How many of Washington state’s nine House seats went Republican in 1994?

a) 5

b) 6

c) 7

d) 8

Answer: c) The 7-2 edge that the GOP grabbed in 1994 — during a national campaign that swept the party into a House majority — is both testimony to Washington’s longtime status as a swing state and how far the pendulum has swung back to the Democrats in recent years.

The Democrats actually entered the 1994 elections holding eight of Washington’s nine seats. But the GOP made a six-seat pickup that year. Their most dramatic triumph came in the eastern 5th District in which Republican George Nethercutt upset House Speaker Thomas S. Foley, who was seeking a 16th House term. Republican candidates also defeated incumbents Maria Cantwell in the 1st District, Jolene Unsoeld in the 3rd, Jay Insleein the 4th and Mike Kreidler in the 9th, and also won the 2nd District seat Democratic Rep. Al Swift left open to retire.

The only Democratic survivors of that purge were Norm Dicks in the 6th District and Jim McDermottin the 7th, both of whom still are in the House. Gradually, they regained plenty of company on the Democratic side of the aisle:

• In 1996, Democrat Adam Smith avenged Kreidler’s loss by ending the one-term tenure of Republican Randy Tate in suburban Seattle’s 9th District.

• Inslee moved from the central Washington 4th District to the Seattle-area 1st and in 1998 ousted Republican Rick White, who had defeated Cantwell.

• That same year, Democrat Brian Baird retook the southwestern 3rd District, which Republican Linda Smith, the 1994 winner over Unsoeld, left open for a Senate bid that failed.

• In 2000, Democrat Rick Larsen won the seat left open by the retirement of Republican Jack Metcalf, who had won the 1994 race to succeed Swift.

All four have maintained their holds on those House seats.

The state’s only remaining House Republican who was swept into office in 1994 is Doc Hastings, who that year unseated Inslee in the 4th District. The state’s other two current GOP members are two-term Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who in 2004 won the 5th District seat that Nethercutt left open for a Senate challenge that he lost to Democratic incumbent Patty Murray, and Dave Reichert, who also in 2004 won the seat in suburban Seattle’s 8th District left open by the retirement of Republican Rep. Jennifer Dunn.

The 8th is a partisan battleground, and Reichert this year faces a tough rematch with Darcy Burner, the Democrat who as a first-time candidate in 2006 came within 3 percentage points of ousting the incumbent. CQ Politics rates that contest as No Clear Favorite, its category for the most closely contested races. But the general election races in the other eight districts all are rated as Safe for the incumbent party.

Meanwhile, Democrat Cantwell, who in 1994 lost the 1st District seat she had held for only one term, rebounded in 2000 by unseating Republican Sen. Slade Gorton. Cantwell was re-elected in 2006.

Washington state holds its congressional primaries next Tuesday.