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Mid-term elections, like mid-term exams, are a time to find out whether things are going well or changes need to be made. This year, however, candidates on the ballot seem to be offering different answers as voters put them to the test.
With inflation at 40-year highs and gasoline prices hitting records, Republicans hope voters grade them higher on economics. Nationally, they may also have history on their side because the party of the incumbent president almost always loses seats in Congress in the middle of his term.
After the controversial Supreme Court decision that
overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision on abor tion rights, Democrats are hoping voters will grade them higher on promises to protect a woman’s right to choose an abortion. If the economy comes up, they hope voters will give them credit for low unemployment and higher wages, albeit raises
that may not be keeping up with inflation.
JIMIf the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol is part of that midterm exam, the two parties may have very different answers. Many Republicans remain convinced that Donald Trump actually won the 2020 election and remain skeptical that elec tions are run fairly. Democrats see the riot as an attack on the nation’s core democratic values and worry that voters in some states are passing laws to keep some voters away from the polls.
The two parties might also have different answers to any question about crime. Republi cans point to rising crime rates in many cities – although the
statistics are mixed in the latest FBI report – and harken back to calls by some Democrats to “defund the police.” Democrats would say they are the ones who support law enforce ment, backing Capitol police over rioters and the FBI over Trump in the recent seizure of documents from the former president’s Florida home.
In Washington, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat first elected in 1992, faces first-time candidate Tiffany Smiley, a Re publican who has been active in fighting for veterans rights. Their race follows the nation al trends, with Smiley tying Murray to fellow Democrat Joe Biden and blaming both for the high cost of gas and groceries.
Murray and her allies em phasize her long-time support for abortion rights, which Washington legalized even before Roe, playing a clip of Smiley interview in which she says she’s “100% pro-life” and suggesting that Smiley could tip the evenly divided Senate into GOP hands, make Ken tucky Sen. Mitch McConnell its leader and usher in an attempt at a nationwide abortion ban.
A neutral observer might note that inflation is mainly outside the control of the pres ident, with high demand for goods facing COVID-enhanced problems with supply. Bills Congress passed boosted
An attorney originally from Hillyard is seeking to unseat Rep. Cathy McMor ris Rodgers, who if re-elect ed will reach 20 years repre senting Eastern Washington in Congress.
Democrat Natasha Hill, 40, told a town hall meeting in Spokane Valley recently that her service on a board drawing new boundaries for the commissioner districts in Spokane County inspired a desire to become further involved in public life. In an interview, she said she was concerned about the rheto ric from the Republican Par ty on issues including access to abortion and scrutiny of election results, arguing the congresswoman’s positions on those issues does not align with her constituency.
“We have someone we can’t rely on, willing to fol low her party agenda even if it goes against the interests of people here in Eastern Washington,” Hill said.
McMorris Rodgers, 53, has been running on a plat form that has taken the Biden administration in its crosshairs on the price of goods, energy production and curtailing crime, espe cially as it relates to the trade of illicit fentanyl. She also is seeking the chairmanship of the House’s Energy and Commerce Committee, which would give her an outsized role in a GOP-led chamber’s actions on tech nology, consumer protec tion and energy production policy. She will lead the committee if Republicans win control of the House in the November election.
“I have a proven record of results,” McMorris Rodgers said in an interview. “Being a representative who listens, who works to build trust and to get things done.”
The election for Wash ington’s 5th Congressional District has not drawn the national-level interest that
was seen in 2018, the last midterm contest, when Lisa Brown and McMorris Rod gers ran neck-and-neck in fundraising in a contest that sent the congresswoman back for her eighth term in Washington, D.C. Both can didates expressed concern about the direction of the country, largely mirroring a party divide that has broken out nationally as the parties seek control in Congress.
McMorris Rodgers, in a campaign stop with local building firm Baker Con struction, asked about the rising costs of raw materi als, supply chain issues and energy policy coming out of Olympia and Washington, D.C., related to electrifica tion of home heating and removal of the Snake River Dams.
“I’m very concerned about the amount of spend ing,” McMorris Rodgers told Barry Baker, president and chief executive officer of the firm. “We need a balanced budget amendment.”
“The cost of everything is certainly impacting peo ple across the board,” the congresswoman said in an interview. “The cost of fill ing up your car with gas, the cost of groceries, hun dreds of dollars more every month.”
Hill criticized the con gresswoman for two recent spending votes in the House. The first was a vote against the bill, signed by President Joe Biden, that extended certain Veterans Affairs benefits to those who have served in recent conflicts for treatment of illnesses caused by exposure to toxic chemicals. McMorris Rod gers told a recent town hall audience she opposed the
bill because she believed it gave Congress less over sight over the VA, which has faced controversy for a digital records system first rolled out in Spokane.
The second was a vote against a bill that would au thorize grants to elementary and secondary school dis tricts to support in-house mental health services. McMorris Rodgers voted against the bill over con cerns the grants were du plicative and the bill altered requirements for employee health insurance programs, and a belief that the bill would allow schools to dis cuss gender identity with students without talking to parents, according to a statement on her website.
“I do think actions speak louder than words,” Hill said, adding that she supported partnerships between local service organizations and law en forcement “so we can get folks off the streets and into treatment, and not a revolv ing door of going in and out of jail.”
The Washington Republi can Party in a mailed ad sup porting McMorris Rodgers has seized on Hill’s public statements after the murder of George Floyd, tying her to the national “defund the po lice” movement.
“Democrats have done a really good job of clarifying their platform, versus the Black Lives Matter plat form,” Hill said. “The Black Lives Matter platform is to defund the police. That is not the Democratic plat form, and it is not my cam paign platform.”
Hill supports the realloca tion of dollars from policing to address the root causes of crimes, she said, including drug addiction and home lessness.
“Nobody’s saying the word ‘abolish,’ ” Hill said. “Criminalizing homeless has not reduced crime rates.”
McMorris Rodgers said
her opponent’s position on policing showed a clear con trast from her own.
“I think my biggest con cern is her call to defund the police,” the congresswoman said. “She’s made it pretty clear.”
Hill accused Republicans of hypocrisy when attacking Democrats for defunding the police, while members of the GOP called for pulling funding to the FBI after the search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence this summer.
McMorris Rodgers pushed back on claims that she hasn’t worked with members of the Democratic Party, pointing to a partner ship with the current En ergy and Commerce Chair, Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., on legislation that would establish a federal digital privacy standard. The bill made it out of committee with just two votes against, but has been opposed in the Senate by Washington’s Ma ria Cantwell.
“The reason it passed 53 to 2 out of committee is be cause the members were given the opportunity to introduce amendments,” McMorris Rodgers said. “I believe we have a better, stronger bill because of the work that we have done.”
Pallone complimented the congresswoman in a
Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Republican
Age: 53
Education: Graduated from the Columbia River Christian Academy, Kettle Falls, in 1986. Earned pre-law bachelor’s degree from Pensacola Christian College in 1990 and executive MBA from the University of Washington in 2002.
Political experience: Appointed to state House of Representatives, serving the 7th Legislative District, in 1993. Elected to state House in 1994, where she served until joining Congress. Elected to Congress in 2004. Former Vice Chair of House Republican Conference. Served as chairwoman of House Republican Conference in 2013 through 2018. Serves as ranking member of the House’s Energy and Commerce Committee since 2021.
Work experience: Aide to state representative, 199093. Worked at her family orchard and fruit stand for 13 years, prior to election to Congress.
Family: Married to Brian Rodgers. Has three children.
Age: 40
Natasha Hill, Democrat
Education: Graduated from Rogers High School in 2000. Earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Washington in 2003. Earned a law degree from the Southwestern School of Law in Los Angeles in 2006.
Political experience: First run for public office.
Work experience: Attorney at Natasha L. Hill, P.S., in the Browne’s Addition neighborhood of Spokane. Adjunct professor at Gonzaga Law School, coaching their civil and human rights moot court teams.
Family: Single. Has two children.
recent interview with The Washington Post for “being willing to work together” on the privacy bill.
But the congresswoman distances herself from Dem
A new man will take the reins of the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office for the first time in 16 years come January.
Undersheriff John Nowels and longtime sheriff’s office employee Wade Nelson, both Republicans, are vying for the top position.
Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, who was appointed in 2006, chose not to seek a fifth term.
Nelson, 50, worked 21 years at the sheriff’s office in numerous roles, including as a patrolman, detective and instructor. He took a one-year leave of absence from the sheriff’s office before official ly leaving the agency in June.
He said earlier this year he took the leave of absence because he was frustrated with the de partment’s administration and the “ethical differences” between Nelson and the administration.
Nelson said he is running for sheriff to raise deputies’ morale – in part by hiring more of them –lower crime and regain trust from the public through transparency.
“Our staffing levels are the root of every problem that we have,” Nelson said.
Nowels has worked 24 years at the sheriff’s office, starting out as a patrolman, then working as a detective and chief criminal deputy, and most recently serving as the undersheriff the last three years.
“I have the experience proven over the last 25 years and have held every rank in the sheriff’s office and have worked and led in every division, to include the $60 million budget,” Nowels said at a candidate debate hosted by The Spokesman-Review on Oct. 6.
He told The Spokesman-Re view he is the most qualified per son to provide public safety in the county.
“I think I have the best ideas on how to help take us forward, and I have the experience to make it happen,” Nowels said.
Nowels said the sheriff’s of fice has almost filled its 247 au thorized commissioned officers, thanks in part to a record hiring year.
Meanwhile, Nelson said a lack of deputies has caused poorer service to residents and low mo rale among deputies.
Nowels said the department
JESSE TINSLEY/THE S-Rhired almost 40 officers this year, the most in its history, and more are in the pipeline.
“We’re going to really outpace it,” Nowels said.
While roughly 237 officers are on the department’s payroll, 30 or more of the 237 are in training and will be on the street by the spring, he said.
Nelson said the sheriff’s office should have never gotten below 240 deputies, which he said is the number the department had in 2006. The county grew sub stantially since then and deputies work overtime to fill the staffing gaps, which has led to low mo rale, Nelson said.
“I get this year, an election year, all of a sudden we get a lot more bodies by the (county) commis sioners,” Nelson said.
He said the sheriff’s office should have at least 320 deputies to cover the increased call loads, and that number could have been nearly reached if Nowels and the department’s administration in crementally added deputies over the years.
“We really need to ramp this up,” Nelson said.
Nowels said the sheriff’s office has added deputies the last sever al years.
“It’s just in places that he is un aware of,” said Nowels, referenc ing Nelson. “He seems to not un derstand what happens outside of his purview.”
Nowels said he plans to request another 25 deputy positions. He said the 25 positions would largely be directed to intelligence operations and investigations, in cluding those involving property crimes. He said 1,200 to 1,500 cases each year go unassigned.
Most of them are low-level prop erty crimes or other crimes that are unlikely to be solved.
“We want to be able to say that
Does Spokane County need a new jail?
What level of crime should simple drug possession be?
Is there a staffing issue at the sheriff’s office?
Yes.
Yes.
Misdemeanor, then potentially felony if repeat offenses.
Believes department could use more deputies, but the biggest issue driving crime is the lack of holding offenders accountable.
we’re assigning everything that has any kind of level of solvabil ity,” Nowels said. “We want to be able to assign it, get it to a detec tive and give the victims the best service possible. A lot of these 25 bodies are trying to address that gap.”
Last year, the Washington Su preme Court ruled the state’s felony drug possession law was unconstitutional and invalidated past felony sentences for simple drug possession.
In response to that decision in the State v. Blake case, Washing ton lawmakers made drug posses sion a misdemeanor but required offenders to be offered treatment services on their first and second offense. Criminal charges could be filed on their third drug pos session offense.
Nowels and Nelson both said a misdemeanor for simple posses sion is a good way to go.
“The first thing we have to have is some accountability,” Nowels said. “The way the current law is written, there is no accountabili ty for someone who is caught in the throes of drug addiction.”
Nowels proposed making sim ple drug possession a misde meanor so offenders are not ham pered by a felony on their record. He said offenders should then be required to spend three to six months in treatment. If they are repeatedly caught with drugs, perhaps a felony charge should be in order.
Nelson said his law enforce ment experience taught him that people addicted to drugs will commit crimes to sustain their habit. He said they need to be held accountable to stop the cy cle.
“I think for some people it is
Misdemeanor, then potentially felony if repeat offenses.
Yes.
going through law enforcement and having to spend time in jail,” Nelson said. “That time in jail, though, needs to be a treat ment-style setting.”
Knezovich has been outspoken on several law enforcement and political issues over the years, and both candidates said at a re cent debate that they will take a different approach.
Nelson said Knezovich has been a good sheriff, but he has a different personality when it comes to dealing with the public.
“I like to listen more before I speak,” Nelson said.
He said he will be open and honest with residents if elected and will be more “subtle” when addressing people.
Nowels, who has Knezovich’s endorsement, said Knezovich has represented the wants and needs of county residents, taken a firm stance ensuring communities are safe and held deputies to the highest standards of integrity and transparency. He said he plans to continue those actions if elected.
“He trusts me to do that,” Nowels said of Knezovich. “That’s why he’s endorsed me, because he knows I’m capable of it, and I’ve shown him through my acts and deeds that I will do that.”
Knezovich suspended Nowels four weeks without pay in 2020 after he joked to a member of the Spokane Valley Precinct staff that “ex-wives should be killed.” Nowels said he did “not literally mean” the comment and that it doesn’t reflect “in my heart who I am.” Knezovich later said his undersheriff had taken responsi bility for his actions.
Nowels noted that much has been said about Knezovich’s per sonal approach.
ocrats on abortion, which has become a campaign issue following the U.S. Su preme Court’s decision in
Wade Nelson, Republican
Age: 50
Education: Graduated from Creston High School in Creston, Washington. Spent one year in college.
Political experience: None
Work experience: Worked six years as intelligence specialist in U.S. Navy. Worked two years at a computer company. Worked 21 years at the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office in various roles, including patrolman, search and rescue, marine enforcement, emergency operations team, defense tactics instructor, sexual assault unit detective and women’s self-defense course instructor.
Family: Married. Has three children.
Fundraising: $33,830.80, including $14,309.80 from himself or “Wade Nelson For Sheriff.”
Age: 49
Education: Graduated from Central Valley High School. Graduated from Eastern Washington University with bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. Graduated from University of Oklahoma with master’s degree in organizational leadership.
Political experience: Republican precinct committee officer.
Work experience: Worked 24 years at Spokane County Sheriff’s Office in various roles, including patrolman, traffic, property crimes detective, undercover narcotics detective and supervisor, chief criminal deputy and current undersheriff.
Family: Married. Has four children.
Fundraising: $78,475.42, including Avista Utilities, Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, Spokane Valley Police Chief Dave Ellis, sheriff’s office Cpl. and spokesman Mark Gregory, Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Haskell, Spokane County Commissioner Mary Kuney, Spokane County Commissioner candidate Kim Plese and Spokane County deputy prosecuting attorneys Preston McCollam and Sharon Hedlund.
“I’m my own person and I tend to work with people instead of at tacking,” Nowels said.
Republicans hopeful with Smiley, but may face uphill battle against Murray
By Laurel Demkovich THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
There’s no doubt that Republicans are under dogs when trying to cap ture statewide office in Washington. They haven’t won an election for gover nor since 1980. They ha ven’t won a race for U.S. Senate since 1994. They hold no statewide offices.
But this year, state and national Republicans be lieve Democratic Sen. Pat ty Murray is vulnerable in her November re-election bid and have put their full energy and funding be hind political newcomer Tiffany Smiley.
Smiley’s campaign al ready has collected more than $7 million. In 2018, Republican Susan Hutchi son raised about $2 million in her campaign against Washington’s other Dem ocratic senator, Maria Cantwell. In 2016, Repub lican Chris Vance raised less than half a million dollars in the race Murray last won. And though the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade potentially has lessened the “red wave” predicted by pundits and that many Republicans were hoping for nationally, Republi cans in Washington re main confident they can send Smiley to the Senate.
Polling on the race var ies but shows it is get ting closer as the elec tion nears. A recent poll from the Trafalgar Group shows Murray up by less than 3 points, but polls from Crosscut/Elway last week showed Murray up by about 13 points.
The top issues in the race reflect that of can didates across the nation this midterm election.
Murray, one of the lon gest-serving senators, says Washington needs a voice to fight for abortion access and against the lies surrounding the 2020 elections and the Jan. 6 insurrection. Smiley, who is from Pasco, says Washington needs a new senator who will work to lower inflation and reduce crime.
Smiley quickly emerged as the top choice to face Murray this November. Smiley has been a veterans advocate since 2005 when her husband was blinded in a suicide bombing in Iraq. She refused to sign his U.S. Army discharge papers, left her job as a nurse and cared for him as he became the nation’s first blind active-duty Army officer.
She has campaigned on being a new face for Washington’s politics, claiming Murray is not delivering results on ris ing crime and increasing costs despite being one of the most powerful people in the Senate.
“Senator Murray fails to address these issues that are facing Washington families every single day,” Smiley said.
Having been elected in 1992, Murray is one of the most powerful people in the Senate as the sixthmost-senior member and third-most-senior Demo crat.
She serves as the chair of the Senate Health, Ed ucation, Labor and Pen sions Committee. She sits on the Senate Committee on Appropriations and often touts her ability to get federal funding for Washington, most recent ly announcing $2 million in federal funds for Wash ington residents in need of diapers.
She also serves on the Budget and Veterans’ Af fairs Committees. She was the first woman to chair the Veterans Affairs’ Com mittee in 2011.
Murray said this elec tion is critical for the fu ture of the country, espe cially when it comes to
Age: 41
U.S. SENATE
Tiffany Smiley, Republican
Education: Graduated from Pasco High School in 1989.
Received a bachelor’s of science in nursing from Whitworth University in 2004.
Work experience: Has been a veterans advocate since 2005. Worked as a triage nurse.
Political experience: None.
Family: Married to Scott Smiley. Three children.
Age: 71
Education: Received a bachelor’s degree in physical education from Washington State University in 1972.
Work experience: Worked as a preschool teacher.
Political experience: Served as Washington’s U.S. Senator since 1993. Served as a state senator from 1989 to 1993. Served on the Shoreline School District Board from 1985 to 1989.
Family: Married to Rob Murray. Has two children.
1970.
Even so, she praised the Supreme Court decision in June that ended a wom an’s right to abortion na tionwide.
WASHINGTON – In his nearly eight years rep resenting central Wash ington in the House, Dan Newhouse has fended off challengers from across the political spectrum and carved out a niche as a pragmatic lawmaker more interested in policy than bluster.
But this year’s general election presents the Re publican from Sunnyside with a new kind of chal lenge: convincing voters in the state’s reddest district to look past his vote to im peach former President Donald Trump and give him the support they large ly withheld in the August primary.
Dan Newhouse, Republican
Age: 67
Education: Graduated from Sunnyside High School in 1973. Earned a bachelor’s in agricultural economics from Washington State University in 1977.
Political experience: Elected to Congress in 2014.
Previously served as director of Washington Department of Agriculture 2009-2013, and before that as a state representative 2003-2009.
Work experience: Third-generation farmer. His family still operates an 850-acre farm near Sunnyside, growing hops, tree fruit and grapes.
Family: Married. Has two adult children.
Campaign contributions: Reported raising $1.6 million with $601,000 cash on hand as of July 13.
Age: 60
Doug White, Democrat
issues like abortion, infla tion and the Jan. 6 insur rection.
“There is so much on the ballot that will deter mine where our country is going to be in the fu ture, and who is our voice in Washington, D.C., can make an incredible dif ference on really import ant issues,” Murray said in an interview with The Spokesman-Review.
Both national parties and outside donors have spent millions in televi sion ads to attack their opponents.
Smiley’s top donors include the National Re publican Senatorial Com mittee, the Senate GOP Winning Women Victory Committee and Reclaim the Senate 2022.
NRSC spokeswoman Lizzie Litzow criticized Murray for consistent ly voting with President Biden’s agenda, which has led to “skyrocketing infla tion and rising crime.”
“Tiffany Smiley is a strong candidate running a great campaign that has longtime D.C. insid er Patty Murray on her heels,” Litzow wrote in a statement. “From the be ginning of the cycle, the NRSC has been commit ted to expanding the map, and we’re doing just that.”
Murray has raised more than $14 million. Top do nors include the Demo cratic Senatorial Cam paign Committee, Blue Senate 2022 and EMILY’s List, a national group that helps Democratic women run for office.
The state Democratic Party has led a lot of the campaigning for Murray.
“Tiffany Smiley is one of the best-funded Re publicans in this election cycle because she is Mitch McConnell and MAGA Republicans’ handpicked candidate and has demon strated time and again that, if elected, she would rubber stamp their ex treme agenda that will threaten Washingtonians’ right to choose, our health care, and our democracy,” spokesperson Caitlin Har rington wrote in an email.
One of the most hot ly debated issues in this race, as well as across the country, is abortion access following the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Murray said Smiley’s position on abortion is a danger to the country.
“She will not be the voice of Washington state residents who come back here and fight every day to make sure that we have in place policies to protect women’s ability to make their own health care choices, depending on their family, their doctor and their faith,” Murray said.
Despite labeling herself “100% pro-life,” Smiley has promised she would not vote for a nationwide abortion ban. She said she wants to follow the deci sion of Washington voters who legalized abortion in
“Politicians shouldn’t decide women’s health care, and I believe that it belongs closest to the people,” Smiley said. “I respect the voters here in Washington state.”
Smiley said she would vote against South Caroli na Sen. Lindsey Graham’s bill that would ban abor tions after 15 weeks across the nation. She also said she would vote to contin ue to fund Planned Par enthood and give women access to health care and contraception.
Smiley has remained critical of Murray for voting on bills that she said have resulted in sky rocketing inflation for Americans. She said the Inflation Reduction Act won’t do anything to re duce inflation. Smiley’s plan for addressing in flation includes perma nently extending the 2017 cap on state and local tax deductions, pursuing trade agreements such as that between the United States, Mexico and Cana da, and enacting policies to fund parental leave and child care expenses.
“What’s on the ballot is providing cost of living,” Smiley said.
Murray said lowering costs is a top priority for her in Congress. She said the inflation is due to sup ply chain issues during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been felt glob ally, not just in Washing ton.
She said those supply chain issues include a lack of goods themselves, a lack of people produc ing those goods and a lack of truckers moving those goods.
“We have to address ev ery side of this problem,” Murray said.
She said she has worked to strengthen supply chains and lower costs through the bipartisan in frastructure law and the Creating Helpful Incen tives to Produce Semicon ductors and Science Act, which would provide sub sidies to domestic semi conductor manufacturers.
She said she has worked to cap prescription drug costs and insulin costs for seniors and helped to pass the American Rescue Plan, which Murray said has added manufacturing jobs .
Murray also pointed to a need for more child care across the country so more people can get back to work, which has been one of her main focuses throughout her career.
On crime, Murray said she has worked on leg islation to help keep law enforcement officers em ployed, to improve re sources for mental health and substance abuse and to increase community in tervention programs.
“It takes unified action: federal action and state action and local action,” Murray said.
Smiley has been criti cal of Murray’s support for legislation that Smiley said has resulted in more crime, including broad
Newhouse and his Dem ocratic opponent, Yakima businessman Doug White, each received roughly 25% of votes in the primary, enough to advance from the top-two contest only because six other GOP can didates who aligned them selves with Trump split the remaining half of votes. What that pro-Trump vot ing bloc does in the general election will play a big role in determining the out come.
“It’s the most conserva tive district in the state of Washington,” Newhouse said in an interview, “so my strategy and my message has been to appeal to those people that have support ed me in the past and to remind them that I’m still the same conservative Re publican that I’ve always been.”
The Cook Political Re port rates Washington’s 4th Congressional District “R+11,” meaning Repub lican candidates are ex pected to perform 11 per centage points better than the national average and making it the most heavi ly GOP-leaning district in the state. Newhouse bested Democratic challengers in 2018 and 2020 by a rough ly 2-to-1 margin while his closest races came in 2014 and 2016 against fellow Re publican Clint Didier, now a Franklin County com missioner.
But White, a first-time candidate who returned home to Yakima after a 20year career in international business, thinks right-wing voters’ lingering resent ment toward Newhouse makes the incumbent vul nerable. Pitching himself as a solutions-oriented moderate, White said in an interview he hopes to assemble a coalition of re liable Democratic voters, independents and conser vatives who want to see Newhouse gone.
“Obviously, it’s an uphill battle,” White said, before citing a recent internal poll his campaign commis sioned that makes him op timistic. The survey’s most important finding, he said, is that 40% of Republi
Education: Graduated from West Valley High School in Yakima in 1979. Earned a bachelor’s degree from Western Washington University in 1984 and a master’s degree from San Jose State University in 1996.
Political experience: None. First-time candidate.
Work experience: Returned home to Yakima in 2020 after 20-year career in international business, most recently running a digital marketing company based in Hong Kong.
Family: Single. No children.
Campaign contributions: Raised $390,000 and had $111,000 on hand as of July 13.
trict will get that message before casting their ballots.
cans in the district “would vote for a Democrat if that Democrat had the profile that I do.”
“This is a completely dif ferent game,” White said. “We’ve literally never seen this in this district before.
My message is resonating well with people. They’re fed up with Dan Newhouse and we’re going to see a change.”
A spokesman for the White campaign, John Wyble, declined to share the full poll results but said it shows that Newhouse is “a divisive figure,” even among Republicans, and the race narrows to within the margin of error “after voters hear about Doug White.”
There has been no inde pendent polling this year in the district, which national political analysts consider safely in GOP hands. But White isn’t the only one who thinks the pro-Trump electorate could throw a wrench in Newhouse’s re-election bid.
“I’ve heard a lot of peo ple say that they’re going to vote for White because they cannot get over what Newhouse did, and I’ve heard a lot of people say they’re not going to vote at all,” said Teagan Levine, chair of the Okanogan County GOP.
