More wishful thinking by Republicans: NRCC operative claims Suzan DelBene is vulnerable

After watching Pedro Celis pull ahead of fellow Republican Robert Sutherland for the distant second place spot in the race for the 1st Congressional District, The Seattle Times’ Jim Brunner decided to ask the NRCC for comment. NRCC operative Robert Jones, who is based out of Portland, offered up some pretty nice spin. Check it out:

Despite the tight [election], Robert Jones, regional political director for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said Celis “is in a really good spot going into the fall.” He noted DelBene’s support was barely above 50 percent – signaling her vulnerability as an incumbent.

How is Celis in a “really good spot”? Up until a couple hours ago, he wasn’t even in second place, which meant he was in jeopardy of being eliminated. Even if he gets to move on, his campaign has already taken a hit from his incredibly poor showing.

As for DelBene, the fact that she’s polling above fifty percent despite having six challengers (the most of any congressional incumbent in the state) shows she is actually not vulnerable. She has more votes than all of her opponents combined, and she has more than three times the number of votes that Celis has.

By Jones’ standards, Republican incumbent Jaime Herrera-Beutler is really vulnerable. She’s the sole congressional incumbent in the state who is actually below fifty percent in the winnowing election and she only has two challengers – Democrat Bob Dingethal and Republican Michael Delavar. Herrera-Beutler has also been in office longer, yet she is doing more poorly than DelBene.