Suzan DelBene enters congressional sweepstakes in Washington’s new 1st District

End­ing weeks of spec­u­la­tion as to whether she would join the crowd­ed field of Democ­rats and Repub­li­cans who want to rep­re­sent Wash­ing­ton’s new 1st Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict, Suzan Del­Bene has offi­cial­ly declared her can­di­da­cy for U.S. House, say­ing she has the expe­ri­ence and the vision to rep­re­sent sub­ur­ban and rur­al King, Sno­homish, Skag­it, and Whatom counties.

“The 1st Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict is a diverse dis­trict that has been hit hard by the Great Reces­sion,” Del­Bene said in a news release.

“It needs a rep­re­sen­ta­tive in Con­gress who has the expe­ri­ence and the inno­v­a­tive ideas that will get our econ­o­my back on the right track and cre­ate jobs, and I believe I offer those qual­i­ties. In Con­gress, I plan to work with Pres­i­dent Oba­ma and with mem­bers of both par­ties to break the hyper­par­ti­san grid­lock in D.C. in order to strength­en over­sight of Wall Street, pro­tect con­sumers and assist those in need.”

“I did not make this deci­sion light­ly. I did my home­work before decid­ing to enter the  race. I believe I have the right skills and expe­ri­ence to rep­re­sent the 1st Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict, and I am ful­ly com­mit­ted to win­ning,” Del­Bene said.

Del­Bene faces strong com­pe­ti­tion. Fel­low Democ­rats Dar­cy Burn­er, Lau­ra Rud­er­man, Steve Hobbs, Roger Good­man, and Dar­shan Rau­ni­yar are already in the race. Burn­er has pre­vi­ous­ly run for fed­er­al office twice, while Rud­er­man, Hobbs, and Good­man have all run suc­cess­ful­ly for state Leg­is­la­ture mul­ti­ple times and won.

Only Rau­ni­yar is a newcomer.