Levine said when she has told those voters to “take Newhouse’s name out of it” and “look at the bigger picture,” they have usually agreed to vote for the Republican, but she is concerned that not every disaffected voter in the dis
If GOP voters can’t get over Newhouse’s impeach ment vote, Levine said, she worries they will jeopar dize the party’s chances of taking control of the House – and in turn the odds of a Republican winning the presidency in 2024.
None of the Republicans Newhouse bested in the primary have formally en dorsed the incumbent al though some said they plan to vote for him.
“Newhouse is in trouble, for sure, just talking to peo ple,” said Jerrod Sessler, a former NASCAR driver from Prosser who took 12.3% of votes in the prima ry, adding that he has en couraged others to vote for Newhouse. “There’s a lot of people voting for Doug White, or they’re going to abstain.”
Jacek Kobiesa, an en gineer from Pasco who entered the race late and received just 490 votes, called the race “a huge mess” but said he would vote for Newhouse.
Corey Gibson, a mar keting entrepreneur from Selah who won 3.4% of votes, said he has received “so many calls” from con servatives who say they are considering voting for White, “not because they align with him, but be cause there’s this energy out there of wanting to be heard, wanting to be able to show that people want something different.”
Gibson said he expects Newhouse to win the general election, but said he worries having such a “wildly unpopular” can didate could depress vot er turnout in the district and hurt other Republi cans, like Senate candidate
Democratic incumbent, nonpartisan challenger have differing viewpoints on experience, election management and cybersecurity
By Laurel Demkovich THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEWFor the first time in years, the race for secretary of state in Washington does not include a Republican –at least not officially.
Democrat incumbent Steve Hobbs and nonparti san candidate Pierce Coun ty Auditor Julie Anderson will face off in the Novem ber election after finishing in the top two in the prima ry.
Both candidates have long political backgrounds and some experience in election administration, but they disagree on what ex perience is most important for the role of secretary of state.
The secretary of state is the state’s chief elections officer, and the role also includes archiving govern ment records and provid ing information and access to the business communi ty about corporations and charities.
Hobbs has pointed to his experience in the National Guard, dealing with cyber security and working on both sides of the aisle as a former state lawmaker. Anderson has made her ex perience as an auditor and her nonpartisan record the focus of her campaign.
She has criticized Hobbs for his lack of experience in election administration and other auditor duties.
In an Association of Washington Business de bate in August, Anderson called Hobbs an “inexperi enced political appointee.” Hobbs was appointed by Gov. Jay Inslee to replace former Republican Secre tary of State Kim Wyman when she took a job in the
Biden administration last fall. The winner of this year’s election will serve the remainder of Wyman’s term through 2024.
In an interview with The Spokesman-Review, An derson pointed to her ex perience with some of the technical aspects of the job, such as administering elec tions, document preserva tion, public record keeping and business administra tion.
Anderson has been the Pierce County auditor since 2009. She served as a Taco ma City Council member and deputy mayor from 2004 to 2009.
“There is no substitute, in my opinion, for direct ex pertise,” Anderson said.
Hobbs, on the other hand, said the office has changed in recent years. It is much more of a lead ership position that deals with cyberthreats and elec tion security, he said. It’s more than overseeing elec tions, though Hobbs said he has done that in the last year in office.
Before his appointment last year, Hobbs served as a state senator since 2007. He has also served in the U.S. Army and the National Guard for 30 years.
“The governor had to ap point somebody that would take election security seri ously and have the neces sary background,” he said. “I’m the only one out there that has that.”
Hobbs has received en dorsements from a number of Democratic members of Congress, including U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell; cur rent and former state of ficials, including Attorney General Bob Ferguson and State Auditor Pat McCar
thy; and state legislators, in cluding Spokane Sen. Andy Billig.
Anderson has received endorsements from 38 current and former county auditors, including Spo kane County Auditor Vicky Dalton; current and former state officials, including for mer Secretary of State Sam Reed and former Attorney General Rob McKenna; and local elected officials, including Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward.
With no official Republi can candidate, the race has drawn at least one writein campaign. After failing to make it to the general election in August prima ry for Congress in Central Washington’s 4th Congres sional District race, state Rep. Brad Klippert, R-Ken newick, has started a cam paign for secretary of state.
As of Thursday, he had no reported contributions, ac cording to the Public Dis closure Commission.
On the issues Anderson said she wants the office to be nonpartisan because she does not feel the job needs any “unnec essary conflict by belonging to a political party.” She said she does not feel political parties belong in an office that oversees elections.
It’s a discussion other candidates and previous secretaries, including Wy man, have had. Wyman said it was a policy change she would push for in a next term.
Hobbs said it doesn’t matter to him whether the office is nonpartisan. He said he can operate in both scenarios.
“It’s the person that’s in the office,” he said. “I don’t
think it matters what label you have. It matters what person is in the office.”
Hobbs has made cyberse curity a priority.
He said he has added more money to double the cybersecurity staff and im prove existing relationships with cyber units in the Na tional Guard. He said his of fice is also working to back up VoteWA, the state’s vot er database, into the cloud as opposed to a hard drive.
To improve cybersecuri ty, Anderson said she wants to see every county undergo penetration testing, where firewalls are regularly test ed to see if there are any holes. She also wants to help every county perform tests on their tabulation systems to ensure they are not connected to the inter net.
Another big issue in the race is how to handle elec tion misinformation.
Already this election sea son, both candidates said they have worked in their respective offices to get the word out about the state’s elections processes.
Hobbs said he is working to inform the public about the voting and counting process. He said the office of secretary of state has re ceived additional money this year to spread this mes sage.
He said he wants to con tinue to push back against misinformation and work with a newly created divi sion of his office that deals with information integrity.
“We have taken elections for granted, but the public doesn’t really know what goes on behind the scenes,” Hobbs said.
In Pierce County, Ander
Julie Anderson, nonpartisan
Age: 57 Education: Earned her GED through St. Martin’s University in Lacey, Washington. Earned her bachelor of arts in liberal arts from Evergreen State College in 1987. Earned her master’s of science in criminal justice administration from Northeastern University in 1990. Earned a certificate in elections administration from Auburn University in 2010.
Work experience: Former senior policy adviser for the Washington State Department of Commerce from 2007 to 2009. Former executive director for the Tacoma and Pierce County YWCA from 1998 to 2001. Former assistant regional administrator at the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration from 1996 to 1998. Former executive director at Episcopal Services for Youth from 1990 to 1996.
Political experience: Has served as the Pierce County auditor since 2009. Served as a Tacoma City Council member and deputy mayor from 2004 to 2009.
Family: Married to David Anderson.
Campaign contributions: Raised $272,700, as of Oct. 5. Contributors include Olympia Associates architect David Bates, real estate developer at MC Construction Loren Cohen, the South Sound Women’s Leadership political action committee; and the Tacoma firefighters union, according to the Public Disclosure Commission.
Age: 52
Steve Hobbs, Democrat
Education: Graduated from Lake Stevens High School in 1988. Received a master’s of public administration and a bachelor of arts from the University of Washington.
Work experience: Has served in the U.S. Army and the National Guard for 30 years.
Political experience: Was appointed as Secretary of State in November 2021. Served in the state Senate from 2007 to 2021.
Family: Married to Pam Hobbs. Has three children.
Campaign contributions: Raised $582,600, as of Oct. 5. Contributors include the Washington State Democrats, the House Democratic Campaign Committee, the Washington Beverage Association, Microsoft and the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, according to the Public Disclosure Commission.
son said she has worked to improve their web pages with more information on the elections process and has remained engaged with the community about any questions they have.
To improve transparen cy, Anderson said if elected she also wants to do a state wide risk-limiting audit to ensure statistically valid samples from each county
are taken for statewide rac es post-election. She also wants to create an election observer corps that would be staffed by nonpartisan volunteers to observe elec tion operations and review voter registration records statewide.
Laurel Demkovich can be reached at (509) 416-6260 or at laureld@spokesman.com.
While most urban voters in Spokane and Spokane Valley have choices for all of the legislative seats on their November ballots, most incumbents running outside the center of the two major cities are running unopposed.
In the 6th Legislative District, which wraps around central Spokane on the west and north and also in cludes Hillyard, only one of the three incumbents up for election faces a challenge. It’s the same story in the 7th Legislative District, which covers most of north eastern Washington. In the 9th Legislative District, which covers southeastern Washington, no incum bent has competition.
Here are the races in Spokane area legislative dis tricts in which incumbents are running unopposed: 6th Legislative District Senate: Jeff Holy, R-Cheney House position 1: Mike Volz, R-Spokane 7th Legislative District Senate: Shelly Short, R-Addy House position 2: Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda 9th Legislative District House position 1: Mary Dye, R-Pomeroy House position 1: Joe Schmick, R-Colfax
Two deputy prosecutors – one from Spokane Coun ty and one from Stevens County – will face each other in November’s gen eral election for Stevens County prosecutor.
The candidates are vy ing to replace four-term county prosecutor Tim Rasmussen, who is retir ing.
If elected, Geoff Kris tianson, a 45-year-old deputy prosecutor for Spokane County, will pri oritize prosecuting violent offenders. Erika George, a 37-year-old deputy prose cutor for Stevens County, aims to bring transparency to the office with a focus on accountability.
Both are Republicans, but the Stevens County Republican Central Com mittee endorsed George for the office.
After a crowded primary, there are plenty of remain ing votes that could still decide the race. George led the primary with 36.6%
of the vote, followed by Kristianson with 26.4%.
The other candidates, Ken Tyndal and Nick Force, took 21.7% and 14.2% of the vote, respectively.
After endorsing Tyndal in the primary, Rasmussen has endorsed George for the general election.
Kristianson has been en dorsed by Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Haskell and Spokane County Clerk Tim Fitgerald.
While both George and Kristianson grew up in Stevens County, George touts her recent experi ence working in the coun ty and building relation ships over the past five years.
“I know how our coun ty works,” she said. “It’s a small community and I don’t think an outsider can quite pick up the dynam
ics as easily as it seems.”
Kristianson said his outside perspective is to his advantage, given re cent disputes between the prosecutor’s office and elected officials in Stevens County. He intends to re establish collaborative relationships with county leadership.
“I have the leadership experience and ability to bring positive and need ed change to the Stevens County Prosecutor Office,” he said.
Kristianson has worked for the Spokane County Prosecutor’s Office since 2011, where he handles violent offenses with the major crimes unit. He de clined to respond to a dis ciplinary record from Spo kane County that includes numerous complaints of misconduct related to his temper.
His prior career as a he licopter pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps gave him perspective and helps him work well under pressure, he said. After his military service, he was inspired
to transition to the legal field by the example of his father, Larry Kristianson, a retired judge in Stevens County.
George joined the Ste vens County Prosecutor’s Office in 2017 as a felony prosecutor in Superior Court and has worked in most departments in the office.
Like Kristianson, George intends to repair county relationships with the prosecutor’s office. Transparency will help re build trust with the com munity, she said.
Kristianson said he will make sure all residents’ concerns are heard and re spected.
George wants to refocus the office on prosecuting cases, which she said has not been a focus of the cur rent administration. She takes a tough-on-crime approach, but also strives to be fair and consistent, she said.
Kristianson is open to pursuing sentencing alter natives to reduce or elimi nate prison time for nonvi
Age: 37
Erika George, Republican
Education: Graduated from the University of Idaho’s law school in 2010 and earned a Master of Law in trial advocacy from California Western School of Law in 2012.
Work experience: Felony prosecutor in Stevens County since 2017. Private practice in Pierce County, then deputy prosecutor in Klickitat and Kittitas counties before returning to Stevens County.
Political experience: First run for public office.
Campaign fundraising: $27,626.51. Notable donors include Stevens County deputy prosecutor Will Ferguson, Stevens County Commissioner Wes McCart and the Stevens County Republican Central Committee.
Geoff Kristianson, Republican
Age: 45 Education: Graduated from Gonzaga Law School in 2011.
Work experience: Deputy prosecutor in Spokane County since 2011. Naval aviator in the U.S. Marine Corps, 1999 to 2008.
Political experience: First run for public office. Campaign fundraising: $37,885.00. Notable contributions include Spokane County deputy prosecutors Dale Nagy, Eugene Cruz and Whitney Hall.
olent offenders, while still holding them accountable, such as residential drug offender sentencing.
James Hanlon can be reached at (509) 459-5467 or by email at jamesh@ spokesman.com.
By Molly Wisor FOR THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
By the looks of August
primary results, Democrat state Rep. Marcus Riccelli appears an easy bet to win a sixth term in the state House.
He won more than 64% of the vote in the only East ern Washington legislative district that leans strongly in favor of Democrats.
“I think I have a proven track record,” Riccelli said. “This election is about what we can do when we work together.”
But Republican Scotty Nicol, a singer-songwriter who has worked in politics at Spokane City Hall, says central Spokane needs a fresh voice in Olympia. He points to crime, and ap proval of a cap-and-trade system, as reasons voters should consider him.
Nicol supports undoing the sweeping police reform laws passed in 2021. He said the laws were damag ing to police departments throughout Washington, including in Spokane.
“One of the first things I would like to do is give the police their tools back,” Nicol said in an interview. “I don’t think there was enough input from actual law enforcement.”
During the 2021 legisla tive session, Riccelli voted in favor of bills that outlined a process for when use of force can be used, changed requirements for certifica tion and de-certification for police officers, and restrict ed the use of chokeholds, neck restraints, military equipment, police dogs and vehicle pursuits.
This year, he voted in favor of legislation that amended some of the re forms passed the year pri or, including clarifying that use of force is allowed when someone needs men tal health assistance, allow ing law enforcement to use and acquire ammunition of
.50 caliber or greater and firearms of .50 caliber or greater, and to define “use of force” and when it can be used – something not clearly defined in 2021 leg islation.
Riccelli said he supports further amending the law regarding police pursuits, but he added it must be done carefully because in nocent bystanders can be harmed in police pursuits.
“I do think we need to look at existing law,” Riccel li said. “We need to make sure we have the tools in their tool box to investigate and stop crime.”
If re-elected, he said, he plans to pursue police intervention that address es public safety through a health-focused lens. For instance, he said, the state needs to invest more in ad diction treatment.
“Personal and public health includes the fact that everyone not only deserves to be safe, but feel safe in their communities, and that includes law enforcement officers,” Riccelli said.
Riccelli supports Wash
ington’s abortion law, which allows abortions un til the fetus is viable, usually around 24-28 weeks.
“I think the laws on the books in Washington state that protect a women’s right to their full spectrum of health care, including re productive health care, are ones that we should fight to protect,” he said.
Nicol said he respects the current abortion law in Washington, which was es tablished by popular vote in 1970.
“I am not interested in overturning a vote of the people,” he said.
“What they want me to do is deliver public safe ty and some tax relief,” he said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Riccelli and his fellow Democrats in Olym pia supported a vaccine mandate for state workers, something Nicol claimed was “absurd.” Riccelli, how ever, said a COVID-19 vac cine mandate no longer is needed at this stage of the pandemic.
Nicol also said Gov. Jay Inslee’s COVID-19 emer gency powers were too ex tensive.
“Those lockdowns were a scam and unnecessary, so I don’t support the gov ernor’s emergency powers being as long as they are,”
he said.
Riccelli plans to pursue what he calls “common sense gun control,” such as recent state legislation ban ning the manufacture of ghost guns, or those without a serial number, and a ban on high-capacity magazines. Nicol, on the other hand, is hesitant to pursue anything that he sees as violating peo ple’s constitutional rights.
“I am a supporter of the Second Amendment,” Nicol said.
Another one of Nicol’s main concerns with Riccel li’s leadership is his sup port of the cap and trade program, which will force industries that release sig nificant amounts of carbon dioxide to purchase al lowances from the state to continue emitting carbon. Opponents say the program is essentially a tax that will drive up prices. The Wash ington Policy Center, a con servative think tank based in Olympia, projects the program will add 46 cents per gallon to the price of gas in 2023.
“I think it’s a tax on the working class,” Nichol said. Riccelli called the cen ter’s estimate on the price of gas “factually question able.”
He added that he fought for a transportation pack age this year that did not
she said. “I truly believe what they did to me was pu nitive. I had an ex emplary record. I was the one they called in when they could not figure a kid out.”
By Nina Culver FOR THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEWVeteran state lawmaker Timm Ormsby, a Democrat, will face a former Spokane Public Schools teacher on the November ballot as he attempts re-election in the strongly Democratic 3rd Legisla tive District.
Natalie Poulson, 44, has no pre vious experience as an elected of ficial and is running as a Republi can. She was fired from her job last year after refusing to wear a mask as required under state COVID-19 protocols.
The candidates for the state House seat have differing view points on the most pressing prob lems in the 3rd District, with Poul son focusing on crime and Ormsby focusing on housing issues.
Ormsby won more than 60% of the vote in the August primary. Poulson advanced to the general election after her second-place finish with 37% of the vote. Pat rick Spurlock, who ran without a party affiliation, came in third and was eliminated from the contest.
Poulson worked for Spokane Public Schools for 18 years, most ly as a special education teach er. Last year, she was based at Finch Elementary in northwest Spokane, where she worked as a special education specialist sup porting students and teachers at a variety of schools with their ed ucational goals. She said she was concerned about students having to wear masks at school and con tacted the school board and the governor to advocate against the mask mandate. She also spoke out against vaccine mandates.
As mandates remained in place, she refused to wear a mask last November. Several other staff members at Finch, including the principal, did the same. The employees who refused to wear masks were escorted from the building.
Poulson was put on leave for several months while the district conducted an investigation, and then fired in February.
“I truly in my heart of hearts thought it would lead us to a dis cussion about accommodations,”
3RD LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVE, POSITION 1
Age: 30
Scotty Nicol, Republican
Education: Graduated from Northwest Christian High School in Spokane in 2010.
Political experience: Worked on Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward’s 2019 campaign, and continued to work for her after her inauguration in January 2020 until January 2022. Worked as City Councilwoman Karen Stratton’s legislative assistant from January 2022 until May to work on his own campaign.
Work experience: Singer-songwriter who has released an album. Spent six months in Nashville, Tennessee, and eight months in Austin, Texas, playing music.
Family: Unmarried.
Campaign finance: Raised nearly $13,000 as of Wednesday, according to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission. Contributors include the Washington State Republican Party; the Associated Builders and Contractors Political Action Committee; hotelier Kent Clausen; former Spokane City Councilman Bob Apple; Spokane County Commissioner candidate Kim Plese; state House candidate Suzanne Schmidt; developer David Black; Chud Wendle, executive director of the Hutton Settlement; William Bouten, CEO of Bouten Construction.
Age: 44
Education: Graduated from Mead High School in 1996. Earned a bachelor’s degree in business admission from Gonzaga University in 2000 and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Washington in 2007.
Work experience: Worked as Eastern Washington Director for U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell from 2007 to 2010 and as senior policy adviser to state Sen. Lisa Brown from 2010 to 2012. Previously worked as an adjunct instructor at Eastern Washington University. Worked as project manager at CHAS Health for three years and currently the part-time community relations manager for CHAS Health.
Political experience: First elected to his position in 2012 and re-elected four times. Currently serves on the health care, transportation, rules and capital budget committees. Serves as the House Majority Whip for House Democrats.
Family: Married to Amanda Marie Riccelli. Has two children.
Campaign finance: Raised nearly $198,000 as of Wednesday, according to the PDC. Has received more than 100 contributions of $1,000 from unions, corporations, political action committees, tribes and others. Those contributors include Amazon.com, pharmaceutical firm Norvartis, pharmaceutical firm Pfizer, Anheuser Busch, Washington State Auto Dealer PAC, Kaiser Aluminum, Avista, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, the Washington Education Association PAC, Premera Blue Cross, Washington State Troopers PAC and State Employees International Union Local 925.
raise the gas tax and includ ed important transporta tion projects for Spokane, including $50 million for bus rapid transit along North Division Street.
“I think we’ve taken great strides toward a greener, more sustainable environ ment,” he said.
Jonathan Brunt contrib uted to this report.
Molly Wisor was a member of The Spokesman-Review’s Teen Journalism Institute, a paid high school summer internship program funded by Bank of America and Innovia Foundation.
STATE HOUSE POSITION 2, 3RD LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT
Age: 63
on, you know, what is our quality of life right now? Are we dealing with public safety issues? Are we dealing with homelessness and the mental health crisis?”
Poulson said she’s concerned about police reform laws that she said made it more difficult for po lice to pursue suspects.
Timm Ormsby, Democrat
Education: Graduated from North Central High School in 1977. Political experience: Appointed to the Legislature in 2003 and won an election for the seat in 2004. He has been re-elected every two years. Work experience: Worked as a cement mason and has been in his position as the business representative for the Northeastern Washington-Northern Idaho Building and Construction Trades Council since 2000.
Poulson said she has appealed her termination.
“I think we should have med ical freedom,” she said.
Among organizations that rec ommended mask mandates in schools at the time was the Amer ican Academy of Pediatrics.
Poulson said she believes the Legislature should have decid ed the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, not Gov. Jay Inslee.
“I really made the decision to be a public servant,” she said. “I want to listen to the people.”
Ormsby has supported Ins lee and his decisions related to COVID-19.
“The governor has used the best evidence and public health care protocols in his decision-making, erring on the side of the health and safety of our residents,” Orms by said in an interview earlier this month.
The Supreme Court decision in June that ended the constitu tional right to abortion gave wide authority to states to restrict abor tion. In Washington, abortion is allowed up to 26 weeks of gesta tion.
Ormsby said he supports Wash ington’s laws on abortion, and pointed to a long history of sup porting women’s reproductive health rights.
Poulson declined to answer questions on abortion, but in a statement said her position on abortion was not important be cause Democrats are likely to re main in firm control of Washing ton state government.
“If the Democrats and the liber al media want to fixate on the fact that I am unapologetically pro-life and believe the rights and pro tections of the unborn outweigh their sense of moral superiority, they are free to do so,” she said in a statement released by her cam paign.
Before the primary, when asked by a reporter if she would support allowing women to get abortions if they are raped, Poulson said: “You can’t fix one sin by adding another, and I think we need to focus more
“They know their job,” she said of police officers. “They should be able to pursue a suspect, a po tential suspect, and at least clear them before letting them go.”
Ormsby supported police re form laws approved by the Legis lature in 2021. Among the changes were bans on chokeholds, limits on police dogs, vehicle pursuits and the use of tear gas during pub lic riots. Ormsby also supported changes this year that rolled back some reforms.
Poulson criticized the Washing ton state Supreme Court decision that ruled the state’s felony drug possession law unconstitutional. She said she believes that has led to increased drug use.
“Overdoses have skyrocketed,” she said.
Poulson said she believes home lessness is closely linked to mental illness.
“It’s not a housing issue,” she said. “It’s definitely mental health or addiction for the majority.”
She said she believes the dis trict’s largest issue is rising crime rates.
“I want to make crime illegal,” she said. “I want our city to be safe, and I believe that requires legislation.”
Ormsby was appointed to his seat in 2003 and won his first election in 2004. He has worked as the business representative for the Northeastern Washing ton-Northern Idaho Building and Construction Trades Council since 2000. He serves as the chair of the House’s budget committee.
Ormsby said he believes the housing crisis is a key issue to address, with a combination of housing for the homeless, home down payment assistance and foreclosure assistance. He said the rising availability of remote work opened the floodgates for people wanting to move to the Spokane area, which drove up house prices and rental rates.
“This is wildly unfamiliar to Spokane,” he said. “We’ve always been a stable market. I think the unhoused is clearly something to be addressed. The market is a bit out of our control, but we certain ly have to account for it.”
Family: Married. Has three children and five grandchildren.
Campaign fundraising: Raised nearly $120,000 as of Oct. 5, according to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission. Top donations include $2,000 each from Amazon.com Services LL, Anheuser Busch, Justice for All PAC, Spokane Firefighters Union, Retired Public Employees Council, Puyallup Tribe of Indians and the Service Employees International Union Local 925.
Age: 44
Natalie Poulson, Republican
Education: Graduated from University High School in 1996. Earned an associates degree from Spokane Community College in 2001 and a bachelor’s degree in elementary and special education in 2004. She earned a master’s degree in education from Whitworth University in 2007.
Political experience: None.
Work experience: Works as a first-grade teacher at St. Charles Catholic School. Previously worked for Spokane Public Schools for 18 years until she was fired for refusing to wear a mask while teaching at Finch Elementary School.
Family: Single. Has three children.
Campaign fundraising: Raised more than $48,800 as of Oct. 5, according to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission. Top donations include $2,000 from Luke McCandless, $1,800 from Marvel Travis and $1,000 each from Elizabeth Poulson, Spokane Pull Tab and Bingo Supply, Snow Development LLC and Terry Snow.
As the budget committee chair man, Ormsby said he believes the state has the resources to work on the housing issue and just needs to determine where to target the money. He also wants to maxi mize the amount of money sent to the state from the federal gov ernment for things like housing, health care and behavioral health.
“The ultimate issue is to make sure we don’t leave money on the table for issues that we’re respon sible for,” he said.
Ormsby said he knows the need is high in his district. He can see it every Wednesday outside his office window as he watches streams of cars line up for free food from the Women and Chil dren’s Free Restaurant. He said he knows food insecurity is an issue and wants to help expand free meal programs at local schools so all children can eat for free.
While spending several dollars a day on a school lunch might not be an issue for some families, it can be a challenge for many, he said.
“That is one pressure on fami lies,” he said. “The 3rd District is traditionally among the lowest re
sourced areas.” Poulson said she has been spending a lot of time meeting people in the district and discuss ing issues with them. She said she believes she can do a better job than the incumbent.
“Timm Ormsby has been here for 20 years,” she said. “If he were a part of the solution, we wouldn’t be in this crisis. I think it’s time for a change.”
