Overview

United States House of Representatives elections in Washington, 2006
Party		Votes	Percentage	Seats	+/–
	Democratic	1,320,238	64.27%	6	—
	Republican	721,862	35.14%	3	—
	Independents	11,956	0.58%	0	—
Totals		2,054,056	100.00%	2	—

District 1

Incumbent Democratic Congressman Jay Inslee

Jay Inslee

Jay Robert Inslee is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1999. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes many of Seattle's northern suburbs in King, Snohomish, and Kitsap counties...

 easily dispatched Republican challenger Larry Ishmael to win a sixth term.

District 2

Democratic incumbent Congressman Rick Larsen

Rick Larsen

Richard Ray "Rick" Larsen is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2001. He is a member of the Democratic Party.-Early life, education and career:...

 defeated his Republican opponent, U.S. Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 veteran Doug Roulstone by a solid margin.

District 3

In a slight improvement over his 2004 performance, incumbent Democratic Congressman Brian Baird

Brian Baird

Brian Norton Baird is a former U.S. Representative for , serving from 1999 until 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district comprises the counties of Thurston, Lewis, Pacific, Wahkiakum, Cowlitz, Clark, and Skamania....

 easily won a fifth term over Republican challenger Michael Messmore.

District 4

In his bid for a seventh term, Republican incumbent Congressman Doc Hastings

Doc Hastings

Richard Norman "Doc" Hastings is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1995. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district includes most of the central part of the state, including Yakima, Wenatchee, and the Tri-Cities....

 beat back a spirited challenge from Democratic nominee Richard Wright. Those Hastings eventually beat Wright by a fairly solid margin, it was not the kind of landslides that Hastings usually experienced in this strongly conservative district based in Central Washington

Central Washington

Central Washington is a region of the United States defined as the western half of Eastern Washington, or those counties lying east of the Cascade Mountains but west of the 119th meridian west....

.

District 5

Like neighboring Congressman Hastings

Doc Hastings

Richard Norman "Doc" Hastings is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1995. He is a member of the Republican Party. The district includes most of the central part of the state, including Yakima, Wenatchee, and the Tri-Cities....

, incumbent Republican Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers faced a surprisingly strong challenge from Democratic nominee Peter J. Goldmark

Peter J. Goldmark

Peter James Goldmark is the Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands and heads the Washington Department of Natural Resources. He is a Democrat from a rural part of Okanogan County, Washington, outside of the town of Okanogan....

 in her conservative, Eastern Washington

Eastern Washington

Eastern Washington is the portion of the U.S. state of Washington east of the Cascade Range. The region contains the city of Spokane , the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and the fertile farmlands of the Yakima Valley and the...

 district. Though Rodgers ultimately edged Goldmark out by a comfortable margin, the race got close enough for CQ Politics to change its rating on the race to Republican Favored from Safe Republican.

District 6

Long-serving Democratic incumbent Norm Dicks, a high-ranking member on the Appropriations Committee

United States House Committee on Appropriations

The Committee on Appropriations is a committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is in charge of setting the specific expenditures of money by the government of the United States...

 did not face a credible challenge to his bid for a sixteenth term from conservative activist Doug Cloud in this liberal, Kitsap Peninsula

Kitsap Peninsula

The Kitsap Peninsula is an arm of land that is part of the larger Olympic Peninsula in Washington state that lies west of Seattle across Puget Sound. Hood Canal separates Kitsap Peninsula from the rest of the Olympic Peninsula...

-based district.

District 7

In his bid for a ninth term, incumbent Democratic Congressman Jim McDermott

Jim McDermott

James Adelbert "Jim" McDermott is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1989. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The 7th District includes most of Seattle and Vashon Island, and portions of Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Tukwila, SeaTac, and Burien.He serves on the House Ways and Means...

 easily beat out Republican nominee Steve Beren and independent Linnea S. Noreen in this very liberal, Seattle-based district.

District 8

In 2004, then-King County

King County, Washington

King County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. The population in the 2010 census was 1,931,249. King is the most populous county in Washington, and the 14th most populous in the United States....

 Sheriff Dave Reichert

Dave Reichert

David George Reichert is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2005. He is a member of the Republican Party. He previously served as Sheriff of King County, Washington.-Early life, education and career:...

 won his first campaign for the United States House of Representatives

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

 by a five-point margin. 2006 proved to be just as tough of a year for Reichert. Facing former Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

 executive Darcy Burner

Darcy Burner

Darcy Gibbons Burner is a Democrat from Carnation, Washington. She was a candidate for in 2006 and 2008, but lost to incumbent Dave Reichert in both elections. She worked for twelve years in high technology including five years at Microsoft as a Marketing Manager, working on .NET...

 for the first time, Reichert faced a grueling battle for re-election. Polls taken in October showed the two candidates to be about even and the two major newspapers in the area--the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is an online newspaper and former print newspaper covering Seattle, Washington, United States, and the surrounding metropolitan area...

 and the Seattle Times--split their endorsements: The Post-Intelligencer endorsed Burner while the Times supported Reichert. Ultimately, though, a few weeks after election day, it became evident that Reichert had beat out Burner and had won a second term.

District 9

Incumbent Democratic Congressman Adam Smith

Adam Smith (politician)

David Adam Smith , American politician, has been a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 1997, representing Washington's 9th congressional district.-Biography:...

 easily beat out Republican candidate Steven Cofchin for a sixth term in this Western Washington

Western Washington

Western Washington is a region of the United States defined as that part of Washington west of the Cascade Mountains.It is known as being far wetter in climate than the eastern portion of the state, which...

 district based in the Puget Sound

Puget Sound

Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...

.