a plus given the recession and Reichert’s recent vote
against President Obama’s stimulus package. “Political experience alone
does not prepare folks for understanding how our economy works and what
it actually takes to make a business,” she said. Given the Democrats’
history of failed attempts at grabbing the 8th District
seat—which has been in Republican hands since its creation in
1982—this will be a tough fight. Still, Dwight Pelz, chair of the
Washington State Democrats, said DelBene is a “very impressive”
candidate.

An Interview with 8th District Congressional Candidate Suzan DelBene

Eli Sanders: You’re running for Congress in the 8th Congressional
District, a seat that has never been won by a Democrat. And you’re
running on the heels of two tough, back-to-back losses by Democratic
challenger Darcy Burner. What lessons did you learn from watching
Burner’s two failed campaigns?

Suzan DelBene: I filed to run in February, and I’ve been going
around the district listening over the last couple of months. The key
things that I hear are people really want to make sure that time is
spent not only in northern King County but also in south King County
and Pierce County. It’s a big district, and it’s important for the
campaign that we spend a lot of time throughout the district, and so
that’s one key issue. [Also,] I think that the economic issues we face
are really the overwhelming ones and encompass all the different issues
that are on people’s minds today. The conversation in this race will be
different because it really is about the economy and jobs and
education. Not just the economy and how we fix it tomorrow, but what do
we do to set up our district for long-term financial strength, economic
strength, prosperity for the folks in the district over the next 10 or
20 years?

Do you plan on courting bloggers and using national Netroots money
in the same ways that Burner did?

Well, I think I’m a different person, so things will be a little bit
different. But, definitely, national support is important for a
congressional campaign anywhere. But in the end, the people who can
vote for you are the people in the district, and so, really, it’s about
making sure that you spend time there and raising money to support the
campaign. We’ve done the first quarter of raising money, and we’re in
the process of filing those numbers right now—I think we’re doing
pretty well and started out with a lot of strong numbers to report.

Can you provide a preview of those numbers?

We don’t have the final numbers right now, but we should have them
before the end of the week.

You’re a woman. You’re a former Microsoft manager. You’re new to
politics. To the average person, you may come off as Darcy Burner
2.0.

I am a woman [laughs]. I was a Microsoft executive. Out of 80,000
people, there are only about 120 Microsoft executives out there, and
about 15 of those—at the time I was there—were woman, so I
was one of those 15 women. I have been CEO of a company, I’ve helped
start up companies before… I worked in biotechnology before that. I
have a pretty broad business background. I’ve worked a lot with folks
who are trying to get back on their feet, both with the YWCA in King
and Snohomish counties, and work that I’ve done with Global
Partnership, an organization that does microfinance in Latin America.
And something that’s been very important to me has been to help people
get back on track. Right now we need to spend a lot of time helping
people get back on track, because the economic situation has been
hard—people have lost jobs and are struggling to provide for
themselves and their families.

What was your exact position at Microsoft?

I was a corporate vice president, and I was at Microsoft for just
under 14 years.

Do you think it’s an asset or a liability to have some broad overlap
between your résumé and Burner’s?

I think people are looking for someone to help solve the problems
they’re facing today, and who’s available and can hear their issue and
come up with solutions. That’s what I’ve done throughout my career,
that’s what my résumé says, and that’s what I think what
people are looking for.

Like Burner, you don’t have any previous political experience.
Republicans have shown that they will try to make this into a
vulnerability. How will you protect yourself from this?

I don’t have legislative experience, and I haven’t run for elected
office before. When I talk to folks about what we need in Congress
today—really, and based on the issues we’re facing, we need folks
who have strong business experience. We’re trying to figure out how to
save banks and car companies and set up a plan that creates jobs for
the future, and we need people who have experience in doing that.
That’s the experience that I have. And when I talk to folks throughout
the district, they agree that we need people with that experience,
because political experience alone does not prepare folks for
understanding how our economy works and what it actually takes to make
a business.

Okay, but given that politics is often about sound bites, what is
your sound-bite response to the inevitable inexperience charge?

I think the quick answer is that this race is not going to be lost
by résumé. It might be won by a résumé, and
I think that the strength of my résumé speaks for itself.
I also think that the real issue at hand is having someone who will
bring new ideas to the table and get things done. My
résumé is about getting things done, and I think that
[Republican congressman Dave] Reichert needs to stand on his
congressional record so far and what he’s accomplished. And I don’t
think he’s done a lot given that he’s been there as long as he has.
Bringing new ideas to the table and initiating legislation is not about
showing up; it’s about being active in leading.

The election is still a long way off, but given what you know now,
what recent actions by Reichert will you be highlighting in your
campaign?