Ormsby said he believes he still has something to offer the district, including his experience and indepth knowledge of how the leg islative process works.
“It is good to have new input and fresh perspectives,” he said. “It’s also valuable to have experi ence and know how things work. I think I bring a wealth of experi ence to this role. There is value in that experience.”
Ormsby said he expects there to be many issues to work on in the Legislature.
“We don’t have a shortage of challenges coming,” he said. “I would like to be in the mud pit where we’re sorting all this out. There are so many things that changed our expectations.”
Seat in heavily Republican Valley
By Laurel Demkovich THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
A moderate Republican has emerged as the likely front-runner in the race to fill former Rep. Bob McCaslin’s seat in the 4th Legislative District, a heavily Republican area once represented by farright politician Matt Shea.
Republican Suzanne Schmidt, former CEO of the Associated Builders and Contractors Inland Pacific Chapter, will face Democrat Ted Cummings, a Kaiser Aluminum em ployee, in November for the 4th Legislative Dis trict, Position 1 seat.
In the August prima ry, Schmidt finished with 35.9% of the vote while Cummings took 36.5%.
Another Republican, MJ Bolt, finished with just over 27% of the vote.
The winner of the No vember general elec tion will fill the seat left by McCaslin, who an nounced earlier this year he would retire from the Legislature to run for county auditor.
Cummings has focused his campaign on criticiz ing the Republican Party, which he says is a dan ger to democracy, while Schmidt has focused her campaign on working on both sides of the aisle in what she calls “a stale mate” in Olympia.
Schmidt said she is run ning because she wants to work on legislation that will specifically benefit the 4th district.
“I think that’s some thing we haven’t been real aggressive about in the past,” she said.
Schmidt supports se curing funding for a Spo kane Valley performing arts center, expansion of the HUB Sports Cen ter and ensuring federal funding for projects like the Pines Road railroad crossing is used appropri ately.
Cummings said he is running because he does not want a Republican to run unopposed, criticiz ing far-right Republicans who he said have ad vanced conspiracy theo ries on election fraud and COVID-19 vaccine validi ty.
“It’s all dangerous,” he said.
When it comes to his opponent, Cummings said he believes Schmidt has “common sense and mod erate views on things,” unlike some of the repre sentatives the district has had before. The heavily Republican 4th district is where Shea served for eight years before a House Republican caucus inves tigation found he engaged in domestic terrorism. McCaslin aligned himself with Shea during his time in the Legislature.
Schmidt said she be lieves Cummings is sin cere in his thoughts about vaccines and mandates, but that there’s “another side to that.” Cummings supported Gov. Jay In slee in his vaccine and mask mandates and crit icized those who pushed back against getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
Schmidt said she be lieves, like many in the Republican Party, that people should have a choice whether they want to be vaccinated or wear a mask.
On the 2020 election, Schmidt said there may have been some fraud and errors across the nation, but in Spokane County and Washington, she said the election process is se cure.
“I think there’s ex tremes on both sides, whether it be the Repub lican side or the Demo cratic side,” she said. “If I win the election, I’d like to focus, rather on how far apart we are, where we have some common ground, where we can work together.”
McCaslin and state Rep. Rob Chase had endorsed Bolt in the primary to fill the seat.
Schmidt has yet to re ceive the endorsement of McCaslin, Chase or Bolt, but said she has talked with Bolt to learn more about how the two can work together.
“I think that it’s time we support each other and make sure we keep this Republican seat in the 4th District,” she said.
The candidates have differing views on a num ber of issues, including housing, public safety and abortion.
Cummings criticized Schmidt for her views on labor. Cummings, who is active in the United Steel workers in Spokane and the Washington State La bor Council, said Schmidt does not support the right for people to organize.
Cummings said unions are constantly under at tack. He said unions could help lessen an income gap and help raise wages as the price of homes and gas continue to go up.
“To me, to say that unions are outdated or not needed anymore is just naive,” Cummings said. “I would make the case we need more unions across the country.”
Schmidt, who has worked with the Associat ed Builders and Contrac tors for almost 20 years, said she has worked most ly with open-shop, non union contractors. She said those employees are treated well and are safe.
She said it should be up to an employer to decide what kind of relationship
defunded the police liable for personal and property damages, according to her public safety agenda.
they want to have with their employees.
“I am not anti-union, but I am very pro openshop,” she said. “And I believe there’s room for both.”
On housing, Schmidt said she wants to look at ways to build more, es pecially for people who can’t afford their current property or can’t afford to buy a first home.
She said she wants to create a task force or committee to work with the city, the county and the state on creating longterm solutions in the next two years as well as the next 10 years.
“I certainly don’t have all the answers,” she said.
In an interview in June, Schmidt said she has heard from people who feel unsafe in their homes and pointed to police re form laws passed by the Legislature in 2021.
After the laws went into effect, law enforcement agencies pushed for clar ity on a number of topics, including use of force, ve hicular pursuits and mili tary equipment. Lawmak ers passed a number of bills addressing those is sues, but some, including new guidance around ve hicular pursuits, remain unchanged.
On public safety, Cum mings said he is not wellversed in all of the police reform laws passed in the Legislature in the past two years, but he said po licing should come down to “common sense.”
He said he wants police officers to come home safely every night and that they have his respect and admiration. The re forms, however, are a re action to abuses that are coming to light, he said. They are designed to pro tect human life and make sure police act appropri ately.
“We need to work to gether, and we need to ad dress the root causes for our problems,” he said.
On the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Schmidt said there should have been more input from the Legislature. In stead, it felt like there was “one-person rule” during the state of emergency.
“It’s not the way that our government was cre ated to run,” she said in June.
Cummings, on the other hand, applauded Inslee’s handling of the pandemic. He said he doesn’t think the governor’s emergen cy powers should be re formed. There shouldn’t be more than one person trying to make the deci sions in an emergency sit uation, he said.
On abortion, Cummings said he believes it is a woman’s right to choose and that those rights are being eroded by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Schmidt said she does not support Washington’s current law, which allows for abortions up to the point of viability, often 24 weeks gestation. She said she would support legisla
What are your thoughts on Washington’s current abortion regulations (up to 24 weeks gestation)?
Should there be a ban on large capacity magazines for guns, as passed by the Legislature last year?
legislation from 2020 that would have created a na tional use-of-force stan dard, banned chokeholds and created more inde pendent investigations into police misconduct.
Smiley said there is a lot that can be done on a fed eral level to address rising crime.
She said she wants to allow law enforcement agencies to use federal grant dollars to offer hir ing and retention bonus es for officers, to require that local governments fully fund their police departments in order to be eligible for funding from the Department of Justice and to make local governments that have
She said she wants to improve border security by preventing the federal government from lifting Title 42, which allows for the removal of peo ple from the country who have been in a country where there is a commu nicable disease. It was ac tivated during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to stop the spread at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Smiley said she does not want Title 42 lifted until there is “real border se curity” enacted to avoid more fentanyl from arriv ing in the United States.
Murray criticized Re publican leaders earlier this year who refused to vote on a COVID-19 fund
WASHINGTON 4TH LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT STATE REPRESENTATIVE, POSITION 1
Ted Cummings, Democrat
Age: 61 Education: Graduated from Gonzaga Preparatory School in 1979. Earned an associate degree from Spokane Community College in 1997.
Work experience: Worked at Kaiser Aluminum’s Mead smelter from 1988 until a strike and lockout in 1998. Worked as a supervisor for Alcoa Aluminum in New York from 1998 to 2004. Returned to Kaiser in 2004 at the company’s Trentwood plant. Has served as a vice president for the Washington State Labor Council since 2018.
Political experience: Ran for U.S. Senate in 2016.
Ran for state representative in the 4th Legislative District against Matt Shea in 2018. Ran for Spokane County commissioner against Josh Kerns in 2020.
Family: Married to Denise Cummings. Has two adult sons and one granddaughter.
Campaign contributions: Filed as a mini-reporting campaign, meaning he has not reported any campaign contributions.
Age: 58
Education: Graduated from Libby Senior High School in Libby, Montana, in 1982. Received an associate of arts degree with an emphasis in business administration from Flathead Valley Community College in Libby, Montana, in 1991, and received an associate degree in applied science with an emphasis on medical assistant/technology from Spokane Community College in June 2003.
Work experience: Served as the president and chief executive officer of the Associated Builders and Contractors Inland Pacific Chapter from 2016 until earlier this year. Worked as the organization’s workers comp program manager prior to that. Worked as an administrator for the U.S. Corps of Engineers at Libby Dam.
Political experience: None.
Family: Married to Dean Schmidt. Has three adult children.
Campaign contributions: Raised more than $82,100 as of Oct. 5, according to the Public Disclosure Commission. Top donors include Jordan and Tanner Chaffin, owners of Action Fasteners & Supply; Sam and Kathy Millard, retirees from Rathdrum; Kent Clausen, owner of KVC Developments; the Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington political action committee; the Washington Hospitality Association; the Washington Food Industry Association and the Washington Affordable Housing Council.
tion proposed that would limit access to abortion, but declined to give her stance on when abortion should be prohibited. She supports exceptions to al low abortion in the case of rape or incest.
Schmidt has received the endorsements from a number of local and state politicians, including 6th District lawmakers Rep. Mike Volz and Sen. Jeff
Holy, Spokane Mayor Na dine Woodward, Spokane City Councilmember Jon athan Bingle and Spokane County Treasurer Mi chael Baumgartner.
Cummings has received the endorsement of the Washington State Labor Council and the Spokane Regional Labor Council.
Laurel Demkovich can be reached at (509) 416-6260 or at laureld@spokesman. com.
Supports them and believes it is a woman’s right to choose.
Yes.
Do you support Washington’s police reform laws passed in the last two years? (If not, what would you like to see changed?)
Do you think the governor’s emergency powers should be reformed?
Do you believe climate change is a key factor in the devastating wildfires across the west in recent years?
Do you support Washington’s new cap-and-trade program and low carbon fuel standard, both set to go into effect next year?
Do you support a capital gains tax?
Would you support banning the sale of new cars that use gasoline by 2035?
Do you support the state Building Codes Council decision to mandate heat pump installation in all new commercial construction and multifamily homes?
ing package unless a vote to reinstate Title 42 came with it.
“Title 42 is a public health tool – it should be driven by science, not politics,” she tweeted in May. “When Republicans choose to use immigrants as bargaining chips, it’s wrong and inhumane –and we need to fight back.”
Another top issue: vet erans affairs.
Smiley said Murray’s work for veterans has led to “red tape a bureau cratic system that wasn’t ready for our family.”
If elected, Smiley said she would learn about the best medical electronic systems the country has and work to get them in VA clinics across the country after the Cerner system was “a complete disaster and absolutely
Undecided. Believes there should be reforms but that there is still more work to do.
No.
Yes.
Undecided. Believes there is still more work to do on those policies.
Yes.
Does not support them. Believes there should be exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother, but that other options, such as counseling, should be considered.
Opposes the ban.
No.
Yes, believes they should be reformed and limited.
Believes it is part of the reason but that a lack of forest management also contributed.
No.
No.
Yes. No.
No.
Undecided. Said he would follow experts’ advice and if that would lower carbon emissions, he absolutely supports it.
unacceptable.”
“Veterans: That’s what I’ll go fight for,” she said. “I’ll make sure that veter ans are on the top of the list, and then I’ll take the leftover bureaucratic fall out that actually cost vet erans lives.”
She said she wants to work with local govern ments and Veterans Af fairs to create a “one-stop shop” for resources.
Murray pointed to her history working on veter ans issues in the Senate, including chairing the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. She said she has worked to get VA clin ics in communities across the country, to help vet erans who are victims of rape or incest and to make sure their caregivers get support.
As a member of Senate
committees that oversee the VA and provide fund ing to projects, Murray has been involved in the oversight of the Cerner computer system. She has said she is committed to fixing the faulty system and that she has worked with Cerner and Oracle, which acquired Cerner, on getting the problems addressed.
“Everyone knows when it comes to veterans health care that I work harder than anybody for solutions and account ability,” she said.
On housing, Smiley said she wants to ensure there is adequate public input and transparency before homeless shelters are built and supports an ap proach to provide perma nent, independent hous ing.
Murray said supply chain issues have affect ed housing resources, which has increased the crisis across the state. She said she is working to add more money into the fed eral appropriations bill so communities can apply for grants they can use to build more housing. Murray said she is work ing on additional housing tax credits for people who cannot afford to build.
Murray and Smiley will debate at 5 p.m. Oct. 23 at Gonzaga University. The debate will be hosted by The Spokesman-Review and the League of Wom en Voters and televised by KSPS.
Laurel Demkovich can be reached at (509) 416-6260 or at laureld@spokesman. com.
Incumbent Chase, former legislator Christian clash on many issues, except for shared opposition to abortion
By Laurel Demkovich THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEWA race for a state House seat in Spokane Valley is be tween two Republicans.
Even so, the candidates for position 2 in the 4th Legislative District have major policy differences.
Incumbent state Rep. Rob Chase believes the United States should go back on the gold standard. His op ponent, former state Rep. Leonard Christian does not.
Chase supports a plan to break Washington into two states, arguing that peo ple in Eastern Washington would be better represent ed by taking the West Side out of the mix. Christian says that effort is futile and would be a financial burden on Spokane.
Chase claims election in tegrity is a major problem and says outcomes of some elections suggest voting systems are easy to hack.
Christian says Washing ton’s elections are secure and that such conspiracies undermine confidence and send a message that voting doesn’t matter.
But they don’t disagree on everything. Both strong ly oppose abortion rights, for instance.
Inflation, public safety and COVID-19 recovery also are top issues under de bate by the candidates run ning in the heavily Republi can 4th Legislative District.
Chase, former Spokane County treasurer, is cur rently serving his first term as a legislator. He joined the Legislature in 2020 af ter far-right legislator Rep. Matt Shea did not run for re-election following an investigation that found he committed domestic terror ism.
As a legislator, Chase has followed Shea’s footsteps, sponsoring similar bills, such as one that would split Washington into two, and sharing conspiracy theo ries surrounding COVID-19 on his Facebook page. He joined onto a lawsuit in 2021 with other legislators who argued the state House of Representatives vaccine mandate for members was unconstitutional.
Since the 2020 elec tion, he has continued to tout false claims of elec tion fraud nationally and in Washington. There is no ev idence that there has been widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
In a Thursday debate hosted by The Spokes man-Review, Chase talked
about a number of conspir acy theories, including one that a deep state is running the government and that there was enough fraud in the 2020 election to over turn the results.
Chase said he is running this year because “the truth matters.”
Chase said he’s con cerned that citizens are los ing their freedom of speech and are being criticized for questioning science.
“It’s important that elect ed officials tell the truth un til they’re proven wrong,” he told The Spokesman-Re view.
This year, Chase faces Christian, a conservative with brief experience in the Legislature, having been ap pointed in 2014 to fill the re mainder of Larry Crouse’s term. He lost the seat to Bob McCaslin in 2014.
In the August primary, Chase finished with 50% of the vote, and Christian re ceived just over 46% of the vote. Write-in candidates received about 3.5% of the vote.
Christian is running this year because he said he felt that Chase has done “absolutely nothing” as a state legislator. He cited legislation that Chase has proposed that never made it out of committee, such as the bill to split Washington.
“His effectiveness is zero,” he said.
In response, Chase said this was only his first ses sion. Many legislators don’t get bills out of committee after years in office, he said.
He said he introduced 17 bills in his first term and cosigned onto more than 100.
Chase pointed to a bill that he co-signed that elim inated high delinquent property taxes and interest rates on residential proper ties.
It was a bill he said he started working on as coun ty treasurer.
For Christian, the top is sue this election is tackling inflation.
“I truly believe we need to work on inflation to help the families out here and lower taxes,” he said.
Christian acknowledged that it’s easy to want to cut taxes, but that there’s more to it. He said the way to solve rising costs is to look
at the state budget and find out which programs are not working, and either fix them or reduce them.
With an increase in state revenue and additional federal COVID-19 relief funds, the state Legisla ture has had an unprece dented amount of funding to allocate in recent years.
Christian said the Legis lature should be putting the money into emergen cy programs as opposed to long-term programs, and the rest should be put into the state’s rainy day fund because once funding for those programs is gone, the Legislature will look to tax payers to pay for it.
On inflation, Chase crit icized the Legislature for not giving back any feder al funds or additional tax revenues to taxpayers, but he did acknowledge there could be a recession nearing so it’s important to hold on to some of the federal funds.
Another big issue this year for legislative candi dates is public safety and crime.
Christian said he wants to support law enforcement as much as possible. He criti cized legislation passed in the last two years to address police reform, including bills that limited the use of chokeholds, police dogs and military equipment, among other things.
One of the most contro versial bills was one that limited the use of vehicle pursuits. A new law that went into effect after the 2021 legislative session al lowed officers to engage in vehicle pursuits only when there is probable cause, a standard that law enforce ment says is too high.
A bill that almost made it out of last session would have allowed officers to en gage in pursuits when there is “reasonable suspicion” that a person has or is com mitting certain crimes.
It failed to make it out of the Senate by the end of the session.
Christian called the cur rent vehicle pursuit law “foolishness.”
“There’s got to be re sources and tools to be able to chase criminals,” he said.
Chase had similar thoughts on public safety. He said the first thing that needs to be done is to re store the ability for law en forcement to conduct vehi cle pursuits.
Chase supports an effort from citizens and other lawmakers to get enough signatures for 11 initiatives
Age: 69 City: Liberty Lake, Washington Education: Graduated from Kellogg High School in 1972. Graduated from Eastern Washington University in 1990 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, operations management. Certification in Production and Inventory Management.
Work experience: Is currently semi-retired, but has recently worked as a U.S. Census Bureau enumerator and security guard for Phoenix Protective Corps in Spokane Valley. Worked as an expeditor with Haakon Industries based in Cheney from 2006 to 2007. Held mortgage origination and real estate licenses. Served in U.S. Army Reserves from 19721978.
Political experience: Elected Spokane County treasurer in 2010 and 2014. Republican Party precinct committee officer. Ran unsuccessfully for state Senate in 2000, U.S. House in 2002 and Spokane County Commissioner in 2012 and 2018. Served as Eastern Washington coordinator for Ron Paul for President in 2008 and 2012 and Eastern Washington coordinator in Clint Didier campaign for Senate 2010.
Family: Married to Chris Chase and has four children.
Campaign contributions: Has raised more than $36,000, as of Friday, according to the Public Disclosure Commission. Top donors include Kaiser Aluminum, Anheuser-Busch, the Washington Healthcare Association public action committee, electrician Terry Gaston and Davis Tool Inc. owner Neal Davis.
Leonard Christian, Republican
Age: 57 City: Spokane Valley, Washington Education: Graduated from Ferris High School in 1984. Christian completed an associate degree’s from the College of the Air Force just before retiring from the military and went on to complete a degree in aeronautics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Graduated with a master’s of business from Webster University.
Work experience: Has worked as a real estate agent for Live Real Estate since 2014. Previously was a real estate agent for Windermere Real Estate and before that worked for Thomas and Black Real Estate. Christian was in the Air Force from 1984 to 2005, working many jobs, including aircraft mechanic and security specialist. He retired with the rank of master sergeant.
Political experience: Appointed to a seat in the Washington State Legislature in 2014 to fill the remainder of Larry Crouse’s term. He lost primary election against Bob McCaslin Jr. to keep the seat in August 2014. Lost close election for Spokane County assessor in 2018. Is a founding member of Republicans of Spokane County and served as vice chairman and chairman of the organization.
Family: Married to Rima Christian and has two children.
Campaign contributions: Raised more than$19,000, as of Friday, according to the Public Disclosure Commission. Top donors include Spokane retiree David Lucke, Travis Pattern and Foundry Vice President Scott Chaffin, Associated General Contractors and motel owner Kent Clausen.
to the Legislature, includ ing one that addresses po lice pursuits. The “Let’s Go Washington” campaign also is gathering signatures for initiatives that deal with election oversight and au diting, reviewing the gov ernor’s emergency powers and repealing a capital gains tax.
Another important issue lawmakers will encounter this session is the fallout
of the State of Washington v. Blake Supreme Court decision, which found the state’s drug possession law to be unconstitutional. Pri or to the ruling, a person found guilty of simple pos session could be sentenced to five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 under state law.
In an attempt to address the ruling, lawmakers passed a bill during the 2021
session that made posses sion a simple misdemeanor, punishable by up to 90 days in jail, a $1,000 fine or both. For the first two offens es, those possessing drugs would be diverted to treat ment instead of jail. But the law also says the Legislature must come up with a long-term plan to ad dress the state’s possession
Crime and public safety are hot topics for Republican and Democratic contenders
By Laurel Demkovich THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEWCrime and public safety are top of mind for candi dates running for a House seat representing a legis lative district that signifi cantly shifted through re districting.
The 6th Legislative Dis trict at one time was the only swing district in East ern Washington. But after two rounds of redistricting after the 2010 and 2020 Censuses, results from the August primary suggests it leans strongly Republican.
Incumbent state Rep. Jenny Graham, a Repub lican, is facing Michaela Kelso, a Democrat who lives in Deer Park. In the August primary, Kelso fin ished with just under 39% of the vote, behind Gra ham, who finished with just over 61%.
The 6th covers most of northwest Spokane County, including Medi cal Lake, Airway Heights and Deer Park. It also in cludes parts of the city of Spokane, including the Indian Trails and Hillyard neighborhoods. Parts of
the South Hill and Cheney were pushed out of the 6th during the latest redistrict ing approved last year.
Graham was first elect ed in 2018, and since tak ing office has made vic tim advocacy and public safety some of her top priorities. She faced criti cism in 2020 after sharing conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 vaccine on Facebook and then left an explicit voicemail threat ening an Inlander reporter.
Graham has again made public safety a top priority in this campaign. She said she is running to contin ue the work she started around creating safe and clean neighborhoods and being a strong voice for crime victims and their families.
“There’s definitely a need if you look at what’s going on in Washington state right now with all of the crime,” Graham said. “I’m trying to bring it back to the middle where we have balance in our justice system.”
Kelso grew up in Germa ny before joining the U.S. Army, where she served
until 2018. She became ac tive in the 7th Legislative District Democrats until this past year when redis tricting moved her into the 6th Legislative District.
She said her experience in the military has helped her become a patient per son who wants to work and listen to both sides.
Kelso’s top issues in clude education and hous ing.
“I feel that I’m much better suited to the posi tion than the current of ficeholder,” she said.
Graham currently serves on the civil rights and judi ciary; public safety; rules; and state government and tribal relations commit tees.
Regarding public safety, Graham criticized a num ber of bills that have been discussed in recent years in the Legislature, includ ing several police reform bills passed in 2020. Those bills banned chokeholds and military equipment, limited the use of vehicle pursuits and police dogs, and outlined a process for when officers can use
force.
Opponents of the bills say they have led to rising crime rates in Washington as police feel they cannot do their jobs. Supporters of the bills say law enforce ment is exaggerating the amount they are limited by the bills.
She criticized the Leg islature for not hearing a number of public safety bills that she sponsored. One of them would have removed eligibility for ear ly release for people who commit violent crimes with a firearm.
Kelso said she does not know whether the new police reform bills are the sole reason for rising crime rates in Washington. She said the recent uptick could be due to a number of things, including the ef fect of the pandemic and isolation on people’s men tal health.
“Just to say it’s police re form puts blinders on,” she said. “You can’t look at this stuff in a vacuum.”
She said in general she supports most of the police reform laws passed in re cent years.
Graham also criticized the Legislature for their response to the State of Washington v. Blake Su preme Court decision, which said the state’s drug possession law was uncon
STATE HOUSE POSITION 2 IN WASHINGTON’S 6TH LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT
Jenny Graham, Republican
Age: 57 Education: Graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in Auburn, Washington, in 1983. Licensed by Nash Beauty School in 1984.
Political experience: Elected to current seat in the state House of Representatives in 2018.
Work experience: Former owner of Estes & Graham Home Rentals, LLC. Served in U.S. Army Reserves.
Family: Married to Curtis. Has three adult children. Campaign finance: Raised nearly $61,000, as of Oct. 5, according to the Public Disclosure Commission. Top contributors include Kaiser Aluminum, Avista Corp., Cathy McMorris Rodgers for Congress, the Washington Indian Gaming Association Campaign for Tribal Self-Reliance and the Washington State Troopers Political Action Committee.
Michaela Kelso, Democrat
Age: 52 Education: Grew up in Germany and graduated from a high school in Oberursel.
Political experience: Currently the state committee chair for the 7th Legislative District Democrats. Vice chair of the 7th Legislative District Democrats for two years. Work experience: Served in the U.S. Army from 1995 to 2018.
Family: Married to Alan. Has two children.
Campaign finance: Raised more than $2,900 as of Oct. 5, according to the Public Disclosure Commission. Top contributors include the Washington State Democratic Central Committee, the 6th Legislative District Democrat Committee, Spokane resident David Green and Newport resident Robert Eugene.
stitutional. Prior to the rul ing, a person found guilty of simple possession could be sentenced to five years
in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 under state law.
By Nina Culver FOR THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
The Republican floor leader of the state House faces a challenge on the November ballot from the far right of her party.
Rep. Jacquelin May cumber, of Republic, ap pears to be in a strong position heading into the November election. She won nearly 71% of the vote in the August prima ry for her seat, position 1 in Northeastern Wash ington’s 7th Legislative District. Her opponent, Lonny Ray Williams, tal lied 29%. Maycumber raised nearly $230,000 for her campaign com pared to about $9,000 for Williams.
Maycumber also has assembled wide backing from law enforcement groups like the Washing ton Council of Police and Sheriffs; unions, includ ing the Washington State Building & Construction Trades Council; and busi ness and farming groups, including the Washington State Farm Bureau Politi cal Action Committee and Washington Realtors.
