In this divided political era, the people who want to run Spokane city government have already chosen a team — is it time to let the parties in the door?

Everyone agrees. There's a lot at stake in this year's election.

The pandemic is fading, but its scars have yet to heal. Spokane's homeless population grew 36 percent last year. The city budget is in a rough, maybe even dire, situation. The police department is understaffed, and blowing through its overtime budget. Many people say they don't feel safe. There aren't enough houses. Rent is rising. Potholes, potholes, potholes.

"Spokane is at a point where it can either be its best, or it can continue to deteriorate," says Katey Treloar, an educator, business owner and one of 20 people running to be part of elected Spokane city government this year.

This year's election — which begins with the Aug. 1 primary and ends with the Nov. 7 general election — could mark a major shift in Spokane city governance. Three City Council seats are up for grabs. So is the mayor's office and the council presidency.

Spokane government has spent recent years divided under a conservative mayor and a veto-proof, five-person progressive majority on the City Council. The relationship between Mayor Nadine Woodward and the council has frayed to the point of near inaction.

"Trust was broken," says City Council member Betsy Wilkerson, who represents District 2 and is running for council president this year.

Wilkerson and a slate of progressive candidates are hoping to maintain the council's progressive majority and usher in a new era of unity with Lisa Brown, the former state commerce director and Democratic state Senate majority leader, as mayor.

In a fundraising letter, Wilkerson told supporters that this year's election offers a rare chance for Spokane's "first-ever progressive trifecta" — with Brown as mayor, Wilkerson as council president and a progressive supermajority on the City Council.

This trifecta, Wilkerson wrote, would allow progressives to "enact our values and pass our policies in full force."

The prospect worries conservatives, who have spent years frustrated by the council majority's tendency to vote in unison and ability to override the mayor. They accuse the majority of, among other things, failing to support the police department, ignoring the voices of business owners, and turning a blind eye to crime and homelessness.

Current council members deny this. But John Estey, executive director of the Spokane Good Government Alliance, doesn't buy their denials.

"We need integrity in the office of the City Council and the mayor's office," Estey says. "And Lisa Brown, Betsy Wilkerson and the slate of candidates who are running on their side have been on the wrong side of issues from public safety, housing and homelessness."

Estey's group, formed in 2019, describes itself as a "bipartisan" political action committee with the aim to "keep Spokane from becoming Seattle, Portland or San Francisco" and prevent the council majority from continuing to push "far left ideas." The PAC played a major role in the 2019 election, when it spent $350,000 on its preferred candidates. It's already spent more than $100,000 this election cycle.

Etsey, who also works as campaign manager for U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican, says he's confident that a fresh slate of candidates can disrupt the council's supermajority and bring "good governance" back to Spokane under a second Woodward term.

Kim Plese, who is running against Wilkerson for council president, agrees.

"I'm supporting Woodward because I think our community needs to give her another chance," Plese says. "From day one, she's been attacked. ... Every single time that she has tried to do something, [the council has] taken power away from her."

Brown thinks Woodward had her chance — and blew it.

"Mayor Woodward has dug us in a deep hole, and she's still digging," Brown said, standing outside City Hall last week next to a poster-board graph showing the city's unallocated reserves (aka its savings account) tanking under Woodward's tenure — from a surplus of $28 million in 2020 to negative $9.2 million today.

Brown and the other progressives hoping for change in the mayor's office characterize Woodward's first term as beset by chaos, miscommunication and poor management. They accuse her of failing to articulate any sort of plan for homelessness or policing, and instead choosing to deflect blame toward Olympia and the City Council.

Despite the contentious tone of local politics, the people running for city government this year are in broad agreement on the city's biggest problems, and even the solutions. They mostly agree that Spokane needs more housing and that the police department needs to be fully staffed and given the resources necessary to do its job. They're all interested in proposals to regionalize homeless services.

Much of the disagreement lies in the details — and the leaders tasked with implementing them.

This year's candidates say they're conscious of the tension in City Hall, and pitch themselves as unifiers and "voices of reason" who can bring Spokane together.

But what does that actually mean? Is it possible to avoid picking sides in today's hyperpartisan political climate?

'THE CITY HAS TURNED LIBERAL'

Spokane city races are officially nonpartisan — there's no "D" or "R" next to candidates' names on the ballot.

But for years, networks of big donors, consultants and advocacy organizations have shaped a de facto system of progressives and conservatives.

One of the most influential progressive advocacy organizations is Fuse Washington. The Seattle-based group endorsed Brown for mayor and Wilkerson for council president. It recommends voting for Lindsey Shaw in northeast Spokane's District 1, and Paul Dillon for south Spokane's District 2. In northwest Spokane's District 3, they endorsed two progressives: Esteban Herevia and Kitty Klitzke.

