Darcy Burner and Dave Reichert, archrivals in their race for Congress, appeared to be on the same side in the debate over last week’s action on a bailout of the nation’s financial industry.

Reichert, the Republican U.S. representative for the 8th District that includes Covington and Maple Valley, opposed the bailout legislation that the House of Representatives approved last Friday by a vote of 263 to 171. That vote followed the Senate’s approval earlier in the week.

Both candidates said the legislation doesn’t go far enough. They compared it to diagnosing a medical illness without trying to cure it.

Burner, a Democrat, said Congress is “treating an infection with aspirin instead of an antibiotic. It’ll take the fever down but not cure the underlying infection.”

“There’s a better way,” Reichert said, “to get this done than to rush to authorize an unprecedented sum of taxpayer dollars for which we have little assurance that it addresses the real illness in our financial system, and not just a symptom of it. This proposed remedy could be more harmful than the illness.”

Reichert said he was pleased that the legislation sent by the Senate to the House included an increase in FDIC insurance from $100,000 to $250,000. But he said the measure lacked restrictions on the U.S. Treasury’s authority and solutions using private capital instead of taxpayer dollars.

“Reforming the banking system” and being “really smart in how we invest to grow the economy,” referring to the federal government’s rescue of banks crippled by the nationwide mortgage crisis, were the themes of Burner’s brief presentation during a meeting last Thursday of the Redmond Rotary Club.

Reichert was invited to the luncheon meeting, as well. But he was engrossed in the vote in Washington, D.C. on the $700 billion bailout, so Burner appeared solo.

Burner told the Rotarians that her college degree “is in computer science and economics. The last couple weeks, this has come in very handy. It’s what’s on everyone’s minds.”

She traced the country’s economic woes back to 1999, when banks were released from restrictions that prohibited them from risky mortgage transactions. People’s income has gone down while costs of food, fuel and housing have steadily increased, she noted, which “makes it a whole lot harder for families to pay their bills. Banks have extended more and more credit and made riskier and riskier mortgages, with everyone hoping reality wouldn’t catch up. But reality caught up.”

She expressed concern for middle-class Americans who are caught in the middle of the problem. Reichert had a similar view in a statement posted on his congressional Web site.

“It is imperative that we act to ensure that middle-class families and entrepreneurs have access to credit, so that they can buy homes, put children through college, grow businesses and create jobs,” he said.

Burner alluded that Republicans — including Reichert — have contributed to the problem when she said, “We have to get this country back on track. We’ve been off track for eight years.”

A member of the audience commented, “People are sick of partisanship. Blame is on both sides.”

Burner acknowledged that there must be agreement across party lines to reform the banking industry.

“I don’t think either party is completely right or wrong. We can’t fix the problem we have without addressing the mortgages,” she said.

Describing herself as “socially progressive and fiscally conservative,” Burner urged helping the economy by “investing in new industries” instead of giving “massive subsidies to the oil companies.”

Burner and Reichert, waging a rematch of their race two years ago that Reichert narrowly won, are scheduled for a joint campaign appearance during a debate format today in Bellevue at Meydenbauer Center. The election is on Nov. 4.

The Redmond Reporter contributed to this report.