Williams’ website shows that he’s been en dorsed by a number of patriot groups as well as state Rep. Bob McCaslin, a Spokane Valley Repub lican who is giving up his seat in the Legislature to run for Spokane County auditor.
The 7th District cov ers much of northeastern Washington, including part of northern Spokane County and part of Okan ogan County as well as Ferry, Stevens and Pend Oreille counties.
Williams owns a pig farm near Republic and is the editor of the Pam phlet, billed as a month ly publication “about our true history and how it applies today.”
The Pamphlet is a mix of history lessons, can ning recipes, information on how to raise food and calls for patriots to stand up for freedom. In articles for the publication, Wil liams often writes that the government is tyrannical and that patriots need to stand up against it. “Many of us are now branded as terrorists by some in government,” he wrote in Volume 2, Issue 1. “By
taking the same position as our Founding fathers, our own government has branded us as traitors.”
A recent issue criticized the United States for backing Ukraine against Russia and warned that the federal government was “going rogue” and “more hostile and mili tant towards its citizens.”
The Pamphlet often en gages in conspiracy theo ries.
For instance, Williams, who uses the name Wade John Taylor when writing for the Pamphlet, blames the United States and “the Coup of Ukraine in 2014” for the current invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
“They intentionally provoked and drew Russia into war this year to cov er the planned economic collapse of the western system,” he wrote in Vol ume 2, Issue 7. He goes on to write that he is no friend of Russia but “Rus sia now stands for more freedom than that of my own government.”
In his most recent issue, Williams warns that this winter will be “Biblical” and advises his readers to raise rabbits for meat and create stockpiles of food. “Society will not end this winter, large sections of collapse will happen, but the show will go on,” he wrote.
Williams said he decid ed to run because politics have become too divisive and no one is paying at tention to the problems that need to be solved.
“That’s what makes me disgusted,” he said. “That’s why I stood up. We all need to wake up and grow up.”
A key issue for Wil liams is education. Test scores have been drop ping despite extra money being spent on education, he said. He believes stu dents aren’t being taught critical thinking skills and that if parents de cide to home-school their children or send them to private school, the state should pay the parents or the private school the same amount of money that would be allocated for the child if he or she attended public school.
When one of his daugh ters was a teenager, she was getting good grades but didn’t understand what she was being taught, Williams said.
“We pulled our daugh ter out of school because of the things she was be ing taught,” he said. “We had her tested and she was three grades behind.”
Home school has been a success for his daughter, who is now 17. “Our daughter is now a self-learning machine,” he said.
Maycumber, who owns a cattle ranch and grows alfalfa and grain, has held her seat since she was ap pointed to the position in 2017 to replace her for mer boss, Shelly Short. Maycumber had worked as Short’s legislative aide since 2009.
She said she believes
the top issues in the dis trict are the cost of living and crime. “I hear a lot about crime,” she said. “You’re seeing it every where now.”
She believes the rise in property crime and drug use is caused by the 2021 State Supreme Court case known as the Blake Deci sion, which ruled that the state’s felony drug posses sion law was unconstitu tional. “That’s been one of the biggest issues I’m hearing from people,” she said.
One of her goals is also to increase the amount of money available for com munity-oriented policing, which requires a higher number of police officers per capita. She also wants to amend a recent police reform law that limited when police can pursue a vehicle.
Williams said he at tended a rally in Olym pia last fall to show his support for doctors and nurses who were fired after refusing a COVID vaccine. He said he asked Maycumber what she was going to do about it and she said nothing.
“That shocked me,” he said. “Their rights are being violated. We need leadership in those mo ments. We need to stand up for people’s rights.”
He is a self-described constitutional conserva tive. “I’ve learned from researching our Found ing Fathers that we don’t know our history,” he said. “I don’t believe in legislating morality. It’s not right for one person to say this is right, this is wrong.”
Williams said he knows he’s going up against the establishment.
“I believe in the par ty of Reagan, but I don’t think that exists any more,” he said. “We have a Liz Cheney party of cor ruption. We must protest in some way. It’s coming from both establishments. The vast majority of us are in the middle.”
In the last two years, Maycumber said she worked to pass a bill that provides equitable access to credit, particularly in rural areas.
“My tribal communi ties use these programs to boost tribal entrepre neurship,” she said.
She also sponsored a
7TH LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVE, POSITION 1
Jacqueline Maycumber, Republican
Age: 42
Education: Graduated from Republic High School in 1998. Earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Colorado College in 2002. Received a Howard Hughes medical research grant to study HIV/AIDS. Graduated from the Law Enforcement Academy in El Paso County, Colorado.
Work experience: Worked for the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office from 2002-2004 then as a legislative aid to then-Representative Shelly Short beginning in 2009.
Political experience: Appointed to her position in early 2017; elected in a special election in November 2017, elected to seat in 2018 and 2020. Elected to the Republic School Board in 2015.
Family: Married Marty Maycumber. Has three children.
Campaign finances: Has raised $219,858 as of Oct. 3 according to the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission. Top donations include $2,000 each from Allstate Insurance Company, Amazon.com Services, BNSF Railway, Build East PAC, Juul Labs and Microsoft Corporation.
Age: 50
Education: Graduated from Woods Cross High School in Utah in 1990. He attended classes at Pierce College, the University of Phoenix and DeVries University but never completed his degree.
Work experience: Joined the Army immediately after high school and served for four years. He did some general contracting work, worked for the decennial census, worked for the National Park Service at Mount Rainier and managed U-Haul of Northern Washington before getting a job as an executive office manager for the Region 10 Environmental Protection Agency administrator.
Political experience: None.
Family: Married. Has eight children and three grandchildren.
Campaign Finances: Has raised $8,562 as of Oct. 3 according to the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission, including more than $4,600 in cash and inkind donations from the candidate. Top donations include $500 from Protect-America.org, $250 from Marian Miller of Lynwood, Washington, and $250 from Katherine Owsley of Republic.
bill with the original goal to cap the price of insulin. An insulin work group was created to study the issue.
“We do need the con versation on why certain drugs have increased,” she said.
Neither candidate re sponded when asked after their interview to explain their view on the state’s abortion laws in the wake of Roe v. Wade be ing overturned. However, both addressed the issue in surveys sent out by We Believe, We Vote, which asked a series of questions relating to religion.
In a written comment, Williams said, “Life be gins at conception. Full stop. Anything less is murder in my opinion and I will seek to protect the lives of all those who can not protect themselves.”
Maycumber did not submit a written com ment to the survey, but in dicated that she “strongly
agreed” that the state’s Reproductive Priva cy Rights Act should be challenged or repealed. The law allows women to make reproductive health care decisions, including abortion.
Williams said he rebuilt his life after suffering a stroke in 2008 and he’ll bring that determination to the 7th District.
“I will not quit,” he said. “I’m not going to accept that this is the best that we can do for you and your family. I want to rep resent the individual peo ple. The common people need help.”
Maycumber said she wants to be a voice for and fight for the district.
“I’m from the 7th Dis trict,” she said. “I grew up here. I’m raising my chil dren here. I’m just hon ored to be a part of that, to be a part of the communi ty. I want to make sure my children have the same opportunities I did.”
Service - Michaela
Integrity - Michaela
Community - Michaela
Yes
By Colin Tiernan THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEWTwo political newcom ers are battling to rep resent western Spokane on the Spokane County Commission.
Democrat Chris Jor dan, 33, is a lawyer with the Washington state at torney general’s office who specializes in child abuse cases. Republican Kim Plese, 60, owned a Spokane printing and marketing business for more than three decades before selling it earlier this year.
The liberal and the con servative hope to become the first representative for Spokane County Com mission District 1, which covers most of Spokane’s western half.
Spokane County is transitioning from three to five commissioners to comply with a law the state Legislature passed in 2018.
From now on, voters will elect five commis sioners, each of whom will represent one dis trict, not the entire coun ty. The new structure likely will allow Demo crats to win one or more commission seats for the first time since 2006.
Based on past election results, Jordan heads into the general election as the heavy favorite. He took home 55% of the vote during the August primary, compared to 45% for Plese. The area represented by District 1 has been reliably blue in recent years.
Jordan’s endorse ments include a long list of unions, all five of the Spokane City Council’s liberal members and his boss, Attorney General Bob Ferguson. He also has the backing of 3rd Legis lative District Sen. Andy Billig and the legislative
district’s representatives – Timm Ormsby and Mar cus Riccelli.
Plese has the support of Spokane County Sher iff Ozzie Knezovich, all three of the Spokane County Commission’s in cumbents, Spokane May or Nadine Woodward, the Spokane City Council’s two conservatives and former Mayor David Con don.
Jordan said improving access to child care would be one of his top priori ties if elected.
“Child care is the labor shortage that causes oth er labor shortages,” he said. “If people don’t have safe, affordable, quality places to send their kids, sometimes they can’t en ter the workforce.”
Plese has said she’d fo cus on homelessness if elected. She and Jordan said the county should take more of a leadership role in addressing home
lessness. Spokane County sends millions of dollars that it receives from the state and federal gov ernment to Spokane, but largely allows the city to decide how to spend the money.
“There definitely needs to be more accountability on what the county gives the city for homeless ser vices,” Plese said. “What are you doing with all this money? Where are you spending the money?”
Both candidates said they believe public safety is one of the biggest issues facing the county, but they offer different ideas for reducing crime.
Plese said her main goal would be adequate ly funding the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office and ensuring sheriff’s office deputies receive adequate training. Jor dan is advocating for ex panded access to mental health and drug addiction
opposed to it if
SPOKANE COUNTY COMMISSION DISTRICT 1
Age: 60
treatment, which he says will help address the root causes of crime.
The candidates differ completely on whether Spokane County should build a new jail.
Politicians have argued about the Spokane Coun ty Jail for over a decade as repeated inmate deaths have plagued the facility. They generally agree the jail is crowded, dangerous for inmates and that the status quo can’t continue.
They disagree on how to fix the jail’s problems.
Many conservatives say a new jail with more cells would be in the best interest of inmates, pub lic safety and taxpayers. Many liberals say a new jail would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and wouldn’t improve safety. Instead, progressives ar gue the county should put its dollars toward mental health and drug addiction treatment that can help people avoid jail.
Plese said she wants a new jail but believes voters should be able to make the decision direct ly at the ballot box.
Jordan said he thinks a new jail would be waste ful, especially at a time when families are strug gling economically. He said he believes it prob ably couldn’t be done
Kim Plese, Republican
Education: Graduated from Gonzaga Prep in 1980.
Received a bachelor’s degree in social work from Washington State University in 1984.
Political experience: None.
Work experience: Owned Plese Printing and Marketing for 32 years before selling it in 2022. Interned in King County juvenile court. Was president of the Boys and Girls Club of Spokane County for two years. Former president of the Board of Executive Women International in Spokane.
Family: Single. Has two children. Sister is Spokane County Superior Court Judge Annette Plese.
Fundraising: Has raised more than $109,131 as of Oct. 5. Prominent donors include Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ campaign fund, numerous real estate investors, political action committees representing developers and homebuilders, the Max J. Kuney Co., Spokane County commissioners Mary Kuney and Al French, 6th Legislative District Rep. Mike Volz and former U.S. Attorney for Eastern Washington Jim McDevitt.
Chris Jordan, Democrat
Age: 33 Education: Graduated from Mt. Spokane High School. Has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Washington. Also has graduate degrees in public administration and law from the University of Washington.
Political experience: None.
Work experience: Works as a lawyer with the Washington State Attorney General’s Office, specializing in child abuse cases. Has previously worked for Columbia Legal Services, a legal aide and advocacy group. Served on the University of Washington’s board of regents while in graduate school. Interned for Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray.
Family: Married to Mara Hazeltine. Grandfather was Jack Spring, a left-handed pitcher and Spokanite who appeared in 155 Major League Baseball games from 1955 to 1965. Fundraising: Has raised more than $89,080 as of Oct. 9. Notable donors include Department of Commerce Director Lisa Brown, numerous labor unions – including the Spokane Firefighters Union’s political action committee, the Washington Association of Realtors, the Spokane Tribe of Indians, former Spokane City Councilwoman Candace Mumm, City Councilwoman Lori Kinnear, 3rd Legislative District Sen. Andy Billig and 3rd Legislative District Reps. Marcus Riccelli and Timm Ormsby.
Candidates lay out views on economic opportunities, public safety, health
By Colin Tiernan THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEWTwo familiar names are facing off in November to represent Spokane County Commission District 2. Democrat Amber Waldref spent eight years on the Spokane City Coun cil from 2010-17. Republi can Michael Cathcart start ed serving on the council in 2020.
District 2 is primarily urban, covering all of east Spokane and three chunks of unincorporated county outside the city limits. It leans Democratic overall, but ranges from deep red on its northern end to deep blue in the south.
This year marks the first time Spokane County vot ers will elect five commis sioners instead of three.
The county had to transi tion to five commissioners due to a law the Washing ton Legislature passed in 2018. The change will fun damentally alter the coun ty commission, the board that sets county policy and manages the county bud get.
Under the new setup, each commissioner will represent one district, not the entire county. The end of the countywide gener al election will also, in all likelihood, allow the Dem ocratic Party to win at least one commission seat for the first time in over a de cade.
Waldref, 45, has a good chance at being one of those Democrats. She heads into November as the favorite after taking 55% of the vote during the August primary election.
Cathcart took 33% of the vote, although the trio of Republicans on the ballot combined for 45%.
The former city council woman has the financial
upper hand on Cathcart, too. She’s raised $105,000, nearly double the $56,000 donors have given the in cumbent city councilman.
Waldref has spent much of her adult life work ing for local youth and environmental advoca cy groups, including The Lands Council and Priori ty Spokane. She leads The Zone, a northeast Spokane organization that strives to reduce health, education and economic disparities for kids.
Cathcart, 36, is a long time advocate for busi nesses and developers. He spent five years as ex ecutive director of Better Spokane, a pro-business organization. Before that, he was the Spokane Home Builders Association’s gov ernment affairs director.
Waldref describes her self as a “practical” politi cian who focuses on mak ing data-driven decisions.
“I have a big vision for where I think our commu nity can be and I go about that pretty pragmatically,” she said.
The Democrat said im proving economic oppor tunities for all county resi dents is one of her top two priorities, along with pub lic safety.
SPOKANE COUNTY COMMISSIONER DISTRICT 2 Amber Waldref, Democrat
Age: 45
Education: Went to Gonzaga Preparatory School. Majored in sociology and English at Georgetown University. Has a master’s degree in environment and community from Antioch University Seattle.
Political experience: Served on Spokane City Council from 2010-17. Served as a Democratic precinct committee officer. Has been appointed to multiple boards, including the Spokane Housing Authority Board and the Washington State Governor’s 2020 Census Committee.
Work experience: Director of The Zone, a northeast Spokane initiative focused on improving education and battling poverty. Worked with Urbanova, a public-private partnership based in the University District that strives to improve public services. Former development director of The Lands Council, a conservation organization. Former field director of Heart of America Northwest, where she focused on environmental cleanup of the Hanford nuclear site. Helped create Priority Spokane.
Family: Married to Tom Flanagan. Has two children. Sister is Vanessa Waldref, the U.S. Attorney for Eastern Washington.
Fundraising: Has raised more than $105,000 as of Oct 5. Prominent donors include numerous labor unions, Washington State Department of Commerce Director Lisa Brown, the Washington State Democratic Central Committee, Spokane City Council President Breean Beggs, Spokane City Council members Betsy Wilkerson, Lori Kinnear and Zack Zappone, former Spokane City Councilwoman Candace Mumm, former Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart, state Sen. Andy Billig, the Spokane Tribe of Indians, the Spokane Firefighters Union Political Action Committee and the Win With Women Political Action Committee.
Michael Cathcart, Republican Age: 36
Education: Went to University High School. Graduated from Montana State University with a bachelor’s degree in motion picture arts. Political experience: Has served on Spokane City Council since 2020.
Work experience: Spent five years as executive director of Better Spokane, a pro-business organization. Worked as an aide for former 6th Legislative District Sen. Michael Baumgartner. Former government affairs director for the Spokane Home Builders Association.
Family: Married to Vina Cathcart. Has one child.
“I want to make sure that we’re making decisions that remove barriers, so ev eryone can stay financially stable, safe and healthy,” Waldref said. “That means understanding which households are struggling and making sure we are making investments in the community to support those households.”
Fundraising: Has raised more than $56,200 as of Oct. 5. Numerous builders, contractors and pro-development political action committees have donated to Cathcart’s campaign. Has also received funding from 6th Legislative District Rep. Mike Volz, the Avista Corp., former U.S. Attorney for Eastern Washington Jim McDevitt and Spokane County Commissioner Josh Kerns.
Cathcart describes him
self as a fiscal conservative and said he’d be responsive
to constituents if elected.
On the campaign trail, the Republican is stressing his commitment to gov ernment transparency and public safety.
“We have a right to live in a safe community, and I feel like that has really kind of been put on the back burner,” Cathcart said. “We have to get back to focusing on that.”
Public safety may be the topic the two candi dates differ on most. For instance, they disagree on whether Spokane County should build a new jail.
Politicians have argued about the Spokane County Jail for more than a decade.
Elected officials from both major parties agree
the facility is dangerous and overcrowded, but they propose different solutions.
Many conservatives say building a new jail with more cells would be better for inmates and improve public safety.
Many liberals say adding jail capacity won’t improve public safety, and taxpay er dollars would be better spent on addiction and mental health treatment.
Waldref opposes build ing a new jail. She said she believes a new facility would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Tax payer money should go to ward efforts that address the root causes of crime,
Should there be a medical doctor on the health board?
Should the county spend more on housing and services for the homeless?
Would the candidate support funding a 13th Superior Court judge?
Incumbent commissioner faces political newcomer in District 3 race
By Colin Tiernan THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEWThey’re both conserva tives, but in a lot of ways Josh Kerns and “Wild Bill” Schreiner are politi cal opposites.
The former has name recognition, more than $40,000 in campaign do nations and nearly six years of experience as a Spokane County commis sioner. The latter is vir tually unknown, has less than $1,000 in his war chest and has never held office.
Voters will decide this November if they want the political veteran or the outsider to represent Spokane County Commis sion District 3.
District 3 is largely ru ral, comprising the north ern part of the county and Spokane Valley’s northern half. It’s one of five coun ty commission districts created during last fall’s redistricting process.
Spokane County had to switch from three to five commissioners to comply with a law the Washing ton Legislature passed in 2018. The change will fundamentally alter the county commission, which makes policy deci sions and decides how to spend taxpayer dollars.
Under the new setup, each commissioner will represent an individu al district, not the entire county. The end of the countywide general elec tion will also, in all like lihood, allow the Demo cratic Party to win at least one commission seat for the first time in over a de cade.
Democrats won’t win District 3, though. Not a single Democrat entered the race and even if one had, their odds of victo ry would have been slim.
Northern Spokane Coun ty is deep red, with more than 60% of voters typi cally preferring Republi cans.
Kerns, the de facto in cumbent, heads into the general election as the heavy favorite. The Re publican, who first won election to the county commission in 2016, took home 78% of the vote in the August primary elec tion.
Schreiner, who got 21% of the vote in a contest that was largely symbol ic because he and Kerns
were the only two on the ballot, will have to win over thousands of Kerns supporters if he’s going to gain office. He’s unoffi cially running as a Repub lican but will appear on the ballot without a par ty affiliation. Schreiner said he wanted to file as a GOP candidate but decid ed against it because he didn’t have the Spokane County Republican Par ty’s backing.
Kerns, 37, got into pol itics 14 years ago after closely following the runup to the 2008 election and deciding to attend the Republican Party’s local presidential caucus.
A Spokane County Re publican Party leader at the gathering asked him if he wanted to be a pre cinct committee officer, or PCO.
“I was like, ‘Sure. What’s a PCO?’ ” Kerns said, chuckling.
Soon after, Kerns start ed working for state-lev el legislators, both as a campaign manager and aide. At different times he worked for Kevin Parker, John Ahern and Jeff Holy, all Republican lawmak ers for the 6th Legislative District.
Kerns said he believes in low taxes and limited government. On the cam paign trail he’s empha sizing his commitment to economic development, public safety and budget ary transparency.
Schreiner, 60, works in Spokane’s code enforce ment department.
He’s spent much of his life in construction, building houses, roads and other infrastructure projects. At one point, Schreiner had a business that staffed and supplied casinos in Arizona. He earned the “Wild Bill” moniker during his time as a cargo plane pilot.
Schreiner said he couldn’t define where his views fall on the political spectrum but said he will be responsive to constit uents if elected and sup ports fiscal conservatism.
“I’m going to go through that budget like a fine-toothed comb,” he
said. “I’m going to make sure we’re not getting Tonka trucks.”
Schreiner said his back ground in blue-collar jobs has given him valuable life experience other county commissioners lack.
“It’s different when you walk the coals,” he said.
Policywise, Schreiner mentioned a few priori ties, but one stands head and shoulders above the rest: Roads.
County roads are poor ly maintained and need greater investment, Sch reiner said.
Despite their differenc es, Kerns and Schreiner’s views align in a few ways.
They both say the county should bargain in public with its unions, as opposed to negotiat ing behind closed doors. The county remains at an impasse with its largest union over that issue.
The two conservatives also share broadly similar views on how the county should address racial dis parities within its crimi nal justice system.
According to a 2017 analysis by the JFA Insti tute, Black people in Spo kane County are 13 times more likely to be jailed
than white people, and Native Americans are 6.5 times more likely to be jailed.
Kerns and Schrein er said they believe the county’s criminal justice system should treat ev eryone equally, regardless of skin color.
“That’s the basis of our legal system in this country,” Kerns said, em phasizing that the county commissioners only have budgetary power and lack authority over judges and prosecutors.
Schreiner said he doesn’t think the issue is complicated.
“Be colorblind,” he said.
Both candidates said dangerous people need to be locked up in order to keep the community safe, but they have differ ent thoughts on whether the county should build a new jail.
Politicians have argued about the Spokane Coun ty Jail for more than a decade as inmates have repeatedly died at the facility. Elected officials from both major parties agree the facility is dan gerous and overcrowded, but they propose differ ent solutions.‘Many con
SPOKANE COUNTY COMMISSION DISTRICT 3
Josh Kerns, RepublicanAge: 37 Education: Graduated from Mount Spokane High School in 2003. Has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business from Whitworth University.
Political experience: Has served on the Spokane County Commission since 2017. Spent six years as a legislative aide for 6th Legislative District Sen. Jeff Holy and former 6th Legislative District Rep. John Ahern.
Work experience: Owns River Marketing – a marketing company –with his wife. Previously worked as a server at Red Robin and a banker for U.S. Bank.
Family: Married to Nichole Kerns. Has two children.
Fundraising: Has raised more than $44,200 as of Oct. 5. Notable donors include Avista, numerous builders and political action groups that represent developers, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ congressional campaign fund, Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Haskell, Spokane Valley City Council members Rod Higgins and Arne Woodard, the Washington Association of Realtors, 4th Legislative District Sen. Mike Padden, 4th Legislative District representatives Rob Chase and Bob McCaslin and Spokane County Republican Party Chairman Brian Steele.
Age: 60
Education: Graduated from Mead High School. Attended Spokane Falls Community College and Green River College, a community college in Auburn, Washington.
Political experience: None.
Work experience: Currently works for Spokane’s code enforcement department. Spent much of his life as a contractor and commercial pilot. Had a business that staffed and supplied casinos in Arizona.
Family: Married to Brenda Darlene Schreiner. Has three kids.
Fundraising: Has raised more than $800 as of Oct. 5.
servatives say building a new jail with more cells would be better for in mates and improve public safety. Many liberals say adding jail capacity won’t improve public safety, and taxpayer dollars would be better spent on addiction and mental health treat ment resources.
Kerns supports build ing a new jail. It could provide more space for in-jail programming that would help reduce recid ivism, he said.
“I think we’ve moved beyond the question of, ‘Do we need one?’ ” Kerns said. “Yes, we do, now the question has shifted to, ‘How big does it need to be?’ and ‘What services need to be available in the facility?’ ”
Schreiner said he doesn’t know if the coun ty should build a new jail.
The two candidates have different takes on Superior Court judiciary staffing levels.
The Legislature in 1997 authorized Spokane County to add a 12th and 13th Superior Court judge. The state pays half of the judge’s salary while the county pays the rest
and the salaries of judicial staff.
In the last 25 years, Spo kane County has gained an additional 140,000 res idents, but the number of Superior Court judges hasn’t changed.
Schreiner adamantly opposes adding anoth er judge. He said judges don’t handle as many cas es as they should.
“I’ve never seen a brow of sweat on them,” he said. “They’re not hardworked. They are freak ing slow.”
Kerns said he doesn’t yet know if he supports adding a 13th judge. Add ing one more might not significantly speed up the criminal justice system, he said.
“It’s going to come down to what the overall, all-in cost is,” he said. “I want to make sure we can afford it long-term.”
Kerns and Schreiner’s homelessness talking points don’t overlap at all. Schreiner said he wants the county to offer home less individuals a patch of undeveloped ground where they can safely
dangerous and overcrowd ed, but they propose differ ent solutions.
SPOKANE COUNTY COMMISSIONER DISTRICT 4
By Colin Tiernan THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEWTwo Republicans are vy ing to represent Spokane County Commission Dis trict 4 in this November’s election, but the candi dates are dramatically dif ferent.
Incumbent Spokane County Commissioner Mary Kuney, 57, is an ex perienced politician who spent more than a decade as a state and county au ditor. Challenger Paul Bri an Noble, 48, is a political rookie who’s been a pastor since his 20s.
District 4 includes Lib erty Lake, Spokane Val ley’s southern half and the rural area that makes up the county’s southeastern third. It’s one of five county commission districts creat ed during last year’s redis tricting process.
