I recently received a plea for fundraising from Congressman Dave Reichert saying, “Now more than ever, we must work together to fight the liberal special-interest group that is spending big money targeting our district to push their radical agenda.”

So I did some digging on FollowTheMoney.org, downloaded a list of Reichert campaign donations by zip code for the 2016 election, and then looked up every zip code on the list. If it was in Washington, I figured out what district it was in. Here’s what I learned:

Reichert listed 1,557 donations, raising a total of $1,655,867.43 for the 2016 election. Only 30 percent of that money is from inside Washington state.

Worse, only 7.08 percent of the total comes from inside his district.

For a guy who’s worried about special-interest groups targeting his district, he’s getting 70 percent of his money from outside his state and an astounding 92 percent of support from outside his district. Reichert is right, special interests are involved, and he’s serving them by supporting contributors outside of his district rather than listening to the voices of his actual constituents.

So before you donate or vote for a candidate, make sure you understand who’s funding them.

Eve Gordon

Issaquah