Estey's Good Government Alliance is on the opposite side of that spectrum.

His organization has thrown its support behind Woodward for mayor, Plese for council president, Treloar in District 2 and Earl Moore in District 2. In District 1, it's endorsed the incumbent Michael Cathcart, who is the only council member running for reelection this year and part of the council's two-person conservative minority, along with Jonathan Bingle.

The four council candidates backed by the Estey's group have all raised more money than their opponents and have financial support from various real estate groups and prominent local conservatives like Mary Kuney, a Republican county commissioner, and former Spokane Mayor David Condon.

This group of council candidates leans to the right of their opponents, but they prefer the word "nonpartisan" on their yard signs and campaign material — with the exception of Cathcart.

"I don't feel like I need to put nonpartisan on my sign because I feel like I am nonpartisan, I've acted nonpartisan," Cathcart says. "My constituents know that I'm nonpartisan, and they know these are nonpartisan positions."

Dillon and other progressive candidates have argued that Plese's, Moore's and Treloar's embrace of the "nonpartisan" label is disingenuous — an attempt to hide their conservative affiliations in a city that tends to vote liberal.

"The goal is to misinform voters about their true positions," Dillon says. "They're collectively trying to rebrand themselves and make themselves more relatable and hide their real views."

Spokane County is solidly red, but the city itself tends to vote slightly blue. Woodward, who also describes herself as nonpartisan, acknowledged as much in a recording of a speech that Fuse obtained and released during her run for mayor in 2019.

"I work extremely hard to keep partisanship and party out of this race. I know full well that someone who is right of center is going to have a hard race in the city election for mayor," Woodward said, speaking at a Rotary Club event. "Cathy McMorris Rodgers lost the city in her last election by 17 points. She wins the county. She overwhelmingly wins the district. But the city has turned liberal."

Last year, Plese ran as a Republican for a newly created seat on the Spokane County Board of Commissioners that encompasses the western half of the city of Spokane. She lost to Chris Jordan, a Democrat, by 10 points. (Unlike city races, county commission races are partisan.)

Plese says that race showed her the unsavory side of party politics and that she isn't interested in running in any more partisan races.

"I'm so tired of the in-fighting between parties," Plese says.

Moore, a retired respiratory therapist, says she put "nonpartisan" on her yard signs because she's trying to show voters that she's "not a Democrat or a Republican."

But Moore has spent years as a precinct committee officer with the local GOP. Last year she was given the "2022 Republican Hero award."

Moore acknowledges her Republican roots, but she stresses that she has lots of Democratic friends and that she's trying to stay away from politics in this election and solely focus on the issues facing Spokane — mainly keeping the community safe and "supporting the police for being the heroes that they are."

Moore didn't seek the local Spokane County Republican Party's endorsement this year. Instead, the party voted to recommend one of her opponents, Chris Savage, the board chair of Meals on Wheels who has previously run for the District 3 council seat.

"I'm trying to walk a line. I will look at both sides of everything, always," Moore says. "And then I will vote in the best interest of the constituents."

The local GOP is also recommending Cathcart for District 1, and nobody in District 2. Treloar says she didn't seek endorsements from either party because she's committed to nonpartisanship.

The Spokane County Democrats endorsed Shaw, Wilkerson, Klitzke and Brown. In District 2, they endorsed both Dillon and Cyndi Donahue.

While Plese openly supports Woodward's reelection campaign, Moore says she's focused on working with whoever wins, and won't say which candidate she supports.

"I'm not here to talk politics, I'm just not," Moore says.

Jim Dawson, a Spokane resident and Fuse's program director, agrees with Dillon and argues that the "nonpartisan" label can be misleading.

"It's a question of transparency, especially when you have no record," Dawson says. "There's a lack of clear signal to voters, and it makes it harder to figure out who agrees with their politics and ideologies."

But Dawson also acknowledges that the inverse is often true in conservative areas like Spokane Valley, where left-leaning candidates tend to de-emphasize their progressive connections. It's ultimately political posturing, he says.

Dawson also insists that even though Fuse proudly describes itself as progressive, it's a nonpartisan group that doesn't follow party labels and only endorses people who align with their values. He acknowledges that the group overwhelmingly endorses Democrats but stresses that it's endorsed Republicans in the past. It's just getting harder, he says.

A VERY RUDE QUESTION

Dillon's, Shaw's and Wilkerson's campaigns have all hired the same consultant: Rising Tide Consulting. It is led by Sean Gannon, who also works as a digital strategist at a firm that boasts former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats as clients.