Spokane County had to switch from three to five commissioners to comply with a law the Washington Legislature passed in 2018. The change will funda mentally alter the county commission, which makes policy decisions and de cides how to spend taxpay er dollars.
Under the new setup, each commissioner will represent a district, not the entire county. The end of the countywide general election may allow Dem ocrats to win at least one commission seat for the
first time in more than a decade.
Deep red District 4 is seemingly safe for the GOP, though. Roughly 60% of the district’s voters typical ly vote Republican.
Kuney was appointed to the county commission in 2017 and won re-election in 2018 and 2020.
She’s endorsed by Main stream Republicans of Washington and more than a dozen prominent con servatives, including Spo kane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, Spokane May or Nadine Woodward and former Washington Sec retary of State Sam Reed. U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers has donated to Kuney’s campaign.
Noble, who declined to be interviewed, is the ex ecutive pastor of Valley Assembly of God church and CEO of Peacemaker Ministries. He’s the author of “Living Reconciled,” a book on conflict resolution written from a Christian perspective.
While Noble lacks the backing of elected officials, he does have a few promi nent supporters.
He’s been endorsed by Spokane County Republi can Party State Commit teeman Matt Hawkins, who made headlines this summer after calling for an audit of the county’s 2020 election. Caleb Collier, a former Spokane Valley City Councilman who frequent
ly organizes protests with former state Rep. Matt Shea, has donated to No ble’s campaign. Noble has also received funding from Eastern Washington Liber ty, a group that advocates for splitting Eastern Wash ington into a 51st state.
Kuney heads into the November election as the favorite.
She has the clear finan cial edge, having raised nearly $60,000 to Noble’s $25,000. She fared better in the primary election too, receiving 54% of the vote.
Noble collected 32%, al though he’ll likely receive more votes next month considering he’s endorsed by Chris McIntosh, a Re publican who won 12% of the primary vote.
Like many candidates running for office in this election cycle, Kuney said public safety is her No. 1 priority. She said she’s committed to fully funding the Spokane County Sher iff’s Office.
While she hasn’t said outright that she supports building a new jail, she has said the county needs a “new or expanded facility.”
Politicians have argued about the Spokane County Jail for more than a decade as inmates have repeatedly died at the facility. Elected officials from both major parties agree the facility is
Many conservatives say building a new jail with more cells would be better for inmates and improve public safety. Many liber als say adding jail capac ity won’t improve public safety, and taxpayer dol lars would be better spent on addiction and mental health treatment resourc es.
In June, Noble told The Spokesman-Review he’s unsure whether the county should build a new jail.
Kuney has acknowl edged the criminal justice system disproportionately impacts people of color.
Incarceration rates paint a clear picture. For in stance, while 2% of county residents are Black, Black people make up 14% of the county jail population.
Kuney has said the coun ty commissioners should work to address the prob lem by investing in com munity programs that help improve outcomes for peo ple of color.
She said LaunchNW, an effort by the Innovia Foun dation that will help pay college tuition for Inland Northwest students, could be part of the solution. The county commissioners have dedicated $5 million of their $101 million Amer ican Rescue Plan allocation to LaunchNW.
The new Spokane Re gional Stabilization Center could help address racial disparities too, Kuney said.
Age: 57
Mary Kuney, Republican
Education: Graduated from Central Valley High School in 1983. Attended Spokane Falls Community College and graduated from Gonzaga University in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in accounting.
Political experience: Appointed Spokane County commissioner in 2017. Won election to same seat in 2018 and 2020. Ran unsuccessfully for Spokane County treasurer in 2014. Former Republican precinct committee officer. Work experience: Certified public accountant since 1993. Served as Spokane County chief deputy auditor for more than two years before becoming commissioner. Audited Spokane County during her 10 years with the Washington State Auditor’s Office. Launched two small businesses. Owned Contineo Compliance PLLC, 2012-2013. Co-owner of Spokanebased Summit Tea Company, 2006-2008. Member of Hutton Settlement board of directors, a position she has held since 2009.
Family: Married to Max Kuney. Has two children. Fundraising: Raised nearly $60,000 as of Oct. 5. Multiple political action committees funded by developers, builders and contractors have donated to Kuney’s campaign. She’s also received donations from several individual developers and contractors, Avista, Cathy McMorris Rodgers For Congress, 6th Legislative District Rep. Mike Volz, Spokane Indians (baseball) President Chris Duff, former Spokane Valley Mayor Diana Wilhite, Spokane Valley City Councilman Ben Wick and former Spokane County Commissioner Todd Mielke.
Paul Brian Noble, Republican Age: 48 Education: Graduated from Grandview High School in Grandview, Washington. Studied to be a pastor. Has a master’s degree in missional leadership from Northwest University in Kirkland, Wash.
Political experience: None.
Work experience: Has been a pastor for 25 years. CEO of Peacemaker Ministries.
Family: Married to Tanya Noble for 25 years. Has four kids and one grandchild. Fundraising: Raised more than $25,000 as of Oct. 5. Notable donors include Caleb Collier, a former Spokane Valley city councilman who often helps organize protests with former state Rep. Matt Shea, and Eastern Washington Liberty, a group that advocates for splitting Eastern Washington into a 51st state.
Republicans have con trolled the Spokane Coun ty Commission since the 21st century began.
Winning commissioner races has given conserva tives power over county government. It’s allowed them to write Spokane County’s laws, decide how to spend taxpayer dollars and set the county’s more than $650 million budget.
But if Democrat Maggie Yates unseats Republican Al French in the race for Spokane County Commis sion District 5 during next month’s election, the bal ance of power in Spokane County could shift in an instant.
French, 71, has been a fix ture in Spokane politics for 20 years. An architect by trade, he spent eight years on the Spokane City Coun cil in the 2000s before win ning election to the County Commission in 2010. Eco nomic development has been one of French’s prior ities while in office, and he has hefty financial backing from contractors and home builders.
Yates, 34, is a Lewis and Clark High School grad uate and longtime crim inal justice reform advo cate. She’s worked for the Southern Poverty Law Center, the MacArthur Justice Center and a legal aid office in Virginia.
Spokane County com missioners in 2018 hired Yates as the county’s re gional law and justice administrator. She spent more than three years in that role, overseeing the implementation of numer ous reforms, before resign ing in January. While Yates has declined to elaborate on why she left, she de parted after county offi cials had resisted several of her reform proposals.
Yates has endorsements from a slew of prominent Democrats and even a few Republicans. She says that bipartisan support demon strates a “hunger for new leadership” at the county and shows she’s a pragma tist willing to work across the aisle.
French is highlighting his experience and track record of job creation.
Whoever wins in No vember will represent a politically diverse district.
District 5 includes the West Plains as well as northwest Spokane and the South Hill above 29th Ave nue. It’s one of five districts drawn during last year’s re districting process.
Spokane County had to switch from three to five commissioners to comply with a law the Washington Legislature passed in 2018. The change will funda mentally alter the County Commission.
Under the new setup, each commissioner will represent one district, not the entire county. The end of the countywide gener al election may also allow Democrats to win at least one commission seat for the first time since 2006.
Based on past election results, French should be the favorite. In recent years, District 5 voters have preferred Republi cans by a handful of per centage points.
But Yates has mounted an unusually strong cam paign for a political rookie who lacks name recogni tion.
She led the field during the August primary elec tion with 44.5% of the vote. French was right on her heels with 41.1%.
On election night, French said he felt good about those numbers – and with good reason. Fellow Republican Don Harmon, a former Airway Heights mayor, had taken 11.4% of the vote.
It wasn’t unreasonable to think Harmon’s supporters would swing French’s way in the general election and carry him to victory.
But Harmon has en dorsed Yates. His 3,500 voters from the primary could decide who wins District 5.
They could also decide which political party ends
SPOKANE COUNTY COMMISSION DISTRICT 5
Al French, Republican
County Commission District 5 candidates on the issues
Yes.
Age: 71
Education: Graduated from Western High School in Las Vegas. Majored in architecture and minored in business finance at the University of Idaho.
Political experience: Has served three terms as a Spokane County commissioner. Served two terms on the Spokane City Council from 2002 to 2009. Served as the Nevada-Lidgerwood Neighborhood Council president from 1995 to 2001.
Work experience: Served in the Marine Corps from 1969 to 1972. Worked as an officer candidate school instructor in Quantico, Virginia. Has been an architect and developer in Spokane since 1977. Spent much of his career designing retail buildings.
Family: Married to Rosalie French. Has a daughter and a grandson.
Fundraising: Has raised nearly $140,000 as of Oct. 9, including more than $20,000 he’s given himself via in-kind contributions. Prominent donors include a long list of contractors, home builders and political action committees representing the development industry. French also has donations from Amazon, Avista, Avista Corporation CEO Dennis Vermillion, Spokane Valley City Councilman Rod Higgins, Spokane Valley Mayor Pam Haley, the Kalispel Tribe of Indians and Gretchen McDevitt, former chair of Spokane County Republican Party and wife of former U.S. District Attorney for Eastern Washington Jim McDevitt.
Age: 34 Education: Graduated from Lewis and Clark High School in 2006. Majored in cultural anthropology and international studies at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Has a law degree from UCLA.
Political experience: First run for office.
Work experience: Spent more than three years as Spokane County’s regional law and justice administrator, focusing on criminal justice reform. Worked for the Southern Poverty Law Center and the MacArthur Justice Center before working for Spokane County. Also worked for the Legal Aid Justice Center in Virginia.
Family: Married to Satish Shrestha.
Fundraising: Has raised nearly $177,000 as of Oct. 9, one of the highest totals in county history and more than any other candidate for county office this election cycle. Notable donors include multiple labor unions, Washington State Department of Commerce Director Lisa Brown, Spokane City Council President Breean Beggs, Spokane City Council members Lori Kinnear, Betsy Wilkerson and Zack Zappone, former Spokane County Public Defender Tom Krzyminski, the Spokane Tribe of Indians, Spokane City Prosecutor Justin Bingham, former Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart, local Planned Parenthood spokesman Paul Dillon, former Spokane County Commissioner Bonnie Mager, state Rep. Marcus Riccelli and state Rep. Timm Ormsby.
up winning a majority on the county commission.
Based on primary re sults, Democrats are fa vored to win districts 1 and 2, which cover most of Spokane. Republicans like ly will take districts 3 and 4, which include Spokane Valley and large portions of the county’s rural areas (no Democrat is even on the ballot in those districts).
District 5 appears likely to be the closest of the com missioner contests.
That gives District 5 outsized significance. The stakes are high, and cam paign donors seem to real ize it.
Yates has collected $177,000 from more than 800 donations, putting her on pace to raise more mon ey than any candidate for county office in more than a decade.
French, one of the stron gest fundraisers among recent local politicians, has $140,000 in his war chest from about 250 do nations, although more than $20,000 of that comes from in-kind donations he’s given himself.
Where they stand
French and Yates have criticized each other on the campaign trail.
Yates says French has been in office far too long. French says Yates is un qualified to be a commis sioner.
While the two don’t agree on much, their views overlap in a couple of ways.
Both say Spokane Coun ty needs more housing, and they’ve both pledged not to raise property taxes. Yates also wants to spend some of the county’s $101 million in American Rescue Plan funding on a pilot program that would expand eligi bility for the senior citizen property tax exemption.
Overall, French and Yates are making signifi cantly different pitches to voters.
French says his experi ence has helped give the community a major boost. He takes credit for the for mation of the West Plains public development area and the new Amazon facil ity near Airway Heights –Amazon has donated to his campaign.
“I deliver creative re
sults, solutions that nobody else in the state of Wash ington has been able to im plement,” he said. “I’m not going to offer you rainbows and unicorns, I can’t deliv er on that. What I tell you I can do, I have done.”
Yates is telling voters that child care will be one of her top priorities.
She’s said she wants to use American Rescue Plan dollars to make child care more accessible and af fordable.
The Democrat is also accusing French of priori tizing development to the detriment of taxpayers. She’s blamed the Republi can for traffic congestion in the Latah Valley. Proper planning and infrastruc ture investment could have prevented the problem,
Yates says.
French pointed out that the Latah Valley is largely within the city limits and outside of the county’s ju risdiction. He said any in frastructure shortcomings in the area are the fault of those who succeeded him on the Spokane City Coun cil.
Homelessness is another topic on which French and Yates disagree.
Spokane County’s home less population has risen 13% in the last two years according to the pointin-time count, an annual homelessness survey. The unsheltered population –those who don’t have a roof over their heads – has risen 52%.
French said the coun ty does its part to address homelessness by sending Spokane the money it re ceives through the state and federal government. The city uses those dollars to support shelter opera tions.
Yates said passing mon ey along to Spokane isn’t enough.
“I think the status quo in terms of the county’s position and approach to homelessness is an abdica tion of their responsibility,” Yates said. “I would priori tize a regional approach to homelessness.”
During an Oct. 4 com missioner meeting, French voted to sue the Washing ton State Department of Transportation in an effort to disband Camp Hope,
Should Spokane County build a new jail?
Should Spokane County add a 13th Superior Court judge?
Should there be a medical doctor on the health board?
Should the county spend more on housing and services for the homeless?
Al French Maggie YatesNo, wants focus on reducing recidivism.
Yes.
Noncommittal, but believes may be too expensive and says county lacks the physical space for another courtroom.
Voted to appoint a naturopathic doctor. Would only want a doctor if individual had additional qualifications besides being an M.D.
Noncommittal. Believes county should be part of regional homelessness response.
agree on a solution.
Many Republicans, in cluding French, say a new jail with more cells would be safer for inmates, re duce operational costs and help keep dangerous crim inals off the streets.
Yes
Yes. Also wants county to collaborate better with regional partners.
ty in the community,” she said in June. “And it’s fail ing at a significant cost to taxpayers.”
a homeless encampment along Interstate 90 in east Spokane.
Both candidates say public safety is their No. 1 priority, but they approach the issue from dramatically different perspectives.
French is presenting himself as the tough-oncrime candidate. He said he’s proud to be endorsed by Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich and com mitted to fully funding the sheriff’s office.
He’s also in favor of building a new jail.
The Spokane County Jail has been politically divisive for years. Inmate deaths and suicides have long plagued the facility. Elected officials across the political spectrum agree the jail is overcrowded and dangerous, but they can’t
Many Democrats, in cluding Yates, say a new jail would cost taxpayers millions and wouldn’t im prove public safety. They say the county should in stead invest in commu nity-based resources that create economic oppor tunities, as well as mental health and addiction treat ment to combat recidivism.
Yates said rising crime rates are a major concern, but believes the county’s current public safety ap proach is flawed.
She notes that the coun ty spends more than $150 million a year on law en forcement and public safe ty, but 60% to 70% of of fenders return to jail.
“That is a clear sign that what we’re doing right now is not working effec tively to disrupt the cycle of arrest and actually in crease safety and stabili
French says he too sup ports mental health and addiction treatment in vestments. He points to the new Spokane Region al Stabilization Center as a sign of progress. That 50-bed facility, funded by the county, city and state, serves as a detox and men tal health site for people who would otherwise be sitting in jail.
The candidates have dif ferent philosophies on how to reduce racial disparities in Spokane County’s crimi nal justice system.
While 2% of county res idents are Black, Black in mates as of Aug. 31 made up 14% of the county jail population.
French says there’s little the county commissioners can do about those dispar ities. The commissioners only control court budgets, he says. “I’m the landlord in the jail,” French said in June.
Former state representative aims to unseat longtime incumbent
By Colin Tiernan
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
In the past 25 years, five Republicans have faced off against Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton in the general election.
All have lost.
Matt McCoy, a business development manager for UPS, was the runner-up in 1998. Financial adviser
Ralph Baker, who would later became county as sessor, finished second four years later. Mike Volz, now a state legislator, tried next in 2006, followed by frequent campaigner Leonard Christian. The last person to come up short was real estate agent Alene Lindstrand in 2014. Dalton was unopposed in 2018.
Republican 4th Legis
lative District Rep. Bob McCaslin Jr. is hoping to break the pattern this November and end Dal ton’s winning streak. The lawmaker is running for auditor instead of seeking re-election to the Wash ington Legislature, where he’s served since 2015.
County auditor races ar en’t typically high-profile. Many people don’t even know what the auditor’s office does. It oversees elections, manages the county’s financial services, administers motor vehicle licensing and records legal documents, such as prop erty deeds and liens.
Overseeing elections has put auditor’s offices into the limelight for the past few years. At a time when prominent Repub licans are trying to cast doubt on the integrity of elections, Dalton versus McCaslin will be one of the most intriguing Spo kane County contests this November.
The race could be a nail biter. Dalton took 52% of the vote during the Au gust primary election, compared to 48% for Mc Caslin. The stakes were low since both Dalton and McCaslin were the only two on the ballot, but the primary still provided an indication of which way voters are leaning.
Dalton, who grew up in Priest River, Idaho, has been an accountant and auditor since the early 1980s. She became Spo kane County’s internal auditor in 1989. That in dependent watchdog po sition, which the county commissioners have since eliminated, evaluated how county departments han dled money and recom mended ways to improve accounting procedures.
After a decade in that role, Dalton became coun ty auditor in 1999. An outlier among Spokane County’s elected officials, Dalton has been the lone Democrat to hold county office since county com missioner Bonnie Mager in 2010 lost her re-elec tion bid. She’s also the county’s longest-serving elected official.
A number of prominent politicians have endorsed Dalton’s campaign, and they’re not all Demo crats. Republican Spo kane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich is backing her, as is Sam Reed, a Lewis and Clark High School graduate who served as Washington Secretary of State from 2001 to 2013.
McCaslin graduated from Central Valley High School and has spent most of his adult life teaching elementary students and kindergartners. He has strong name recognition among Spokane County political followers, not only because of his time in the Legislature, but be cause his father, Bob Mc Caslin Sr., served for 30 years in the state senate.
As a legislator, Mc Caslin has often expressed his anti-abortion views, support for the Second
I think there is a lot of harm being caused by these baseless, unfounded allegations. these allegations are undermining peoples’ trust in the elections process, and that in the long term is going to undermine peoples’ willingness to participate in their government and to respect the laws and rules that are passed by legislators.”
Auditor Vicky Daltonreally, I don’t have any proof of wrongdoing. I’m not running for this because I think there are serious problems. I just think I can contribute really positively to this.”
Bob McCaslinAmendment and belief in states rights. He co-spon sored a bill with former 4th Legislative District Rep. Matt Shea that would have made Eastern Wash ington a 51st state.
McCaslin has endorse ments from U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Volz, Spokane Valley May or Pam Haley, Spokane County Commissioner Josh Kerns and his fellow 4th Legislative District lawmakers.
On the campaign trail, Dalton has said combating election disinformation would be her No. 1 priority if re-elected.
Voters have questioned the legitimacy of local elections for decades, Dal ton said. But she said the tone of the conversations has changed and fewer are willing to listen when she tries to teach them about the county’s election pro cesses.
“The volume and the unfounded, unsupported allegations are much dif ferent than what we had in the past,” Dalton said.
“The lack of basis in re ality has significantly in creased since 2020.”
False and misleading claims of fraud are threat ening America’s govern ment, she said.
“I think there is a lot of harm being caused by these baseless, unfounded allegations,” Dalton said during a debate with Mc Caslin at Valley Assembly of God. “These allegations are undermining peoples’ trust in the elections pro cess, and that in the long term is going to under mine peoples’ willingness to participate in their gov ernment and to respect the laws and rules that are passed by legislators.”
The challenge, Dalton said, is figuring out how to share information in a way that assuages fears and combats misinformation and disinformation. She said the state’s county au ditors are working togeth er on a messaging strategy that she hopes will help address the problem.
If McCaslin has any spe cific thoughts on Spokane County elections, it’s un clear what they are. He didn’t respond to requests for comment and chose not to participate in de bates hosted by the League of Women Voters and The Spokesman-Review.
The lawmaker has par ticipated in attempts to audit the 2020 election, though.
During the 2021 legisla tive session, McCaslin un successfully attempted to pass a law that would have required counties to hire private businesses to au
dit their 2020 elections. In August 2021, he co-host ed a meeting in Snohom ish County headlined by Seth Keshel, who tours the country arguing that President Joe Biden’s vic tory appears to have been illegitimate based on past voting trends.
This spring, McCaslin supported an effort to audit Spokane County’s 2020 election. A subcom mittee of the Spokane County Republican Party led the proposal and asked the county commission ers to authorize a thor ough review of the entire elections process. The group’s leader, Spokane County Republican Par ty State Committeeman Matt Hawkins, said he has no evidence of fraud but believes county elections have been compromised.
The commissioners said they lacked the legal authority to grant the re quest and have declined to meet with the subcommit tee a second time. Former Washington secretaries of state in August strongly criticized the group after it claimed, without pro viding evidence, that the county’s voter registration records are “unclean.”
While McCaslin has shied away from inter views and debates, he hasn’t been complete ly silent on elections. He shared some general thoughts earlier this year with the Spokane Valley News Herald.
“Really, I don’t have any proof of wrongdoing,” McCaslin told the paper. “I’m not running for this because I think there are serious problems. I just think I can contribute re ally positively to this.”
Based on Facebook posts, McCaslin has ad opted “easy to vote and hard to cheat” as his cam paign slogan.
On his campaign web site, McCaslin lists trans parency, fiscal responsibil ity and accountability as his top priorities.
Dalton has defended the way her office runs elections and said county auditors have extensive safeguards in place to catch fraudsters and en sure votes are counted ac curately.
“Over the last two de cades, my staff and I have ensured that voters in Spokane County do have an election system that’s safe, secure, accurate and accessible,” she said in March after announcing she would run for re-elec tion.
In addition to com bating election disinfor mation, Dalton said she wants to continue working
on several projects her of fice is tackling.
For example, the coun ty is replacing its human resources and accounting systems, Dalton said. She described it as a major un dertaking that will create a standardized system for the county’s departments.
Dalton said her office is also working toward digi tization.
The county makes ap proximately $500 million in payments every year, she said, and the goal is to make county transactions increasingly paperless.
“We’re going to be mov ing completely, or almost completely, away from pa per checks,” Dalton said, explaining that she be lieves the change will pay dividends for the county, its vendors and its cus tomers.
Document recording is becoming increasing ly digitized, too. That’s a boon for people who have to record documents with the county, Dalton said. Making a correction to a paper document can take weeks, but fixing an er ror on a digital one can be done in 15 minutes.
“A lot of what we do seems mundane to peo ple, but it impacts peoples’ lives, whether it’s your car, your house, your marriage certificate or your ballot,” Dalton said. “All of these functions impact your life.”
Colin Tiernan can be reached at (509) 459-5039 or at colint@spokesman. com.
Vicky Dalton, Democratic
Age: 61
Education: Earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting in 1982 and computer information systems in 1984 at Idaho State University.
Work experience: Staff auditor for Jones Yost Hatt Erickson & Co in Pocatello, Idaho, from 1983 to 1984. Senior auditor for Sorensen, Vance & Co. in Salt Lake City from 1984 to 1988. Spokane County internal auditor, 1989 to 1998. County auditor, 1999 to present.
Political experience: Elected Spokane County auditor in 1998 and every four years since. President of the Washington State Association of County Auditors from 2011 to 2012. Active in the Washington Society of Certified Public Accountants and Government Finance Officers Association. Member of the VoteWA steering and governance committees. Has previously been a Democratic party precinct committee officer.
Family: Husband is Kurt Parker. No children.
Campaign fundraising: Raised more than $40,200 as of Oct. 5. Notable donors include Lisa Brown’s Congressional campaign fund, the Avista Corp., a political action committee of the Associated General Contractors of America, longtime U.S. diplomat to the Middle East Ryan Crocker, former Spokane County Prosecutor Jim Sweetser, 3rd Legislative District Sen. Andy Billig and former Spokane County CEO Gerry Gemmill.
Age: 64 Education: Graduated from Central Valley High School in 1976. Earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and history from Washington State University in 1983. Earned a master’s degree in school administration from Whitworth College (now Whitworth University).
Work experience: Salesman at Freedom RV. Elementary school teacher in the Evergreen School district in San Jose, California, 1983-1994 and in the Central Valley School District from 1994-2016.
Political experience: Appointed to the Spokane Valley planning commission in 2012. Has served as a state representative since 2015.
Family: Married to Heather McCaslin. Two children. Father was Valley legislator Bob McCaslin Sr. Mother, Kate McCaslin, was Spokane County commissioner.
Campaign fundraising: Raised more than $30,900 as of Oct. 5. Notable donors include U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Spokane Valley City Councilman Rod Higgins, 6th Legislative District Rep. Mike Volz, 4th Legislative District Sen. Mike Padden, 4th Legislative District Rep. Rob Chase and Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Haskell.
“In a debate with Bob McCaslin at the Valley Assembly of God
“In an interview with the Spokane Valley News Herald McCaslinDalton
June overturning the pri vacy right to an abortion outlined in Roe v. Wade. McMorris Rodgers, who has for years backed leg islation that would pro hibit abortions nationally based on studies about when a fetus develops pain receptors, said last week she would support the legislation forwarded by Sen. Lindsay Graham, the South Carolina Re publican who introduced a similar bill in the upper chamber just ahead of the election.
“I think so,” McMorris Rodgers said, when asked about support for Gra ham’s bill. “There’s a lot of discussion right now, but that’s in alignment with a lot of the European coun tries.”
Most European coun tries do impose time re strictions on abortions, tied either to a week of pregnancy or the first tri mester. But they also vary widely on exceptions to these restrictions, such as in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is endangered by the preg nancy, according to data provided by the World Health Organization. The Graham bill includes ex ceptions for preserving the life of a mother, and rape if the victim has received counseling before choos ing abortion.
McMorris Rodgers con trasted her position with that of Democrats in the House, who pushed for passage of a bill in July that provided protections for people crossing state lines seeking an abortion.
“It stands in contrast with the bill, the legisla tion that passed the House that the Democrats sup port, which is abortion up until birth,” McMorris Rodgers said .
