AUSTIN -- Running in Washington's 8th Congressional District, which has never sent a Democrat to Congress, Darcy Burner is taking on incumbent GOP Rep. Dave Reichert for the second consecutive election. The race in 2006 was one of the closest in the country, and this year appears to be no different. This district, which encompasses eastern Seattle and its suburbs, gave both John Kerry and Al Gore narrow wins in the last two presidential elections.

Burner sat down with RealClearPolitics today at Netroots Nation and told us, among other things, why she thinks she can defeat Reichert this year. Here is an excerpt of the interview:

RCP: Why do you think you'll become the first Democrat to be elected to Congress in Washington's 8th District?

BURNER: It's time. This is the right campaign and I'm the right candidate. This is a district that has been changing a lot over the last several years. The number of new people in the district is huge, and the people who have lived in the district are also changing. It's not a district, or frankly a state, with really strong party affiliation. We don't register by party in Washington. When I go out talking to voters in the district, I regularly talk to people who have for many many many years supported Jennifer Dunn, a Republican in the seat, but who are at this point really excited about sending me to Congress, really excited about sending Barack Obama to the presidency. We came within five voters per precinct of winning last time, and this is a pretty phenomenal year. We've got a lot to build on.

RCP: You got a big applause at the opening Netroots Nation event last night when your name was mentioned and seem to have big support from the Netroots community as a whole. Why do the Netroots love you?

BURNER: [Laughs] Honestly, the biggest thing, I think, is I'm willing to talk with them. When you have citizens in a democracy who are really enthusiastic about participating, who want to get involved, who want to engage in the political process, the obvious thing to do is to engage them. That's probably, frankly, the biggest piece of it. I am delighted to talk to citizens in my district about the issues that they care about. I'm delighted to talk to journalists about whatever they want to talk about. I'm delighted to talk to citizen-activists, citizen-journalists who are interested in getting engaged in the political process. When I have a conversation with McJoan [Joan McCarter, a contributing editor at DailyKos], about warrantless wiretapping and FISA, the way that the national security versus the 4th Amendment stuff is playing out, that's an area in which she's very passionate. It's an area in which I'm pretty passionate. And she's communicating with all these activists who want to participate in this country, which is a great thing.