On the other side of the consultant world is Crimson Consulting, which is run by a former McMorris Rodgers staffer and is working for Treloar's, Plese's and Woodward's campaigns.

Regardless, Treloar is very firm about her commitment to nonpartisanship. She won't say who she voted for in the 2020 presidential election (it's a "very rude question") or who she's supporting for mayor. She didn't seek endorsements from either political party, and she describes herself as a "mom, a teacher, small business owner and nonprofit organizer" when asked if she considers herself a conservative.

Spokane County Treasurer Michael Baumgartner, a former Republican state senator, describes Treloar as having "pretty centrist" views. He knows her family personally and has also been mentoring her on the nuts and bolts of running for office through a Washington state organization called League of Our Own.

"It's sort of candidate support and recruitment for female candidates that are on the pro-small business and pro-safe community side of the political spectrum," Baumgartner says.

League of Our Own — which is led by the former executive director of the state Republican Party and lists McMorris Rodgers as co-chair — is an offshoot of Project 42, a nonprofit which enables "center-right forces in our state to be on the offense."

Treloar says League of Our Own didn't recruit her to run. They reached out after she declared, she says, and they have mainly been helping with fundraising, doorbelling and other administrative aspects of campaigning.

Moore says League of Our Own also reached out to her, but she hasn't had time to work with them.

"There's just so much more tribal identification amongst a lot of people with how they vote."

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ALL POLITICS IS NATIONAL

The other candidates running this year have signage and slogans that, like the word "nonpartisan," are a little vague and don't offer much insight into their ideology or political affiliation. But when asked, the candidates are mostly open about which way they lean.

"At the very beginning of this, I was called the 'most Democratic, most left-leaning candidate,'" says Herevia, who was not endorsed by the local Democratic party. "And I think that's the reality of where I find myself."

Randy McGlenn, who is also running in District 3, recalls an interaction with a neighbor who asked him which party he was affiliated with and who pushed back when McGlenn told them the race is nonpartisan.

"Well yes, you can say it's nonpartisan, but people have biases, people have leanings and philosophies," the neighbor told him. A fair point, McGlenn says.

McGlenn used to run Washington's Libertarian Party, and he acknowledges an appreciation for small government and personal liberty.

"I think being a libertarian, in this particular setting, really frees me to focus on issues from the very moderate perspective," McGlenn says.

Donahue, who is running against Dillon and Treloar in District 2, says that she's prepared to work with people on all sides and seek unity if elected but acknowledges her partisan leaning.

"Quite honestly, I've been a lifelong Democrat. And if people ask me personally, I'll tell them who I want to have for mayor. But I also don't want to be disrespectful," Donahue says. "It's a matter of respect, publicly trying to stay nonpartisan as much as I can."

Dillon is especially vocal about his political leanings. He's spent years advocating for abortion rights and other progressive causes through his work with the local Planned Parenthood, and doesn't shy away from criticizing Woodward.

Some of his opponents see that as a liability.

"One of the biggest issues right now is if you look at Paul's social media, he's constantly bashing our current mayor," Treloar says. "If he does win the position, how is he going to work effectively with someone that he so outright disagrees with?"

Treloar also has concerns about Dillon bringing divisive national issues — namely abortion rights — into the race. She says abortion isn't relevant to local politics.

"It's definitely not a priority when I'm doorbelling," Treloar says.

But even if it doesn't come up in the day-to-day work of city government, Dillon argues that candidates' stances on issues like abortion, immigration and the 2020 presidential election are fair game for voters to ask about.

It's a belief system, Dillon says, and voters deserve to know how candidates think.

A number of the candidates running for office this year say they get lots of questions about party affiliation while doorbelling.

Baumgartner, who has held elected office for more than a decade, says there's been a clear shift.

"We used to say that all politics is local, and it was really local issues they cared about. I think now all politics is national, " he says. "There's just so much more tribal identification amongst a lot of people with how they vote."

There's a famous saying, often attributed to former New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, that there's "no Democratic or Republican way to pick up the garbage."

Cathcart thinks it's an ideal worth striving toward.

"I think everybody has obviously partisan leanings of some kind, but I do think it's possible to act in a nonpartisan way," Cathcart says.

Cathcart says there's a lot of frustration in Spokane, and that this year's elections may usher in a more centrist era of government. He hasn't decided yet if he'll be endorsing people this election cycle.

Baumgartner says the current system of partisan and nonpartisan elections feels a little backwards. It doesn't make sense that elections for more administrative roles like county clerk, auditor and treasurer come with party labels, while legislative positions that make policy decisions like city council don't, Baumgartner says.

"If I was waving a wand to change things, you would make the city council races partisan," he says. "Those party labels would tell you something about how people would vote." ♦