The bill, which has not had a vote in the Senate, protects abortion services that are “lawful in the state in which the service is to be provided.” Washing ton’s law prohibits abor tions after fetal viability, unless the mother’s life is endangered.
Hill opposes the Gra ham legislation, and cited the vote earlier this sum mer in Kansas against further restrictions on abortion as evidence the country did not align with more prohibitive mea sures.
“We can’t impose a mi nority viewpoint on a ma jority of folks when you live in a democracy,” Hill said.
Hill also questioned the skepticism of election re sults that has broken out in some GOP circles. At her recent town hall, Mc Morris Rodgers said she didn’t “believe ‘the Big Lie,’ as such,” referring to the assertion made with out proof by some conser vatives that Biden did not win the 2020 presidential election.
Hill said McMorris Rod gers had not done enough to tamp down that rhetoric in her party.
“People are really frus trated that she is sitting here, allowing that, when we’re talking about au dits,” Hill said. “They’re talking about audits that waste taxpayer money.”
Hill said she didn’t be lieve the system was per fect, but that any security issues “are well document ed” and addressed to en sure election integrity.
McMorris Rodgers helped introduce legis lation this summer that Republicans say is in tended to address con cern about voting results, which would provide vot er resources to the states and establish more strin gent voter identification standards. She voted last month against a bill that would codify the vice president’s role in the cer tification of presidential election results and raise the threshold of lawmak ers needed to object to the counting of electors.
“We had two days to look at that bill,” McMor ris Rodgers said of the 40-page bill. “Republicans were really not part of put ting that bill together.”
The bill includes as a co-sponsor Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, who was defeated in her pri mary this summer after the state GOP refused to recognize her as a member
of the party following her participation in the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 capitol rights. Nine Republicans voted for the bill, including Washing ton’s Rep. Jaime Herra Beutler, all of whom were either defeated in prima ries or retired this year.
McMorris Rodgers did distance herself from some members of her party who have been critical about overseas assistance to Ukraine, arguing the mon ey would be better spent securing the southern bor der.
The group Conserva tive Political Action Coali tion recently tweeted, then deleted, a statement that said America was “gift-giv ing” to Ukraine to fight Russian invasion forces or dered by President Vladi mir Putin.
The congresswoman said the country had a long-standing obligation to help Ukraine, while at the same time securing the southern border, where Justice Department offi cials say seizures of the illicit opioid fentanyl con tinue to spike.
“I believe we have an obligation to help them,” McMorris Rodgers said of Ukraine. “As far as the southern border, I believe we can do both. It isn’t an either/or.”
Baker, the construction company owner, said af ter his meeting with the congresswoman that he continued to support her because she believes in bi partisanship and stays in touch with people in the district.
“I support Cathy be cause she’s real,” said Baker, who’s contributed $14,500 to the congress woman’s campaigns since 2010, according to Federal Election Commission re cords.
Norma Davis, a former city council member in Medical Lake, is volunteer ing with the Hill campaign and helped set up the re cent town hall in Spokane Valley, where the candi date was introduced by Spokane Valley City Coun cilman Tim Hattenburg. Davis said she worked for Brown in the 2018 cam paign and quickly joined up with Hill when she re ceived Brown’s endorse ment in the 2022 contest.
“The biggest issue is al ways the economy,” Davis said, but she believed vot ers would be inspired to support Democrats, and Hill, because of the over turning of Roe v. Wade.
“If we are a country of laws, we need to honor our precedents,” she said.
McMorris Rodgers holds a commanding fund raising lead, according to the latest reports filed with the Federal Election Com mission. The congress woman reported $4.6 mil lion raised through July 13. Individual donors are permitted to contribute up to $5,800 to a candidate under federal rules.
Among those who have contributed the maxi mum amount to the con gresswoman are Bob and Barbara Materne, owners of The Swinging Doors restaurant in Spokane; Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft; Douglas Herrington, chief executive officer of World wide Amazon Stores; and Jim Cowles, former chair man of Inland Empire Pa per Co., a subsidiary of the Cowles Co. that also pub lishes The Spokesman-Re view. The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Res ervation also have donated the maximum amount to her re-election campaign.
Political committees formed by Amazon, AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Boeing and other national cor porations have given the maximum $10,000 dona tion to McMorris Rodgers’ campaign.
Hill’s campaign raised $157,012 through July 13. Notable contributors in clude Spokane City Coun cilwoman Betsy Wilk erson, Spokane Public Schools board member Nikki Lockwood, and state Reps. Marcus Riccelli and Timm Ormsby. She’s also received $2,000 in leftover contributions from Lisa Brown’s 2018 campaign.
Ballots will be mailed beginning Oct. 19. Election Day is Nov. 8.
Kip Hill can be reached at (509) 459-5429 or at kiph@ spokesman.com.
Incumbent Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Haskell hopes to fight “law lessness” by holding people accountable if elected to a third term, while challeng er Deb Conklin argues the current system isn’t working and that reforms are neces sary to reduce repeat offens es.
Haskell, a Republican, was elected prosecutor in 2014 and again in 2018. A pastor and former Clallam County deputy prosecutor, Conklin is running as an in dependent.
Conklin along with two Republican candidates, Ste fanie Collins and Stephanie Olsen, filed against Haskell after an Inlander article exposed racist comments on social media by his wife, Lesley Haskell.
Larry Haskell said he doesn’t share the views of his wife or prosecute based on race.
He has called into ques tion Conklin’s skills as a prosecutor, based on a 1987 case that was dismissed for “egregious misconduct.” Conklin said Haskell is leav ing key context out of the complicated case.
Olsen and Collins failed to garner enough votes to move past the primary. Nei ther Olsen nor Collins has endorsed a candidate for prosecutor in the general election.
In recent debates, Haskell has criticized Conklin’s lack of recent prosecutorial ex perience.
“The question for the voters is, does four years of experience as a deputy pros ecutor when Ronald Reagan was the president the an swer to the county?” Haskell said at a Spokesman-Review debate earlier this month. “Or is somebody who’s been – with an exception of a three-year active duty stint – constantly in the law since 1998 at ever-increasing lev els of responsibility, to and including, eight years as the elected?”
Years of leading United Methodist congregations have given Conklin experi ence in leading people and inspiring them to do their jobs well, she said. Conklin also argued Haskell’s toughon-crime approach isn’t working.
Haskell and Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, who endorsed Haskell, have had a toughon-crime approach for years while recently complain ing that crime is escalating, Conklin said. Their ap proach doesn’t appear to be working, she said.
“It just seems to me that our community is ready for a different approach,” Conklin said. “He just simply is not open at all to the possibility that there could be a better way.”
Haskell blames the state Legislature, police reforms and the state Supreme Court for sending the message that “lawlessness is OK.”
Last year, the Supreme Court overturned Washing ton’s simple drug posses sion law, using a case out of Spokane County in which a woman claimed she didn’t know drugs were in the pocket of a pair of jeans a friend recently gave her.
As a prosecutor, Haskell said he hears that defense used all the time. He believes the court was looking for a case to overturn the law.
“Common belief is that the Supreme Court was looking for our case, to be able to strike down a law that they had a problem with anyway, because of the disparate numbers of per sons of color that were being convicted of drug crime,” Haskell said.
Conklin criticized Haskell for prosecuting the case and giving the court an excuse to overturn the law. Both agree the state Legislature needs to come up with a fix for the law next year.
Recently, Haskell also has criticized judges for setting bail amounts he feels are too low.
“I get more complaints from citizens about people being released on low bonds than anything else,” he said.
He created a new form for his deputies to submit into the court file indicating the bond amount they asked for and then what the judge ruled to make it easier to
track the issue, he said. Low bail amounts allow people back into the community to then commit more crimes, he argued. Haskell’s office asks for bail in most cases.
Conklin doesn’t like the assumption that there should be cash bail in every case, she said.
Holding people in jail pretrial, especially on non violent crimes, can cause people to lose their jobs and housing, she said, suggesting something like electronic monitoring might be effec tive for offenders deemed not dangerous.
She is in favor of programs that would allow more peo ple to be released pretrial.
Part of what drew Conk lin, along with two other challengers, into the prima ry was a controversy over racist statements made by Haskell’s wife on social me dia, coupled with disparities in prosecuting data.
Lesley Haskell called her self a proud white national ist and used the N-word to describe MSNBC host Joy Reid, who is Black.
“Our race is dying, we need to make more white babies!” she wrote in one post.
Interspersed with posts supporting her husband’s campaign, Lesley Haskell posts on Facebook unfound ed claims about fraud in the 2020 election and con spiracy theories about the COVID-19 vaccine.
On Twitter, she recently retweeted a photo compar ing George Floyd, whose photo was captioned “dead drug addict, criminal who resisted arrest,” to Cayler Ellingson, a North Dakota man whose photo was cap tioned “killed for being a conservative.” A 41-year-old suspect in Ellingson’s death is accused of intentionally running over the 18-yearold. The murder charge in cludes details that the sus pect believed Ellingson was a “Republican extremist,” according to VICE.
The case quickly became a flashpoint for Republicans such as Georgia Rep. Marjo rie Taylor Greene. The case shares no similarities with the death of Floyd, who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer. Floyd’s death sparked nationwide racial justice protests.
Lesley Haskell also re cently retweeted a photo shopped picture of Pres ident Joe Biden in a Nazi uniform and other tweets connected to QAnon con spiracy theories. She is also a frequent poster on Gab, a social media platform mar keted as a less restrictive alternative to Facebook and Twitter that is largely used by conservatives. Posts to her Gab account are not publicly viewable.
Shortly after the Inlander article exposed Lesley Has kell’s postings, Larry Haskell apologized for his wife’s re marks. He went on to defend his office and said he doesn’t prosecute cases based on race.
Conklin hopes to take an in-depth look at the inherit bias in the office’s practices if elected. She also hopes to restore public faith in the office by being more trans parent.
Haskell maintains that disparities in prosecuting data come from “upstream” in the criminal justice sys tem, pointing to the fact that people of color are arrested more frequently.
Earlier this year, a judge ruled against a motion to remove Haskell from a case because of his wife’s racist comments as well as racial disparities in charging. Has kell has touted that ruling as evidence that his office is not biased.
Spokane County Superior Court Judge Julie McKay did not evaluate whether Haskell and his office prose cute cases in a discriminato ry manner but instead ruled the defense attorney hadn’t presented enough evidence in his motion to remove Haskell from the case.
Conklin said Haskell’s “upstream” argument hasn’t been satisfactory to the pub lic.
“If the office has clear ev idence that they can offer in rebuttal, then I think the public would hear that and accept that,” Conklin said. “But all the evidence that has been put together shows disparities.”
Age: 68
Education: Graduated from O’Dea High School in Seattle in 1972. Earned an associate degree from Seattle Central Community College in 1976, a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Washington in 1979 and a law degree from Seattle University in 1997.
Political experience: Appointed to Airway Heights City Council in 1999 and elected in 2002. Left the council for military service then re-elected from 2005 to 2010. Served on Cheney School Board from 2007 to 2012. Elected Spokane County prosecutor in 2014 and 2018.
Work experience: Active duty in the United States Air Force from 1972 to 1976 and commissioned officer and pilot starting in 1979. Member of the Air National Guard from 1998 to 2002. Returned to active duty from 2002-2005, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. Worked as a Spokane County deputy prosecutor from 1998 until 2012. Worked as special assistant U.S. Attorney from 2012-2013. Elected Spokane County prosecutor in 2014 and 2018.
Family: Married to Lesley Haskell. Has five children, three grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
Fundraising: Raised $50,577 as of Oct. 7, including contributions from Spokane County deputy prosecutors John Grasso, Dale Nagy, Larry Steinmetz, Sharon Hedlund, Mark McClain, Emily Sullivan, Jason Moscowitz and Preston McCollam; local attorney Rob Cossey; the Spokane Police Guild PAC; and Spokane Valley council members Arne Woodward and Rod Higgins.
Endorsements: Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, Spokane Police Guild, Spokane County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, Republicans of Spokane County, Spokane County GOP, former Spokane County Prosecuting Attorneys Steve Tucker, Jim Sweetser and Don Brockett.
Education: Graduated from Windsor (New York) Central High School in 1971. Earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Washington in 1978, a law degree from the University of Washington in 1981 and a master’s of divinity from the Vancouver School of Theology in 1997.
Political experience: First run for public office.
Work experience: Clallam County deputy prosecuting attorney from 1983-1987, and served as a senior criminal deputy for four years. United Methodist Church pastor from 1997-present, currently at Liberty Park and St. Paul’s United Methodist Church.
Family: Has two adult children Fundraising: Raised $28,802 as of Oct. 7, including contributions from the Spokane Firefighters Union Political Action Committee, Rep. Marcus Riccelli, Planned Parenthood’s Paul Dillon and former Spokane Valley City Council candidate Lance Gurel.
Endorsements: Spokane City Council President Breean Beggs, City Council member Betsy Wilkerson, retiree Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney David Bruneau, Spokane Firefighters Union, Alliance for Gun Responsibility, SEIU 775
Conklin said she is the best person for the job be cause she will turn the office into one that is “perceived to be fair in implementing justice.”
Haskell argued his expe rience is what makes him the best person for the role.
Haskell has worked in the prosecutor’s office since 1998 except for a three-year Air Force deployment from 2002 to 2005.
“The qualifications be tween me and my opponent are just huge,” Haskell said. “Qualifications matter, ex perience matters.”
The practice of law is a perishable skill, he said.
“When you haven’t done it for 35 years, most of it has perished,” Haskell said.
He has also called Conk lin’s brief prosecuting re cord into question citing a 1987 appeals court decision on one of her cases. Child molestation charges against a defendant were dismissed by a judge due to miscon duct and mismanagement of the case by Conklin. The de cision was upheld on appeal.
The court ruled Conklin advised the father of one of the young victims not to comply with a court order requiring an expert hired by the defense to interview the children.
Conklin denies advising the father to disobey the court order, saying she laid out his options and offered to do what she could to help.
The mother’s boyfriend was accused of molesting three young children, Conk lin said. The defense attor ney hired an expert known to be “so aggressive in his in terrogation of children that he would make it so the state had no case left,” she said.
She argued informally in
court that it was inappro priate to have the expert in terview the children but had not opposed the previous or der for the interview, some thing the appeals court said showed mismanagement of the case. Conklin said she was just trying to protect the children and pointed out it’s now standard practice for experts to be prevented from interviewing young witnesses.
She admits she should have formally moved to quash the court’s subpoenas of the children.
“The fact that Larry (Has kell) is trying to make a big deal out of this case strikes me as really unable to un derstand the damage that would have been done to the children,” Conklin said.
Haskell argued that the case is evidence that not only have Conklin’s prose cutorial skills perished after years out of the legal field but that she wasn’t that good of a prosecutor to begin with citing her “egregious mis conduct” in the case.
The candidates disagree over the prosecutor’s offic es role in dismantling Camp Hope, a large homeless en campment along Interstate 90 within city limits.
There’s nothing being done about the “growing problem” at Camp Hope, Haskell said.
His office is prosecuting cases related to the camp, including a recent shooting.
The service providers at the camp, including Empire Health, “have made prog ress” on moving people out of the camp to better situ ations, Conklin said. She is not in favor of the county stepping into what should be the city’s primary respon sibility
BOISE – Republican Gov. Brad Little is promis ing more of the same as he seeks re-election – tax cuts, education funding boosts, deregulation and plenty of bashing of the Democratic president.
Democratic nominee Stephen Heidt wants to “bring civility and compas sion back to the governor’s office,” decriminalize can nabis, oppose extremism, back abortion rights and grant property and grocery tax relief.
Independent Ammon Bundy wants to remake government and the jus tice system in line with his own theories about the U.S. Constitution, and has little patience for laws, facts or numbers that conflict with his views.
Two other hopefuls, Libertarian Paul Sand and Constitution Party nominee Chantyrose Davison, are on the ballot as well. Little hasn’t engaged with any of them, refusing all debates in both the primary and gen eral election contests, and sticking to his line that his record speaks for itself.
Last month, Little sent out an official press release from the governor’s office headed, “One year later: Biden’s denial of border cri sis continues.” It focused on concerns about drugs cross ing the nation’s southern border with Mexico. Idaho is more than 1,000 miles from the Mexican border.
“You could forgive a confused voter who might think Brad Little was run ning against Joe Biden, he mentions him so much,” said Stephanie Witt, Boise State University political scientist. “I think the strat egy there is … he’s found a safe and earnest way to get his bona fides” as a Repub lican and a conservative. “I see the Biden-bashing as easy – it’s an easy target, it reminds everybody that he’s firmly in the Republi can camp,” opposing a lib eral, Democratic president.
Another longstanding trend that favors Little as he seeks a second term as gov ernor: No Idaho governor who has sought re-election has lost since 1970.
Here’s a look at each of the candidates on the No vember ballot: Little, 68, an Emmett, Idaho, native, is a third-gen eration rancher who holds a bachelor’s degree in agri business from the Universi ty of Idaho. He served four terms in the state Senate, rising to majority caucus chairman, and was appoint ed lieutenant governor in 2009, then twice re-elected before winning the gover norship in 2018.
His four years in office have seen ups and downs, with strong successes on his top three priorities –education funding, tax cuts and reducing state regula tions – but strong pushback from his own party’s law makers over his responses to the COVID pandemic.
His relationship with lawmakers improved this year, and he was able to push through much of his “Leading Idaho” agenda, including big investments in education, transporta tion, broadband, water and sewer infrastructure and more.
Then came perhaps his biggest win as governor. Faced with a popular ini tiative set for November’s ballot to increase education funding by raising taxes on Idaho corporations and high-income earners, Little called a special session of the Legislature in Septem ber and successfully com pleted an end run around the initiative. He proposed cutting taxes on corpora tions and top earners and sending out income tax rebate checks immediate ly to most Idahoans, while also increasing education funding by even more than the initiative proposed, at least initially. It passed both houses, and Reclaim Ida ho, which had successfully qualified the initiative for the ballot, withdrew the measure.
“It was masterful – the timing was just right to take the wind out of the sails of the initiative,” Witt said. “I think it was clear from the signature-gathering and the momentum that peo
ple wanted that additional spending.”
Little said this week, “Idaho has the strongest economy in the nation, and we achieved the title of least regulated state in the country during my first term as governor. Our con servative approach to gov ernment means we are well positioned to handle any challenges before us, and it has led to historic tax relief and investments in schools and other key areas to en sure the continued success of our people and business es.”
Little won his first term as governor with nearly 60% of the vote over Democrat Paulette Jordan’s 38%. In the GOP primary this year, he easily fended off a chal lenge from his lieutenant governor, Janice McGeach in, with 53% of the vote; she ran second in an eight-way primary with 33%.
Heidt, 61, is a longtime English as a Second Lan guage teacher in Idaho’s state prisons who is making his first run for office.
“I know that compassion and education changes lives – I saw it first-hand,” he said. “I also saw injustice, and a criminal justice sys tem that does not adequate ly protect the rights of the accused. These deliberately indifferent attitudes reach far further than prisons. I quit my job to run for gov ernor, so I can change that, and improve the lives of ev eryone in the state.”
But Heidt wasn’t orig inally expected to be the Democratic nominee this year. Shelby Rognstad, the mayor of Sandpoint, had been actively campaign ing around the state for months. However, when he formally filed to run just before the deadline in March, the Idaho Secretary of State’s office rejected his filing, finding he was regis tered as a Republican rather than a Democrat.
Rognstad said he thought he’d changed his registra tion months earlier, but the glitch left Heidt as the only name on the Demo cratic primary ballot for governor. Heidt declined to withdraw, and Rogns tad waged a write-in cam paign and garnered 6,712 write-in votes – enough to qualify for the November ballot if he’d been the only candidate. But 25,088 Dem ocratic primary voters filled in the box by Heidt’s name, and Heidt won and became the nominee.
Heidt, who had made three runs for Congress as a Republican three decades ago in Utah and Washing ton, holds a political sci ence degree from Brigham Young University, and a second bachelor’s degree in history and a teaching certification from Eastern Washington University. He is certified as a correction al officer, and served four years in the Army National Guard and four years in the Army Reserves.
Having served a Church of Jesus Christ of Lat ter-day Saints mission in Brazil in his youth, Heidt is fluent in Portugese and has also learned Spanish as an English as a Second Lan guage teacher.
“I have spent my life in service – service to my faith, service to my family, service to my community, service to my country,” he said. “I am a working man and educator, who will shift our focus in a state with one of the highest incarceration rates on the planet, from questionable incarceration to beneficial education.”
He lists his top three is sues as education, crim inal justice, and “right to choose/right to privacy,”
saying decisions on abor tion “can only be properly made by a woman and her doctor.”
He also favors decrim inalizing cannabis; re-in dexing the homeowner’s exemption from property tax to provide property tax relief to homeowners; and wants to “keep public lands in public hands,” saying he’ll “fight back against any and all efforts to privatize or sell off public lands, and oppose those who want to do so.”
His campaign has been relatively low-key, how ever, and he’s reported little fundraising. He ini tially agreed to debate his opponents live on Idaho Public Television, but de cided against it after Little declined and he faced the prospect of a one-to-one debate against independent Ammon Bundy.
“Extremism has been allowed to flourish under Gov. Little’s administra tion,” Heidt said in a state ment. “I do not wish to give extremism a louder voice. This decision was made in the best interest of Idaho ans.”
Bundy, 47, is an an ti-government activist and militia leader who was banned from the state Cap itol for a year after being ar rested there for trespassing twice in two days in August of 2020.
Building on opposition to coronavirus restrictions, he formed a group called the “People’s Rights Net work,” which he says has 60,000 members across the country, to defend against “government criminals” on issues ranging from vac cine mandates to child-pro tection investigations. His group has held protests at the homes of public officials and a Meridian, Idaho, po lice officer, and he was ar rested for trespassing and sued for defamation after he organized protests over a child-protection case that shut down St. Luke’s Hos pital.
Bundy cites his own the ories about law and the Constitution to justify his actions. He announced a run for governor as a Re publican in the primary, then withdrew and opted to run in the general election instead as an independent.
“I wanted to be unaffiliat ed from any party because I believe there are people in all the parties that will align with me,” he told the Idaho Press.
It’s his first run for of fice since he served as stu dent body president in high school.
“I am running for gov ernor because I see a need and an opportunity to bring back the more conserva tive values to Idaho that are greatly needed,” he said.
Bundy, who describes himself as an “entrepre neur,” lives in Emmett, where he moved with his family in 2015. He previ ously ran a commercial truck fleet maintenance business in Arizona which he’s since sold, along with other businesses; he said he’s now in the commercial leasing business. He attend ed Southern Utah Univer sity, but didn’t complete a degree. He served an LDS mission in Minnesota be fore going to college.
After arriving in Idaho, Bundy led a 41-day armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon in January of 2016. That was two years after he stood with militias in a standoff against federal law enforcement at his fa ther Cliven Bundy’s ranch in Bunkerville, Nevada over long-unpaid grazing fees.
Though he was charged
with felonies and spent nearly two years behind bars awaiting the resolu tion of both cases, the AP reported, Bundy was ac quitted in both standoffs, which he takes as proof that he was in the right all along.
“The whole reason we went into the refuge was to challenge the ownership of it, because we knew the his tory of that and what they had done,” he said.
“How did the Blacks, the Black people in the ’60s, change the law?” he said. “Hundreds of ’em were ar rested, prosecuted. … They stopped complying.”
“That certainly is a path and a mechanism that I have used, others have used, I will continue to use,” Bundy said.
Bundy lists his top three issues in his campaign for governor as abortion, which he opposes; “federal land control, which also in cludes affordable housing;” and property tax, which he wants to eliminate.
On federal lands, he says his plan is, “Take back the land. Take back the land. I believe that the state has the authority to do that.”
Rather than focusing on a legal takeover, most Idaho efforts to look into federal land control have ended up focusing on collaboration, stewardship and ways that the state can have more influence over the man
agement of federal lands, something that’s increased with Congress’ expansion of the “Good Neighbor Au thority” program in 2018, which has allowed Idaho to conduct timber harvests on federal forest lands.
On property tax, Bundy said he wants to eliminate it and replace it with a sales tax on the sale of homes.
“That’s to pay for the legit imate purposes of local gov ernment,” he said. “It would need to be around 4 or 5%.”
He noted that a 5% tax on the sale of a $400,000 home would yield $20,000.
“Is that enough? It’s not, till you calculate in that the average home sells three to five times in a 30-year peri od,” he said.
Bundy can quickly reel off the eight points in his “Keep Idaho Idaho” plan.
Perhaps ironically, No. 5, he says, is “bring back the rule of law.”
Asked how he can sup port that when he frequent ly violates the law, includ ing by refusing to appear in court, Bundy says his vision for the rule of law is differ ent: He wants to transform Idaho’s justice system to one that’s based solely on restitution plus punitive damages for non-violent offenses, rather than incar ceration or fines. He says that would benefit victims rather than the govern ment.
Bundy also said he’ll con tinue to ignore the legal processes in the St. Luke’s civil case against him, and let a default judgment be filed against him, in order to avoid distraction from his campaign for governor.
“The challenge is collect ing,” he said. Asked if he’d pay a court-ordered de fault judgment, Bundy said, “Hell, no. Not without them fighting for it.”
“I’m going to fight them in every way I can, and that would include them trying to collect on me, absolute ly,” he said.
Sand, 74, is a retired computer software engi neer from White Bird who won a two-way Libertarian
Party primary for governor with 427 votes over rival John Dionne Jr.’s 282 votes. Sand says he’s an architec ture school dropout and “all my marketable skills are self-taught.”
He served 10 years on the White Bird City Council. He lists his top three issues as reversing the “continuing erosion of personal free dom and women’s rights in Idaho;” elevating the “inter ests of workers and families higher than the interests of business and government;” and protecting gun rights “by ending the causes of gun violence by providing social and economic op portunity for everyone and by ending the failed war on drugs.”