Well, he voted against stimulus. And to my earlier point, if you’re
going to vote against something then bring a new idea to the table, an
alternative idea to the table. Don’t just say, “I didn’t have time to
read it.” These are critical issues. You stay up all night and you read
the bill.

Did Reichert say that he didn’t have time to read the stimulus
bill?

That was the general Republican response. That there wasn’t time to
review the bill before they had to vote for it. Separately, he voted
against Planned Parenthood, against Lily Ledbetter—just social
issues that I think are important, women’s issues. And he’s voted
against those, and he hasn’t been initiating legislation that is
critical for our district, and critical in Congress. This is his third
term: He should be leading at this point, and I haven’t seen that
leadership.

Let’s talk about a couple of issues. Where are you on abortion and
gay marriage?

I am pro-choice. I’m supportive of gay unions and having equal
rights for gay couples under the law as married couples do today. I
support what I think the federal government supports, which is letting
people have equal legal rights under the law. I think there is
separation of church and state, and so churches have to decide what
they want to support and anoint, that’s their decision. But legally we
should make sure that gay couples have equal rights to married
couples.

You’re talking about protecting church and state, but are you aware
that even states that allow gay marriage, such as Massachusetts, don’t
force churches to perform gay marriages if they don’t want to?

Yes, and I think that’s correct. I just want to be clear that the
government has a particular role that it plays, and we’ve tended to
blur the line these days.

Speaking of blurriness, I’m still a bit blurry on whether you
support gay marriage or civil unions.

I support equal rights under the law.

Where were you on the Iraq war before it began, and where are you on
the war now?

I think that we had no right to invade Iraq—and obviously I
even have more of the benefit of the information that has come out
since then, which says that it was wrong to do the thing in the first
place. But I never felt like it was ever a good thing to do. Now I am
supportive of President Obama’s plan to withdraw, but obviously we need
to make sure we leave a stable country behind, and so we have a
responsibility as we withdraw to help support them in that process.

Why is it that Barack Obama can rack up a double-digit margin of
victory in the 8th District but Democratic Congressional candidates
can’t?

I don’t know that a Democratic congressional candidate can’t. I
think that one hasn’t. It’s a combination of a lot of things, but in
the end it comes down to who shows up to vote and how they feel about
the candidate in front of them at that point in time. And so the
numbers are what they were on that particular day, but as I talk to
folks and as I look at all the data, etc., this is definitely a
district that is Democratic and I think is very open to having
Democratic representation.

So what will you be doing differently than past Democratic
congressional challengers?

A couple things. One, making sure that we spend a lot of time
talking and listening to folks and understanding their issues. Working
throughout the district, like I said earlier. I think it’s very
important that south King County and Pierce County feel represented in
the district. I’ve spent a bunch of time there, and I’ll continue to do
that. Second, I think the district is a very diverse district socially
and fiscally. And so it’s really about coming up with ideas and
solutions for policies that address not only the social issues that are
important to people but the fiscal issues that are important to people.
My experience on the fiscal side I think is very critical. I’ve worked
with small business and big business, and I feel like I can have the
conversation on both sides and that’s very important, because the
district is represented by people across the board.

Were you born in the 8th District?

I was not. I was born in Alabama. In Selma, Alabama. But I did go to
kindergarten and first grade on Mercer Island before we moved away
again… Then I came back to go to college—I came back to the
Northwest to go to college in Oregon, and then was in Oregon for about
eight years and then moved up here… I lived in Seattle for the first
few years, and I’ve lived in the district for about the past 13
years.

What is your religious background?

I am an Episcopalian. I currently am Episcopalian.

And how old are you?

I’m 47. I have two kids. An 18-year-old daughter who is heading off
to college this fall, amazingly enough, and a 16-year-old son. My
husband, Kurt, is a vice president at Microsoft.

The campaign is still pretty young, but what’s your immediate plan
going forward?

We closed the first quarter, so fundraising is always a part of what
needs to happen in the early stages of the campaign—spending a
lot of time meeting with folks. That’s what I’ll be doing over the next
few months… meeting with people throughout the district and talking
to various other people from different issue organizations, political
organizations, labor leaders, etc….a lot of that will happen over the
next couple months, especially after the current state legislative
session ends.

Burner put some of her own money into her campaign. Are you going to
be doing the same?

Yes, I will support my campaign, too. I feel like I need to do my
part if I’m going to ask others to also support me. I have put some
personal money in already, and that will come out as part of the filing
for the first quarter. It will be out by the end of this week.

Are you in a position where you could finance this run on your
own?

No, and I do not intend to. I think it’s important that a campaign
is represented by people who support the person running, and if you
aren’t getting support from a broad set of people then that probably
doesn’t speak well for the long-term success of the campaign.

Transcribed by Stranger intern Aaron Pickus.