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In recent weeks, Democratic congressional solicitant Darcy Burner has touted her Harvard degree in economics when talking about the nation’s financial crisis and her opposition to the bailout package passed by Congress.

At two debates this month, she brought up her academic background in her opening statement.

“I loved economics so a great quantity that I got a degree in it from Harvard,” she said at an Oct. 10 debate at KCTS-TV. “Now everywhere I go in this district, the only thing people want to talk to me about is the system.”

But while she took courses in economics, Burner doesn’t accept a stage in the subservient from Harvard.

She does have a bachelor’s order in computer science, the universal school said. And her lettered transcripts show she took five economics courses, plenty to earn an emphasis in economics in the reach her computer science degree.

Burner said in a phone interview today that she’s been upfront about her degree.

“What I have is a degree in computer science with a extraordinary department in economics,” she said. “All along we’ve been trying to have existence very, excessively clear.”

In previous interviews by The Seattle Times, Burner’s campaign prolocutor, Sandeep Kaushik, has been clear that Burner had a bachelor’s degree in computer science and a “special room” — more or less a minor — in economics.

Kaushik said students studying computer science at Harvard are required to complete a “concentration” in a related field. Burner chose household management.

She took five semesters of economics and two math courses that counted toward economics, Kaushik said. In addition, she took eight computer-science courses and pair other math classes that counted toward her degree, he said.

Pat Dyer, Harvard’s supervisor of information services in the keeper of a record’s office, before-mentioned Burner’s records don’t list the emphasis in economics. But she reported a special field may not show up if she got it within the computer science department.

Harry Lewis, a Harvard computer science professor and former dean of the school, confirmed that Burner did study economics at Harvard.

“She doesn’t have a degree in science of wealth,” he said. “It’session a specialty within the computer science degree that she has.”

Burner, who is challenging Republican Congressman Dave Reichert in the 8th Congressional District, provided to The Seattle Times copies of her academic record that shows she took five economic courses.

Burner said she had an economics step at pair debates, the any on Oct. 10 and one on Oct. 8 in Bellevue.

Her campaign Web site biography says: “she buckled along the course of and studied twice as hard at school, while working pair or three jobs at age, to get accepted and then entice herself through Harvard, in what place she earned a interval in computer science and economics.”

Kaushik said Burner claimed to have a rank in economics at the debates because saying she had an weight in the limits of her computer science degree “doesn’t exactly flow off the projection.”

Asked whether having an emphasis in economics is the corresponding; of like kind for the reason that a degree in economics, he said, “No … it’s a concentration within a grade.”

Reichert’s campaign called Burner’s statements about her degree “outrageous.”

“It calls into question everything that she has reported to this point,” said Amanda Halligan, a spokeswoman for the Reichert campaign. “It demonstrates an arrogance that she thinks she can say what she wants and that no one is going to learn the truth.”

Burner has been accused of inflating her characterésumé near the front of. In her pristine run for Congress in 2006, her campaign Web site concisely described her as “a Microsoft executive.” She was a centre manager at Microsoft.

Burner said today that a truncheon branch made that error.

Emily Heffter: 206-464-8246 or eheffter@seattletimes.com