Spokane City Council

NORTHEAST: Amber Waldref vs. Mike Fagan
A no-taxes initiative-pusher takes on an environmentalist. Sounds like a really lame cage match, but really it’s the race to replace Al French in northeast Spokane.

Mike Fagan, Tim Eyman’s right-hand man, is running to protect the “taxpayers” from the city during these tough economic times. What that means when it comes to city services is unclear.

Waldref, who works with the Lands Council and had a hand in the Hanford cleanup, has a bit more nuanced take on running city government and says her priorities are creating jobs in her district, increasing community safety (by upping the amount of cops out in the community) and reducing the high school dropout rate. (ND)

SOUTH: Mike Allen vs. Jon Snyder
This is both Mike Allen and Jon Snyder’s first campaign. The difference is, Allen’s the incumbent.Allen, who calls himself a “true independent” focused on fixing the budget deficit, was appointed to fill Mary Verner’s seat after she was elected mayor two years ago. Since then, he’s often aligned himself with the more conservative members of the council, as attested by his endorsements: the Association of Realtors and the Home Builders Association. Much of this has led Allen’s fellow District 2 representative, Richard Rush, to endorse Snyder.

Snyder, founder and publisher of Out There Monthly, has backing from the Democrats and is a self-proclaimed progressive. His vision of Spokane includes what he calls “complete streets:” space for cars, bikes and pedestrians. And maybe some light rail. (ND)

NORTHWEST: Nancy McLaughlin vs. Karen Kearney
In what could be called the battle of the really nice and likable aunts, the race for this seat has incumbent Nancy McLaughlin facing off against Karen Kearney.

McLaughlin, a fiscal and social conservative, has gotten criticism for denying global warming, fostering U.N. conspiracy theories and siding with outgoing council “Dean” Al French. In September’s primary, she whupped Kearney with three times as many votes. And she’s the Republican Party candidate, having raised almost $40,000 — four times her opponent.

Kearney, a retired banker, leans just slightly more to the left, though she eschews party labels, and has garnered endorsements from liberal groups such as the Sierra Club and the Spokane Regional Labor Council. (ND)

Endorsement
Further Reading:   Meet the candidates
                           How to win a seat on the council
                           Election could shift power on the council

Prop 4

To hear some opponents tell it, the Community Bill of Rights is the Proposition 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse, come astride the thundering fell steeds known as Pestilence, Litigation, Taxation and Chaos.

The histrionics are white-hot, and the debate over the nine proposed City Charter amendments — on topics from health care and affordable housing to fair wages to neighborhood rights — reveals a familiar schism in the city.

There is a sharp split between haves and have-nots in Spokane electoral politics, but the Prop. 4 debate gets right to the heart of it. We are tired of living in an oligarchy, the proponents exclaim, where “a powerful few” run the city. Instead of “working within the system” and almost always losing, the Prop. 4 supporters say they are making changes at the system’s core: the City Charter.

Opponents in the business and development communities have been hissing like scalded cats, spending heavily to defeat the measure, trying political mechanisms early on even to keep it off the ballot and predicting lawsuits and a city government even more broke than it is already. (KT)

Endorsement
Further Reading:   Cover feature on Prop 4
                           Breaking down the bill amendments
                           Robert Herold on Prop 4
                           The bill’s inception
                           Prop 4 draws protests
                           Envision Spokane guru Thomas Linzey
 

Spokane School Board

Rocky Treppiedi vs. Laura Carder
One of the most interesting school board races in, like, forever pits a bulldog city attorney with a reputation for spite against a neophyte wallflower who wants to teach creationism in schools. The former, Rocky Treppiedi, has taken fire from the Spokesman-Review and others for counter-suing civil rights claimants, coaching imperiled police officers and being an enemy of Gypsy king Jimmy Marks.
But at least Treppiedi, the current School Board president, can talk policy and education. Laura Carder has a laundry list of nebulous right-wing thoughts but few plans for how to improve the school system. (A strong third candidate was, bizarrely, eliminated by voters in the primary.) (JS)

Jeff Bierman vs. Heidi Olson
This is more like it: two likeable candidates with impressive résumés. Bierman, who was appointed to a seat on the school board last year, is the chair of the physics department at Gonzaga and stresses that his experience in science and math are both a rarity and an edge over his opponent. He tends to look at the school system from the tertiary perspective — that is, how the system prepares kids for college.

Olson, a retired grandmother who has watched eight children and 12 grandchildren go through Spokane’s public schools, has taught at nearly every level and works as an operator for the First Call for Help crisis line. She stresses cultural understanding and preparing students to enter the workplace after school. (JS)

Further Reading: The tough task of voting for school board
                         Treppiedi vs. Carder = Bully vs. Wallflower

Referendum 71

In April, the state Legislature passed what’s called the “everything but marriage” bill, which gave domestic partners (including same-sex couples and some elderly hetero partners) all the rights afforded to married couples — adoption, sick leave, insurance rights, etc. Craftily crafted, it puts gay couples on equal legal footing with straight ones, without ever having to engage in the explosive “marriage” argument (though opponents suggest it’s just a steppingstone in that direction).