“Idaho politics has be come a national joke,” Sand said. “My goal is to turn that around and in the memory of Frank Church and Cecil Andrus, make Idaho a mod el for the future of our en tire country.”
Davison, 41, didn’t re spond to a reporter’s in quiry about her run. An inhome health care worker from Marsing, Idaho, her campaign website says she opposes legalizing drugs; believes Gov. Little “abused the State of Emergency so that the State of Idaho could get more money from the federal government;” and supports deporting all undocumented immi grants.
“I would not say that I would be the BEST candi date for the office of Gover nor,” she says on her web site, “but I do know that I would work the hardest to become the best. I do not have experience like others do and I do not have the ed ucation that others do but I do have a love for my state, and I am a hard worker.”
Witt said given the field, the incumbent governor is highly likely to win re-elec tion. “In any other situation, if the Democrats were a lit tle stronger, I would think that the Bundy vote could make it much closer,” she said. “But I think it’s Little by a lot.”
“A large portion of our system I think is dedicat ed to responding really to drug and mental health issues, which are health problems,” he said. “I’d like to see more focus on root causes; diver sion where appropriate. I think that would help us actually prevent people from reoffending.”
Both candidates believe racial disparities within the county’s criminal jus tice system need to be ad dressed.
According to a 2017 analysis by the JFA In stitute, Black people in Spokane County are 13 times more likely to be jailed than white people and Native Americans are 6.5 times more likely to be jailed.
Jordan said he believes county leaders need to do more to reduce those dis parities.
“I see a dragging of feet,” he said. “I think we need people who accept we need to do better.”
Plese, whose sister is Superior Court Judge An nette Plese, stressed that she believes disparities within the county’s crim inal justice system aren’t the fault of the judiciary.
“The Legislature sets the mandates for guide lines for sentencing,” she said.
“I think really that needs to be part of the Legislature coming down to say they need to take that into account more.”
Jordan and Plese agree completely on one Spo kane County criminal justice issue. They both support adding a 13th Su perior Court judge.
The Legislature in 1997 authorized Spokane
County to add a 12th and 13th Superior Court judge. The state pays half of the judge’s salary while the county pays the remaining half along with the salaries of the judge’s staff.
In the past 25 years, Spokane County has gained an additional 140,000 residents, but the number of Superior Court judges hasn’t budged.
Plese said she knows county judges have too much work to handle.
“They actually need two to three more judges, with their caseload,” she said.
Jordan said he believes adding another Superior Court judge could help speed up the county’s le gal system.
The two politicians also agree that the Spokane Regional Health District’s Board of Health should include a medical doctor.
The county commis sioners last fall reorga nized the health board, in response to a law the Leg islature passed in 2021. The new board had to include an equal number of elected and unelected representatives.
Two of the commission ers’ decisions caused con troversy.
First, they removed Spokane and Spokane Val ley’s dedicated seats. Sec ond, they appointed a na turopathic doctor to serve as the board’s lone med ical provider and public health representative. Multiple medical doctors applied for the position.
“I think it would be advantageous to have an M.D.,” Plese said.
Jordan agreed.
“I want the health board to have the most qualified folks on it,” he said. “I think it’s just com mon sense.”
Colin Tiernan can be reached at (509) 459-5039 or at colint@spokesman. com.
That facility, which has nearly 50 beds, acts as a detox and mental health site for individuals who would otherwise be in jail. The project is joint ly funded by the county, state and Spokane.
Noble hasn’t offered any detailed ideas for address ing racial disparities with in the county’s criminal justice system, although he said this summer he believes in “equal justice under the law.”
The pastor has taken clear stances on some criminal justice issues, though. According to his Facebook page, he sup ports adding a 13th Supe rior Court judge.
The state Legislature in 1997 authorized Spokane County to add a 13th judge. The state would pay half of the judge’s salary while the county would pay the remaining half and the sal aries of judicial staff.
In the past 25 years, Spo kane County has gained 140,000 residents, but the number of judges on the bench hasn’t changed.
Proponents of a 13th judge say it would help reduce the court’s case backlog and speed up the adminis tration of justice.
Kuney said she’d like a 13th judge but doesn’t want to commit to add ing the position until she knows how much it will cost.
“I’ve got to make sure we’ve got the dollars to be able to sustain (it),” she said.
The two candidates have used different rhet oric when talking about homelessness. The num ber of homeless people in
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camp. He said the coun ty should also provide the homeless with cell phones and internet ac cess so long as they “earn it” by cleaning up their “mess.”
Kerns said he believes the county already does a lot to address home lessness. He noted the county sends funding it receives through the state and federal gov ernment to Spokane. He also pointed out that the county paid for the Sal vation Army’s Way Out shelter and helps fund the city’s Cannon Street shelter.
Schreiner and Kerns have diverging opinions on the Spokane Regional Health District’s Board of Health roster.
The county commis sioners last fall reorga nized the health board, in response to a law the
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Waldref said.
would save taxpayer dol lars by decreasing the number of people who sit in jail awaiting trial.
“I don’t sentence people to jail. It comes from our courts.”
Yates says commission ers do have the ability to address racial disparities. She said the reforms she helped implement while serving as regional law and justice administrator, such as a program that gives defendants court date reminders and another that provides people with transportation to court, are part of the solution.
French and Yates also disagree on whether Spo kane County should add a 13th Superior Court judge.
The Legislature in 1997 authorized Spokane County to add a 12th and 13th Superior Court judge. The state pays half of the judge’s salary while the county pays the rest and the salaries of judicial staff.
In the past 25 years, Spo kane County has gained an additional 140,000 resi dents, but the number of judges on the bench hasn’t changed.
Yates supports adding a 13th judge. She said it
“I think it’s an incredi bly effective investment,” she said. “Adding another judge will improve case processing times, which currently lag behind state standards.”
French won’t commit to funding a 13th Superior Court judge.
He said adding the po sition would cost about $900,000 annually. On top of that, he said court cases have decreased since 2021 when a state Supreme Court ruling made it harder for pros ecutors to charge people for drug possession. He also stressed that Superior Court has multiple court commissioners who have powers of a judge and pick up the slack.
The county doesn’t have physical space for another judge either, French said.
“Even if I had a 13th judge,” he said, “I don’t have a courtroom to put them in.”
Colin Tiernan can be reached at (509) 459-5039 or at colint@spokesman. com.
She said investing in after-school programs, job training, community policing, mental health treatment and addiction treatment would be more effective.
Cathcart supports building a new jail, al though he said he’d insist the facility include mental health and drug addiction resources for inmates.
Spokane County’s criminal justice system must hold offenders ac countable, Cathcart said.
He said he’d lobby the state Legislature to change Washington law to ensure the courts ar en’t being too lenient.
“Those that deserve to be off the streets need to be,” he said. “We do not want to continue to be in a situation where we see people with multiple felonies, several convic tions, and they’re still on the street victimizing the community.”
Even though they have different ideas on how to improve public safety, the two east Spokane politi cians have similar views on a handful of other county issues.
For example, they agree the Spokane Regional Health District’s Board of Health should include a medical doctor.
The county commis sioners last fall reorga
Spokane County has risen 13% in the past two years, according to the latest Point-in-Time Count, an annual homelessness sur vey.
Kuney emphasizes that the county financially sup ports homeless services in Spokane. She has pointed out that the county con tributed $2 million to the Salvation Army’s Way Out shelter, for example.
During a Tuesday com missioner meeting, Kuney voted in favor of suing the Washington State De partment of Transporta tion over Camp Hope, the homeless encampment along Interstate 90 in east Spokane.
Noble has said govern ments should only help the homeless when it im proves public safety.
“I think the churches should be doing more to address homelessness,” he said in June. “I think non profits should be doing more.”
Colin Tiernan can be reached at (509) 459-5039 or at colint@spokesman. com.
Should Spokane County build a new jail?
Should there be a medical doctor on the health board?
Should the county spend more on housing and services for the homeless?
Would candidate support funding a 13th Superior Court judge?
Legislature passed in 2021.
The new board had to include an equal number of elected and unelected representatives.
Two of the commis sioners’ decisions caused controversy. First, they removed Spokane and Spokane Valley’s dedi cated seats. Second, they appointed a naturopath
Josh Kerns Wild Bill SchreinerVoted to appoint naturopathic doctor, but not opposed to having an M.D.
Believes county already spends a lot and will have to spend more in the future
ic doctor to serve as the board’s lone medical pro vider and public health representative. Multiple medical doctors applied for the position.
Schreiner said the board should include a medical doctor.
Kerns defended his vote for a naturopathic doctor.
“The naturopaths in
No
terviewed better. They came off that they would be much more engaged board members,” he said. “I’m not opposed to ap pointing an M.D. to the board if they’re the best candidate.”
Colin Tiernan can be reached at (509) 459-5039 or at colint@spokesman. com.
Should Spokane County build a new jail?
Should there be a medical doctor on the health board?
Should the county spend more on housing and services for the homeless?
Would candidate support funding a 13th Superior Court judge?
nized the health board, in response to a law the Leg islature passed in 2021. The new board had to include an equal number of elected and unelected representatives.
Two of the commis sioners’ decisions caused controversy. First, they removed Spokane and Spokane Valley’s dedi cated seats. Second, they appointed a naturopath ic doctor to serve as the board’s lone medical pro vider and public health representative.
Multiple medical doctors applied for the position.
Waldref and Cathcart also make similar points when talking about the county’s homelessness response. Both want the county to take a leader ship role in a regional ef fort to address homeless ness. They say the county
No Yes, but wants it to have behavioral health services
Yes Yes
Yes, wants county to lead a regional homelessness response
Yes, but believes main focus should be on creating a regional plan led by the county
Yes Yes
should help set policy, instead of simply sending money to Spokane.
“Homelessness has tended to be a city of Spo kane issue, when it is in fact a regional issue and requires regional solu tions,” Cathcart said. Waldref agreed.
“The county needs to be at the table, playing a ma jor role in supporting the development, the funding and the implementation of a regional strategy that reduces homelessness,” she said.
Cathcart and Waldref also want to help out the Spokane County Superior Court judiciary by add ing a 13th Superior Court judge.
The Legislature in 1997 authorized Spokane County to add a 12th and 13th Superior Court judge, but even though
the county’s population has grown by roughly 140,000 in the past quar ter century, the number of judges on the bench hasn’t changed.
Adding a 13th judge to help handle more cases would come with a cost. The state pays half of the judge’s salary while the county pays the rest and the salaries of judicial staff.
The two candidates said they think the cost is worthwhile.
“Yes, there’s a cost of supporting that judge’s of fice, so to speak,” Waldref said. “But the return on that investment would be moving more cases quick ly through the system.”
Colin Tiernan can be reached at (509) 459-5039 or at colint@spokesman. com.
Tiffany Smiley. Loren Culp, a former Re public police chief who won Trump’s endorsement and 21.6% of votes in the prima ry, said he doesn’t plan to vote for either Newhouse or White.
“They’re both Demo crats,” Culp said. “One of them just lies to us and tells us he’s a Republican.”
One issue that gives vot ers a clear choice between the two men is abortion ac cess. While Newhouse touts an “A” rating from the anti abortion Susan B. Anthony List, White talks about the right to terminate a preg nancy as a matter of individ ual liberty.
The Democrat hopes the Supreme Court’s June rul ing that overturned a federal right to abortion will drive abortion-rights supporters to turn out and support him.
With the 50% of prima ry voters who backed nei ther Newhouse nor White theoretically up for grabs, there is a potential open ing for a write-in candidate to enter the race. State law prevents a losing primary candidate from running a write-in campaign for the same office, but some voters have encouraged Didier, the Franklin County commis sioner who ran for the seat in 2014 and 2016, to mount a write-in campaign.
In a text message, Didier confirmed he has had “an incredible amount of people want me to run as a write in,” but said he had no plans to do so.
Mike Massey, chair of the Benton County GOP, said he estimates as many as onethird of conservatives “can’t put the clothes pin over their nose” and vote for Ne whouse.
“I’m going to vote for Dan because I have learned in the past that if you don’t
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spending in some areas but also tried to limit spending in others, such as on drug costs for Medicare recipi ents.
A new GOP majority in Congress couldn’t pass an abortion ban that could withstand a presidential veto, although a Republican Senate could block any Su preme Court appointment if an opening occurs in the next two years.
Murray finished August’s top two primary with more than half the votes cast in an 18-candidate field and has led in all polls, although conservative pundits have lately been more upbeat about Smiley’s chances for an upset.
All 10 U.S. House seats in Washington are up for election, with incumbents on the ballot in nine of them. Eastern Washing ton’s 5th Congressional District is a mirror of the Senate race in one respect, with Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican first elected in 2004, facing firsttime candidate Natasha Hill, a Democrat who is an attorney and a community activist.
McMorris Rodgers is running as an experi enced lawmaker who has delivered for her district, promising to expand the nation’s energy resources. Hill is characterizing the incumbent as out of touch and promising to help struggling families while fighting extremism and partisanship.
Like most of the state’s congressional incumbents, McMorris Rodgers easily topped the August primary.
Seatmate Jamie Herrera Beutler in southwest Wash ington’s 3rd District was eliminated in the top-two primary so that seat may be a close race between Dem
support your party, it can re ally damage things,” Massey said, recalling how he voted in the 1992 presidential race for independent Ross Per ot, whose candidacy helped Democrat Bill Clinton de feat Republican George H.W. Bush.
Mike McKee, chair of the Grant County GOP, said he expects Newhouse to pre vail but also worries many Republicans will not vote for him.
“I just tell them, ‘Dan may not have been your first, sec ond, third or fourth selec tion, but he’s won fair and square and now it’s time to fire (House speaker Nancy) Pelosi,’ ” McKee said, adding with a chuckle, “I can guar antee that Dan Newhouse is not going to vote to impeach another Republican presi dent in the next two years.”
The Washington State Republican Party didn’t en dorse a candidate ahead of the August primary, but of ficially “nominated” him as the party’s candidate after he won the primary, party spokesman Ben Gonzalez said.
For his part, Newhouse
ocrat Maria Gluesenkamp Perez, who finished first, and Republican Joe Kent, who passed Herrera Beutler in the late vote count.
In central Washington, Rep. Dan Newhouse, who like Herrera Beutler voted to impeach Donald Trump, survived a challenge from six other Republicans and faces Democrat Doug White in what’s normally a solid GOP district.
Washington, like the na tion as a whole, is halfway through its chief executive’s term, although for Demo crat Jay Inslee, it’s his third.
Along with three uncontest ed races for state Supreme Court justices, Washington does have a contested race for secretary of state to fill the position vacated by Re publican Kim Wyman who resigned in the middle of her term to take a job with the Biden Administration on election security.
Former state Sen. Steve Hobbs, a Democrat, was appointed to the seat by Inslee and faces a challenge by Julie Anderson, a former county auditor running as an independent.
Half the state Senate and the entire state House of Representatives are up for election, but unlike the closely divided U.S. Con gress, both houses of the Legislature have comfort able Democratic majorities and the newly drawn lines in the latest redistrict ing make that unlikely to change.
Washington Republicans are hoping to chip away at that margin, however, by highlighting problems with homelessness in the cities, increases in crime that some law enforcement officials blame on new police reform laws, and Gov. Jay Inslee’s long-lasting emergency rules to curb the COVID 19 epidemic. Dem ocrats are touting efforts to improve mental health services, increase affordable
is counting on most of the district’s Republican-lean ing voters forgiving him for the impeachment vote. In an interview, he alluded to a quote attributed to conser vative icon Ronald Reagan, who reportedly said, “The person who agrees with you 80% of the time is a friend and an ally, not a 20% trai tor.”
In that spirit, Newhouse said, he hopes his conser vative constituents who have supported him in the past will see the race against White as a clear choice between Republican and Democratic platforms.
“I think if they sit down and think about that, even though they’re angry with me for one vote, that’s still better than the other choice that they have in front of them,” he said. “So we’re doing the best that we can to communicate that mes sage.”
When a new Congress is sworn in at the start of 2023, Newhouse may be the only remaining member of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021,
housing and protect the environment.
About half the legislative races on Spokane County ballots are uncontested.
In central Spokane’s 3rd District, a pair of first-time candidates, Republicans Natalie Poulson and Scotty Nicol, will try to oust Democratic veterans Timm Ormsby and Marcus Riccelli.
Voters In the 4th Dis trict, which includes the Spokane Valley, will choose between labor leader Ted Cummings, a Democrat, and Associated Builders and Contractors Presi dent Suzanne Schmidt, a Republican, to fill an empty seat.
Two Republicans, Rep. Rob Chase and former Rep. Leonard Christian, vie for the other seat, a situation made possible by the state’s non-partisan primary system.
Two-term Rep. Virginia Graham, a Republican, fac es Michaela Kelso, an Army retiree pursing degrees at Spokane Community College in the 6th District, which covers parts of the city of Spokane’ south and northwest precincts as well as much of the West Plains. Three-term Rep. Jacquelin Maycumber faces fellow Republican Lonny Ray Wil liams, a first-time candidate who served as an Environ mental Protection Agency official in the George W. Bush administration, in the 7th District, which includes parts of north Spokane County in the sprawling northeastern Washington district.
All Spokane County executive positions are on the ballot, including the full slate of the expanded board of commissioners, which goes from three to five members next year. All three incumbents are all seeking seats on the new board but will run in their new districts rather than county-wide in the general
attack on the Capitol. The only other pro-impeach ment Republican who sur vived the primaries, Rep. David Valadao of California, is in a tight race the Cook Political Report rates as a toss-up.
He will also be among a dwindling number of House Republicans who are inter ested in working with Dem ocrats on bipartisan legisla tion as the GOP conference is increasingly dominated by hardline members who say their top priority in the next two years is investigat ing and even impeaching members of the Biden ad ministration.
Newhouse, a third-gener ation Yakima Valley farmer, is one of the leading advo cates for bipartisan immi gration reform to create a reliable, legal supply of U.S. agricultural workers, about half of whom are unautho rized immigrants, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That effort has drawn the ire of anti-immi gration hardliners, but Ne whouse said he believes 4th District voters want solu tions to problems that affect
election.
Auditor Vicky Dalton, the county’s only elected Dem ocrat, faces state Rep. Bob McCaslin, a Republican, for the position that includes the oversight of Spokane’s
the region. “The fact that I’m prag matic, solutions-oriented, willing to work with people on both sides of the aisle in order to find those solu tions, I don’t see that as a negative,” he said. “I think that’s what people expect of me.”
As chairman of the Con gressional Western Caucus, a group of House Republi cans focused on rural issues and limited government, Newhouse said he tries to cultivate an interest in con servative policy – rather than political grandstanding – among fellow GOP law makers.
“Certainly you have those that want to just get head lines or become famous on social media and those kinds of things,” he said, “but there actually are a good number of members of Congress that want to get things done for their constituents as well, and my job is to work with those people.”
In addition to farm work force reform and other needs of the district’s dom inant agricultural indus try, Newhouse said his top priorities for another term in Congress include sup porting low-carbon energy production – he staunchly opposes efforts to breach the four Lower Snake Riv er dams – and making sure the district’s infrastructure, schools and health care sys tem keep up with popula tion growth.
White’s platform focuses on many of the same issues: immigration reform, sup porting the district’s agri cultural sector, modernizing infrastructure and develop ing clean energy sources.
White said a clear differ ence between him and his opponent is in their posi tions on the Lower Snake River dams, where he doesn’t understand why Ne whouse has “such an abso lute position” that the dams will never come down.
elections.
Prosecuting Attorney Larry Haskell is running against first-time candidate Deb Conklin, running as an independent.
A pair of Republicans, John Nowels and Wade Nelson,
“I can’t take those dams down, not now anyway,” White said. “What I can do is start expediting our tran sition off of fossil fuels and increasing our carbon-free energy production and en ergy storage.”
Starting that work now, he said, along with build ing rail infrastructure that could one day replace barge transportation on the river, would strengthen the re gion’s economy while mak ing the prospect of losing the dams’ benefits less dev astating in the future.
“To me, that’s a better response than it is to do nothing – ‘the dams aren’t coming down’ – that cannot be the final answer,” White said.
Newhouse said his pitch to voters is that, whatever they think of Trump, his background and experience makes him the right person to represent the district in Congress.
“Being a product of the district, having been born and raised in central Wash ington, their issues are my issues,” he said. “We share the same challenges, the same perspectives and ide als, and that I’m the best fit to represent them. Focusing on those things that we have in common.”
Meanwhile, White said his campaign’s polling and talking to voters makes him believe he has a shot to stage an unlikely victory in the deep-red district.
“I’m not going to be over ly optimistic,” White said. “This is not the time to get cocky. There’s no hubris. We’re playing the numbers and we are working very hard.”
Ballots must be post marked or deposited in an official drop-box by 8 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 8.
Orion Donovan-Smith can be reached at (202) 853-2524 or at orionds@spokesman. com.
are competing to replace Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, who is retiring.
Jim Camden can be reached at jim-camden@outlook. com or (509) 879-7461.
For many races on the ballot this fall, Spokane area voters who want to see their choices sideby-side can view debates posted online.
Here’s where to find lo cal and statewide debates:
Voters of Spokane along with KSPS will host two debates on Oct. 23 in Spo kane for the secretary of state and U.S. Senate races.
The debates will be held at the Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center at Gonzaga University.
The secretary of state candidates, incumbent Democrat Steve Hobbs and nonpartisan Pierce County Auditor Julie An derson, will face off at 3:30 p.m.
The U.S. Senate candi dates, incumbent Dem ocrat Patty Murray and Republican challenger Tiffany Smiley, will debate at 5 p.m.
The event is free to at tend in person but reserv ing tickets is required. It is currently sold out, but those who want to attend can add themselves to the waitlist at spokane7tick ets.com.
It will be broadcast live by KSPS in Spokane.
KSPS also will air a de bate on Oct. 20 between incumbent Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rod gers and her challenger, Democrat Natasha Hill. It will be filmed at the KSPS studio earlier that day.
Throughout election season, the League of
Women Voters of Spokane, the Rotary Club, KSPS, The Spokesman-Review and a number of other lo cal organizations hosted candidate forums.
The Spokesman-Re view’s Northwest Passages book club held a commu nity forum on Oct. 6 that featured multiple debates:
• Wade Nelson and John
Nowels for Spokane Coun ty sheriff.
• Deb Conklin and Larry Haskell for county prose cutor.
• Al French and Maggie Yates for county commis sion District 5.
• Rob Chase and Leon ard Christian for state rep resentative in the 4th Leg islative District.
The event also fea tured incumbent Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton who is running for re-election. Her opponent in the race, state Rep. Bob McCaslin, declined to ap pear.
Those debates can be viewed on The Spokes man-Review’s YouTube channel.
Earlier this month, the league hosted debates for both races in the 4th Leg islative District. Both of those can be watched on the League of Women Vot ers of Spokane YouTube page.
They also hosted de bates for Spokane County prosecutor; representative for the 3rd Legislative Dis trict; two positions on the Spokane County District Court; and County Com missioner for districts 1 and 2. Videos of those debates and a City Cable 5 re broadcasting schedule can be found at lwvspokane. org.
Candidates for Spokane County Sheriff debated in a Rotary Club No. 21 of Spokane forum earlier this month. The debate can be watched on KXLY’s Face book page.
The Rotary also hosted the candidates for County Prosecutor. More infor mation can be found at ro taryspokane.com.
KSPS filmed debates for Spokane County pros ecutor and sheriff as well as Spokane County Com mission districts 1 and 2. KSPS’s debates are avail able on the station’s web site, ksps.org.
Laurel Demkovich can be reached at (509) 416-6260 or at laureld@spokesman. com.
The East Valley School District has a replacement four-year, $18.5 million capital levy for safety, se curity and infrastructure improvements on the No vember ballot.
The levy seeks to replace an existing levy that is ex piring. The previous two levies, which each ran for two years, paid for new door locks on classrooms that could be locked from the inside, vestibules in the entryway of each school to increase security and limit access to buildings, and bus loops at schools to keep buses separate from parents picking up stu dents.
The idea behind the bus loops is to keep students safer by keeping the two flows of traffic separate and avoid increased risk for pedestrians, said Su perintendent Brian Tal bott. “Pedestrians lose,” he said.
While that work was completed with the help of the previous levies, there’s more work to be done, Tal bott said, and he hopes the community will support renewing the levy.
“We’re very fortunate and grateful to our com munity for supporting our last two capital project lev ies,” he said.
This time the funding from the levy, if it is re newed, would be used to replace aging HVAC sys tems, leaking roofs and old plumbing.
“There will still be some focus on safety and secu rity, but most of the focus will be on warm and dry,” Talbott said.
The roof of East Val ley Middle School leaks when it rains, forcing staff to place trash cans in hall ways to catch the water. The school roofs in need of replacement have not been damaged, but are simply
past their life expectancy, Talbott said.
“We have multiple school roofs that have been maintained, but they’re 30 years old,” he said. “You can only patch so much.”
Similarly, several schools have HVAC systems that are so old that replacement parts are no longer man ufactured. Some schools with failing HVAC systems can have rooms with tem peratures higher than 80 degrees in the summer and too cold in the winter. The temperature can vary from classroom to classroom.
Last year the gym and locker rooms at East Valley High School were locked and unusable for months when the HVAC system failed during the winter, leaving that portion of the school without heat.
“Our maintenance and custodial crews have been doing a good job maintain ing and babying these sys tems along, but you can’t do it forever,” Talbott said.
Neale Rasmussen, chief financial officer for the district, said having func tioning HVAC systems is important for students.
“We want all the learn ing spaces to be comfort able for kids,” he said. “They can’t learn if it’s 85 degrees.”
Talbott said it would be difficult to pay for the HVAC and roofing projects out of the district’s normal budget. “With 80% of our budget being people, it’s really difficult to carve out enough money for a major project,” he said.