But before the bill could be signed into law, Protect Marriage Washington filed a referendum in an attempt to overturn it, then gathered enough signatures over the summer to get it on the ballot.

So, because the reverse logic of referenda can be confusing, let’s be clear: Voting to affirm the referendum is a vote for gay rights. Voting against it destroys the rights bill (though legislators will likely try again). (JS)

Endorsement
Further Reading: How R-71 got so complicated
                         The fight heats up in the last days
                         R-71 headed to the ballot

I-1033

“Tim Eyman.” For many of you, those two words alone clinch your vote — yes or no — without any further information. If passed, the Eyman-created initiative would mandate that the state, counties and cities only spend as much as the year before, adjusted for inflation and population growth. Each and every time officials wanted to spend more, even for essential services, they’d have to go to the voters for approval. Also noteworthy, opponents warn, is the fact that every time the state’s revenue decreases — as it might in future recessions — the baseline gets reset to lower, effectively putting an ever-tightening stranglehold on the government. The state estimates it to rip $6 billion out of its budgets by 2015. “We’ll close this place down — no police, no fire,” Spokane Council President Joe Shogan says. “We’ll be back to the Wild West.” (DW)

Endorsement
Further Reading: Critics say 1033 would put a stranglehold on cities
                         Brief: City council opposes 1033

Spokane Valley Council

Position 1: Diana Wilhite vs. Brenda Grassel. Wilhite is the former mayor of Spokane Valley and a current council member. Loosely allied with current Mayor Rich Munson and council appointee Ian Robertson (see below), she aims to push forward with revitalization of the Sprague-Appleway couplet and the growth of the city. Grassel, on the other hand, is one of five candidates from a group called Positive Change, which is trying to upset the balance of the council to stall the Sprague project, tighten the city’s purse strings and cut the size of government. Like Wilhite, Grassel is a former teacher and a business owner.  

Position 2: Ian Robertson vs. Ed Pace, Ed Foote and Dean Grafos. The city’s most crowded race features incumbent Ian Robertson, a 72-year-old retired minister who was appointed to fill a vacancy on the council. He’s defending against threats from developer and Positive Change ally Dean Grafos, left-leaning and light-rail-loving substitute teacher Ed Foote, and Ed Pace, another retired minister, who would put disincorporation up for a vote and table the Sprague project.

Position 4: Gary Schimmels. Schimmels, who is allied with the Group for Positive Change, has been on the council since incorporation in 2003. He’s running unopposed.

Position 5: Munson vs. McCaslin. Nowhere does the struggle between the right-leaning Positive Change group and a loose affiliation of slightly-less-right, forward-looking current council members get more high-profile than in this race. Positive Change is advancing the candidacy of Bob McCaslin, a current Republican state senator who aims to do both jobs at once. The latter group gives us Munson, the city’s current mayor. (For more, go here.)

Position 7: Tom Towey. Towey, a retired auditor and supermarket manager, is running unopposed for the seat being vacated by council member and deputy mayor Dick Denenny, who last year tried to bar Towey’s appointment to the city’s plan commission. Towey is also a member of the “Positive Change” coalition (see above). (JS)

Endorsement
Further Reading: The race for the Valley
                         The Valley at six years old

Post Falls Mayor

The Post Falls mayoral race became a little scandalous last week when one of the challengers, 44-year-old private investigator Steve DeGon, was revealed to have pleaded guilty and served two days of community service in 2005 as part of a “withheld judgment” plea arrangement to have a misdemeanor sexual assault charge erased. A female coworker complained in 2005 that DeGon groped her breasts, buttocks and genitals.

“The situation has been blown out of proportion,” says DeGon campaign manager Kelly Edgren. “It was a typical office situation — people sitting around playing grab-ass. Steve never touched anybody in an inappropriate manner.”

DeGon was the only candidate to miss a forum for Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls mayoral candidates the day after the news broke, but Edgren says DeGon has not dropped out of the race.

It seems clear, however that his already-slim chances to defeat two-term incumbent Clay Larkin have become all the slimmer. Neither DeGon nor fellow challenger Matthew Behringer have any experience in city government. (KT)

Endorsement
Further Reading: The race in Post Falls

Coeur d'Alene Mayor

In Coeur d’Alene, there is a similar theme, as Sandi Bloem seeks an unprecedented third consecutive term as mayor against restaurant grease recycler Joe Kunka, whose only experience in government is running against Bloem four years ago.

Nevertheless, Kunka took pains to tell The Inlander that he respects Bloem and her accomplishments. Still, he has reported only a single $100 campaign donation this month to Bloem’s $4,363. (KT)

Endorsement
Further Reading: The race in Coeur d'Alene