At current property val ues, each household would pay 75 cents per $1,000 in assessed home value each year. The four-year levy would collect $4.2 million in 2023, $4.5 million in 2024, $4.7 million in 2025 and $4.9 million in 2026. The estimated rate of 75 cents per $1,000 would go down if property values continue to increase, Ras mussen said.
“What voters are actual ly approving is the actual dollar amount,” he said. “If the dollar value goes up, that rate will go down.”
The levy requires a sim ple majority to pass. Ballots will be mailed in Spokane County beginning Oct. 19. Election Day is Nov. 8.
By Nina Culver FOR THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEWThe Reardan-Edwall School District is asking voters to approve a new capital levy to improve facilities so tennis play ers and track athletes don’t have to be bused to outside facilities every day to practice.
The five-year levy would raise nearly $4.2 million to build a trans portation cooperative facility, reimburse the district for new athletic field lights, put in a rub berized track, rebuild the tennis courts, create a wrestling and fitness center, and build a field house. The Health, Safe ty and Renovation levy would cost voters an estimated 95 cents per $1,000 in assessed home value each year.
The district replaced the aging field lights at the athletic field this sum mer. “Two of them blew out, actually shattered, during games last year,” Superintendent Eric So botta said. “Those were vintage 1970s lights.”
There’s also an oppor
tunity to get 90% of a new transportation co operative facility paid for by the state if the district can come up with 10% of the cost, Sobotta said. The current home of the district’s transportation department is a 1980 pole barn.
If a new transporta tion facility is built, the barn could be renovated and remodeled to create a wrestling facility and a fitness center that would be open to the public, So botta said. The district doesn’t have any space for the wrestling team. Last year, the team prac ticed in City Hall; this year, they’re using what used to be the band room.
The district’s track and field facilities are also lacking. Some athletes, including long jumpers and high jumpers, can’t practice in Reardan and have to be bused to Dav enport. The levy, if ap proved, would upgrade the facilities and put in a rubberized track and rub berized approaches for field events. “Our track is a dirt track,” Sobotta said.
“It’s not safe for meets.”
The district has five
outdoor tennis courts that are about 50 years old and in such poor con dition that they’ve been deemed unsafe to use.
Tennis players are bused to Medical Lake every day for practice.
If the levy is approved, the plan is to reconstruct three of the courts since the district doesn’t really need five, Sobotta said.
Then a multiuse field house would be built that could be used for team practices and communi ty activities in addition to providing a place for physical education class es during bad weather.
Completing the proj ects would allow the dis trict to save money it is spending to bus students to other school districts so they can practice, So botta said. “There’s a cost to having inadequate fa cilities,” he said.
He said he knows that inflation makes it a diffi cult time to ask voters for more money, but said res idents’ taxes will still be lower than in many oth er districts in the area.
“We’re all tight,” he said. “I’m a homeowner my self. I get it.”
Levy would fund new lights, build new track, create wrestling site, rebuild tennis courts
“
We’re all tight. I’m a homeowner myself. I get it.”
Eric Sobotta Reardan-Edwall Schools Superintendent
Proposition 1 would give council power over mayor in selecting, dismissing Spokane’s top lawyer
By Kip Hill THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEWVoters next month will weigh in on a power strug gle between Spokane City Council members and the mayor’s office over legal representation.
Proposition 1 asks vot ers whether to approve revisions to the city char ter that would change the way Spokane’s top attorney is selected and dismissed, and give lawmakers more say in what legal actions City Hall takes. The pro posal was authored by City Council President Breean Beggs, an attorney who has for years pushed for changes to the office that he believes will eliminate favoritism, or the appear ance of favoritism, by the city attorney for its mayor.
“The proposal is my evolution in thinking on it,” said Beggs, who has in the past pushed for voters to directly elect the posi tion, as they do in Seattle. Instead, the changes in the ballot measure would give a majority of the City Council the authority to nominate the city attor ney, over which the mayor would have absolute veto power.
The same is true of the attorney’s dismissal, which would require a majority of the council to fire the attor ney with cause. The change would take that power away from the mayor, who possesses it exclusively un der the current charter.
Mayor Nadine Wood ward, who has faced oppo sition from a majority on the council on several is sues, including the site of a police precinct in the East Central neighborhood and the administration’s steps to provide assistance to the homeless, said the propos al was another attempt by
lawmakers to wrest some of the power that belongs to Spokane’s strong mayor.
“It’s another example of the council’s desire to erode the authority of the mayor,” she said.
The measure also will guarantee a seven-year term for an appointed city attorney. That’s to ensure applicants with managerial experience who won’t have to be concerned about los ing their job if a different mayor is elected after four years, or if they can be re moved by the mayor with out cause, Beggs said.
“Why would they leave a successful law practice if they could lose it all?” Beggs said.
Woodward said all mem bers of her cabinet serve under those provisions, and the seven-year term allows the city attorney to become eligible for munic ipal retirement benefits.
While Beggs sees that as an incentive to attract hires, Woodward argued it creat ed an unequal workplace.
“Why wouldn’t any oth er cabinet-level member of the team want those kinds of benefits?” Woodward said.
Beggs said he moved away from the idea of an elected attorney because of the potential continued perception that the attor ney’s seat could be bought with political donations or votes.
“The more I thought about it, we don’t need an other elected official to get independence,” he said. “We just need actual inde pendence.”
Though he’d been think ing about the proposal for years, Beggs admitted that the current legal guidance being given to the city on enforcement of camping laws had pushed him to put the issue before voters
this year.
“In my time on City Council, particularly in the past year, I’ve seen the need for it more,” Beggs said.
Woodward defended the city’s legal guidance on camping laws, noting that the council passed its own legislation after conferring with the city’s legal team.
“I think the legal ad vice that we’ve been given aligns with the legal advice that many other attorneys, and many other states and cities, have aligned with,” she said.
“Do you find an attorney that’s going to agree with everything you say? I think that’s going to be hard,” Woodward said.
Beggs’ proposal also in cludes a requirement that lawmakers vote on when to initiate litigation. He pointed to the city’s delay under the David Condon administration to join lit igation against companies producing the medications
Additional 0.1% would go toward road construction, could help raise as much as $935K a year
By Kip Hill THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEWAirway Heights will ask residents in November to increase the amount they and commuters are taxed on retail sales in order to pay for work to improve safety on roads made bus ier by a booming growth in population and com muting workers.
“It is the fairest way to share the cost of safety,” said Albert Tripp, admin istrator for the city on the West Plains.
Proposition 1 on the Airway Heights ballot will ask voters to approve a 10-year, three-tenths of 1% sales tax on goods and services sold within city limits, dedicated specif ically for road construc tion. Airway Heights, which nearly doubled in size from 6,100 residents in the 2010 census to 10,757 in 2020, is one of 55 cities statewide that funds what’s known as a trans portation benefit district through a portion of the sales tax, according to the Municipal Research and Services Center of Wash ington.
The state Legislature permitted local govern ments to establish trans portation benefit districts in 1987. The law permits county or city govern ments to set up a dedi cated account to collect money, either through sales taxes or vehicle reg istration fees, to support road construction that eases congestion or im proves safety.
Airway Heights estab lished a transportation benefit district taxing res idents at two-tenths of 1% in November 2013, then the maximum allowed under state law. A massive transportation package
passed by the state Legis lature this year increased the cap to three-tenths of 1%, which is what Airway Heights will ask voters to approve on the ballot.
Tripp said that amount “keeps pace with the cost of transportation proj ects” that the community has identified as neces sary to reduce stress on the road system. The city has already built pedes trian crossing improve ments at Ninth Avenue and Hayford Road with money from the tax as well as reconstruction of the roadway at Russell Street and Sprague Ave nue, which serves as an access point to the Air way Heights Correction al Facility and a Spokane County off-road vehicle park.
Approval of the tax will raise an estimated $935,000 a year, which will be used as matching funds for state and fed eral grants to improve east-west connectivity in Airway Heights, Tripp said. Many of the ques tions that he has fielded from community groups are about how the money would be used, and Tripp said it’s important to note state and federal agencies often require a matching amount from cities in or der to receive grants.
“Based on our track re cord of receiving grants, for every dollar we collect locally, we’re going to take it and grow it to $2.26,” Tripp said. Without those matching funds, he said, such projects would not be attractive for other agencies to support.
Among the contem plated projects that the city would seek funding for are dedicated pedes trian and bicycle paths along U.S. Highway 2,
North and South Hayford roads and 12th Avenue.
Also on tap is what Tripp described as “more of a boulevard setting” along Sixth, 10th and 12th ave nues that would serve as alternate east-west con nectors and provide mul timodal transportation.
The city of Spokane is the only other local en tity actively collecting money for a transporta tion benefit district. City residents pay $20 into the fund when renewing their registration, funds that city law dictates must be used for road mainte nance, though some have argued recent funding decisions have strayed from that original intent. In 2018, the City Coun cil approved the use of $330,000 from its fund to pave an undeveloped road leading down to the Spo kane River from Kendall Yards.
Airway Heights prefers the sales tax method be cause it spreads the bur den not just on city res idents but on the many motorists who stop for gas or other items while traveling along Interstate 90 or to and from busi nesses along U.S. 2, Tripp said. The city says 70% of vehicles traveling along the highway stop to make purchases within city lim its, and that over the past decade, 75 cents of every dollar raised by the dis trict has come from visi tors, not residents.
If voters approve the proposition, the new tax would take effect Jan. 1, 2024. Ballots will be mailed in Spokane County beginning on Wednesday. Election Day is Nov. 8.
Kip Hill can be reached at (509) 459-5429 or at kiph@spokesman.com.
that fueled the opioid epi demic as an instance where lawmakers may have made a different decision.
“We lost out on millions of dollars,” Beggs said.
A voting requirement still would permit the council and legal advisers to discuss the merits of a lawsuit in executive ses sion before voting publicly on commencing litigation, Beggs said. That would prevent the city from put ting itself in a bad spot in the courtroom, where law yers facing the city could use council deliberations as evidence.
Another benefit for law makers would be the abil ity to receive legal advice without it being subject to public disclosure, Beggs said. He pointed to the re lease in 2017 of a memo from the council’s legal adviser that concluded a measure to ban oil trains from traveling through town likely would face a successful legal challenge
as an example of legal com munication that would re main confidential under the new system.
“If we had our own law yer, we could say, “Here’s the thing, have you thought about this case?’ ” Beggs said. “I don’t have to worry about putting something in writing that is going to be put out in public.”
Joe Shogan, an attorney and former city council president, said he didn’t see the need for lawmakers to get more involved in the selection of the city attor ney.
“The first obligation of an attorney is to enforce the law,” Shogan said. “The mayor is required to ap point someone to be non political and enforce the law.”
Shogan said he didn’t be lieve a city attorney’s oath to support the law should be superseded by a desire to please their boss.
“It would be a presump tion to think that the city
attorney would be biased,” Shogan said.
The charter changes also would permit the mayor and the city council to ac quire independent, special counsel with written no tice to the other branch of government. Such a lawyer could be hired to advise the branches on legal mat ters involving them or in which they’re interested, according to the proposal, and cost the city additional money.
For example, in just the past month, the city has agreed to contracts for special counsel advising officials on environmental permits, civil service ap peals and other issues.
Ballots for the general election will begin to be mailed Wednesday. A city charter amendment re quires a simple majority to pass. Election Day is Nov. 8.
Kip Hill can be reached at (509) 459-5429 or at kiph@ spokesman.com.
20-year
Properly
By Kip Hill THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
A Spokane County Dis trict Court commission er faces a Spokane native who’s served in the coun ty prosecutor’s office for more than a decade to re place a retiring District Court judge.
Eric Dooyema, 47, and Jenny Zappone, 40, are vying for the seat on the bench that will be vacated by retiring District Court Judge Donna Wilson. Dooyema has earned Wil son’s endorsement, while Zappone has been building a coalition of supporters that include local Dem ocratic and Republican groups, law enforcement officials and members of the legal community.
Dooyema, a graduate of the University of South Dakota School of Law, has been filling in for mem bers of the District Court as commissioner since an appointment in 2018. He’s already familiar with all types of cases that come before the District Court bench, including misde meanor criminal matters, traffic cases, minor civil matters and cases involv ing veterans, those with mental health issues and driving-under-the-influ ence offenders, he said.
“It’s high volume. It’s a busy court,” said Dooyema, who moved to Spokane about 13 years ago with his wife. “And I really like that.”
“You’re kind of a face of the court,” he added. “A lot of the time, those folks have never been in court before.”
Zappone described Dis trict Court as “the front porch of our justice sys
tem” and said judges there have the greatest opportu nity to influence lives.
“All walks of people come through District Court,” she said. “They’ve made a mistake. This is where you have the great est opportunity to really (make) change, and to re ally direct people to dif ferent rehabilitative pro grams.”
Zappone, who’s spent the past 12 years as a depu ty prosecutor for the coun ty handling property and major crimes as well as serving as a victim advo cate, said as a judge she’d work to build relation ships between the court and groups in the com munity providing assis tance to those that become involved with the justice system. She mentioned groups working with the local Indigenous popula tion, such as the American Indian Community Cen ter, and Mujeres in Action, a local nonprofit working with Spanish-speaking survivors of domestic vi olence, as groups that the courts could work with and learn from.
“The role as a judge is to just be out there, and know that, ‘Hey, I’m lis tening to you, I know what you’re doing,’ ” Zappone said. “And maybe we can create better pathways to justice.”
In his experience as a court commissioner, cov ering all the dockets of the court, Dooyema said he’s tried to balance fairness with providing the public the information they need about the legal system. That can be difficult in col lections cases, where one side has an attorney and the defendant may be rep
resenting themselves.
“There’s the fine line, between you want to help folks, but can’t cross that line of giving legal advice,” Dooyema said.
The job requires be ing welcoming to not just those members of the pub lic entering court for the first time, but also young attorneys who are gaining experience before a judge, Dooyema said.
“I think a District Court judge has to wear a lot of hats,” he said.
Both candidates said the most frequent questions they get from the public are about their political affiliation. District judge races are nonpartisan, and Dooyema and Zappone said that is to ensure fair ness. They’re also asked about rising crime rates in the city.
A judge’s main obliga tion is to fairness, Dooye ma said.
“I get the facts, I follow the law and I make a deci sion where the law takes me,” Dooyema said.
Zappone, a longtime prosecutor, said she has prepared to be a fair and impartial judge in that work by considering the needs of the defendant when making charging decisions and resolving cases.
“As a prosecutor, I’m not just looking at communi ty safety,” she said. “I am looking at making sure a defendant’s rights are be ing upheld.”
Both candidates spent their younger years in pur suit of speed. Zappone was an accomplished downhill alpine skier, competing for
a spot on the national team in the early 2000s after attending Gonzaga Prep. Dooyema spent several years as a semiprofession al motorcycle racer before finishing his college de gree in 2004.
Zappone said her deci sion to run was inspired by her father, John, a pioneer in roofing technology who started Zappone Manu facturing and who died in June 2020.
“He had always said, ‘Jenny, I want to see you on the bench someday,’ ” Zap pone said.
She is second cousins with Spokane City Coun cilman Zack Zappone.
Dooyema said he’s been putting himself in position to run for the position for years, filling in for judges throughout Eastern Wash ington, building experi ence and a reputation with the local legal community.
“I think it’s important for people to understand that. If you don’t want to take my word for it, trust these elected officials,” he said. “They trust me.”
Zappone was rated as exceptionally well quali fied, the highest rating giv en, by the Spokane County Bar Association. Dooyema was rated well qualified.
Dooyema has raised $66,327 in support of his mostly self-funded cam paign, according to the Washington Public Dis closure Commission as of Oct. 5. He’s also taken out $6,000 in loans.
Contributors include fellow Spokane County District Court candidate Deanna Crull and Spokane County District Court Judges Debra Hayes, Jen nifer Fassbender and Wil son.
Dooyema’s endorse ments include all members of the current Spokane County District Court bench.
SPOKANE COUNTY DISTRICT COURT,
Age: 40
Jenny Zappone
Education: Graduated from Whitman College with a bachelor’s degree in history in 2005. Graduated from Gonzaga Law School in 2009.
Political experience: First run for political office.
Work experience: Deputy prosecutor with Spokane County for the past 12 years, assigned to juvenile, property and then major crimes. Currently supervisor of the office’s General Felony and Victim Witness Advocate units. Worked in private practice after graduating from Gonzaga Law.
Family: Married to Jeff Bornholdt. Has three children.
Campaign finance: Has raised $51,818 in support of her campaign, according to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission as of Oct. 5. Contributors include Spokane County Superior Court Judges Annette Plese, Raymond Clary and Tony Hazel, retired Spokane County Superior Court Judges Gregory Tripp and Ellen Clark, Spokane County Sheriff candidate and Deputy Sheriff John Nowels and Spokane County Commissioner candidate Kim Plese.
Age: 47
Eric DooyemaEducation: Graduated with dual degrees in chemistry and philosophy from Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in 2004. Graduate from South Dakota University School of Law in 2007.
Political experience: First run for public office. Appointed Spokane County District Court commissioner in 2018.
Work experience: Spokane County District Court commissioner since 2018. Worked in private practice in Spokane County, 2009 to 2018. Worked for two years in the public defender’s office in Minnehaha County, South Dakota.
Family: Married to Jodi Dooyema. No children. Campaign finance: Has raised $66,327 in support of his mostly self-funded campaign, according to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission as of Oct. 5. He’s also taken out $6,000 in loans.
Zappone has raised $51,818 in support of her campaign, according to PDC records as of Oct. 5.
Her contributors include Spokane County Superi or Court judges Annette Plese, Raymond Clary and Tony Hazel, retired Spokane County Superi or Court judges Gregory Tripp and Ellen Clark, Spokane County Sher iff candidate and Deputy Sheriff John Nowels and Spokane County Com
missioner candidate Kim Plese.
Zappone’s endorse ments include Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, the Spo kane County Republican Party, the Spokane County Young Democrats and the Spokane Regional Labor Council, among other la bor organizations and po litical groups.
Kip Hill can be reached at (509) 459-5429 or at kiph@ spokesman.com.
but who are unaware such options exist.
Two lawyers with extensive local experience who have recently shifted to sitting on the bench are seeking to replace Debra Hayes as one of Spokane County’s eight district court judges.
Deanna Crull, 46, is running against Andrew Biviano, 47, in the nonparti san election for the seat. District judg es serve four-year terms and preside over misdemeanor criminal cases, traffic infractions, small claims issues, protection orders in cases of domestic violence or harassment and therapeu tic court proceedings.
Crull and Biviano both cited diverse professional careers, in both prosecu tion and defense, as a qualification to sit on the bench.
“It’s something that I’ve thought a lot about. I think I’ve positioned my self in a way that makes me the most qualified, given my experience,” said Crull, a 2001 graduate of Gonzaga Law School who currently serves as the prosecutor for the city of Ritzville. She’s also what’s known as a “pro tem,” or substitute, judge for the Ka lispel Tribal Court, Spokane County District Court and the city of Airway Heights.
Biviano, also a graduate of Gonza ga’s Law School in 2006, pointed not just to his legal career as a prosecutor with the United States Attorney’s Of fice in Eastern Washington and as a civil defense attorney in private prac tice, but as a former case manager in social work at what is now Frontier Behavioral Health, as evidence of the perspective he’d bring to the court.
“I’ve been there, walking alongside the people that are most likely to come to district court, to show them how to get their underlying challenges ad dressed,” Biviano said.
Biviano has also been serving as a pro tem judge in district court since late last year.
Both candidates said a district court judge has the additional responsibility to help explain the legal system to the members of the public who come be fore them.
“I think it’s very important to make sure that you’re able to communicate what’s going on, because a lot of peo ple are in there for the first time. They have no idea,” Crull said. She added that’s especially true of a client who may not speak English proficiently and others in need of therapeutic services,
Most of the people who argue before dis trict judges are repre senting themselves, Bi viano said. That often puts the onus on the judge to look at the case law and help determine disputes, then explain the result in terms the public can understand.
“It’s challenging, but it’s rewarding in a way that’s hard to explain,” Biviano said.
Though the candidates both ac knowledged the need for therapeutic courts for those experiencing men tal health or substance issues, as well as military veterans, there are cas es where punishment is warranted. Gross misdemeanor charges, which are heard by district judges, carry a potential penalty of up to a year in jail and fines totaling $5,000.
“Let me see if I can understand you, have you feel like you’re being seen and heard and understood, and that there’s a better future in store for you,” Biviano said. “Punishment is involved in that too, hopefully in a way that makes people feel like there’s a better option in the future.”
Crull said many of the questions she’s been asked campaigning for judge have to do with concern about rising crime rates.
“I think, always and foremost, is community safety,” Crull said. “And then, how do we reduce recidivism? How do we keep this from happening again?”
Biviano said the run for district judge is a conscious decision to turn away from partisan politics. He ran as a Democrat for county commissioner in 2016 and chaired the local chapter of the Democrats for about a year, end ing in January 2018.
“In my practice, I represent people from all across the political spectrum,” Biviano said. “I will defend you no matter what your free speech happens to be.”
Crull said the district judge position would be the continued culmination of a childhood dream. She studied political science before immediate ly entering law school, continuing an interest in the law that she said began watching black-and-white reruns of the classic “Perry Mason” television series.
“I love the community. I think there’s a lot of positive things that can be implemented to make it better,” she said. “I’m running because I just want
SPOKANE COUNTY DISTRICT COURT JUDGE, POSITION 6 Deanna CrullAge: 46 Education: Graduated from Gonzaga University with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1997. Graduated from Gonzaga Law School in 2001. Completed training with the Trial Lawyers College and the Judicial College.
Political experience: First run for political office.
Work experience: Owner of Action Legal Group since 2009. Pro tem judge for Kalispel Tribal Court, Spokane County District Court and city of Airway Heights. Commissioner with Airway Heights Municipal Court. Former public defense attorney in Lincoln County District Court, 2010-2015. Former deputy prosecuting attorney, city of Spokane and Spokane County, 2006-2007.
Family: Single, widowed.
Campaign finance: Has raised $33,387 in support of her campaign, and an additional $12,000 in loans as of Oct. 5, according to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission. Among contributors to her campaign are District Court judges Debra Hayes, Patrick Johnson, Donna Wilson and Patti Connolly Walker, and Court Commissioner Eric Dooyema.
Age: 47 Education: Graduated from St. George’s School in Spokane. Earned a bachelor’s degree in clinical child psychology from Yale University in 1997, and a law degree from Gonzaga University in 2006.
Political experience: Ran unsuccessfully for Spokane County commissioner as a Democrat in 2016. Served as chair of Spokane County Democrats, 2017-2018.
Work experience: Owner of Law Office of Andrew S. Biviano, civil rights firm in downtown Spokane. Pro tem judge at Spokane County District Court. Former partner at Paukert & Troppmann in Spokane. Previously worked as a mental health counselor, case manager and court-appointed special advocate. Worked with mentally ill patients at Frontier Behavioral Health. Spent four years as a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Eastern Washington.
Family: Married to Amy Biviano. Has three children.
Campaign finance: Has raised $13,838 for his campaign, with another $5,000 in loans as of Oct. 5, according to the PDC. Among his contributors are Spokane City Council President Breean Beggs, who worked with Biviano at the firm Paukert & Troppman, as well as state Rep. Marcus Riccelli, state Sen. Andy Billig and Washington Commerce Department Director Lisa Brown.
to give back. And it’s the way that I know that I can.”
Biviano said he intended to ap proach the job the same way he’s ap proached his professional life: pro tecting civil rights, protecting public safety and helping people seek reha bilitation, when possible.
“I feel like it’s a really nice combi nation of my two professional careers, mental health and the law,” he said.
Crull has raised $33,387 in support of her campaign, and an additional $12,000 in loans as of Oct. 5, according to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission. Among the contributors to her campaign are Hayes, as well as District Court judges Patrick John son, Donna Wilson and Patti Connolly Walker, and Court Commissioner Eric Dooyema. Among her endorsements are several active and retired Spokane County Superior Court judges. Biviano has raised $13,838 for his campaign, with another $5,000 in
loans as of Oct. 5. Among his con tributors are Spokane City Council President Breean Beggs, who worked with Biviano at the firm Paukert & Troppman, as well as state Rep. Mar cus Riccelli, state Sen. Andy Billig and Washington Commerce Department Director Lisa Brown. Among his le gal endorsements are state Supreme Court Justices Helen Whitener and Debra Stephens.
Pay for district judges is established by a citizens commission formed in compliance with the state’s Con stitution. That commission set dis trict court judges’ annual salaries at $193,447 for the year beginning July 1, compensation that is provided exclu sively by Spokane County.
Ballots will be mailed for the gen eral election in Spokane County on Wednesday. Election Day is Nov. 8. Kip Hill can be reached at (509) 4595429 or at kiph@spokesman.com.
Candidates say judge must be face of the court
Biviano, Crull seek to replace Debra HayesBiviano Crull
Only two votes sep arated the two candi dates running for Stevens County coroner in the August primary election. The closeness of the con test may only be matched by the contentiousness between the two former co-workers now compet ing to run the office.
Less than three weeks after the chief deputy cor oner of Stevens County announced she would run for county coroner, her boss and opponent fired her. Conflicting accounts of why she was fired and who is more qualified for the position have fueled a tight, confusing cam paign.
“I’ve never seen a race this close,” Coroner Lor rie Sampson said.
First elected in 2014, Sampson, 53, is running for her third term. She garnered 6,635 votes in the August primary, while her ex-chief deputy, Ra mona Colvin, took 6,637. They will have a rematch in the Nov. 8 general elec tion.
“I knew it was going to be hard to unseat an in cumbent,” Colvin said. “I didn’t realize it would be that close of a race. I fig ured it would be a land slide one way or another.”
Both are running as Re publicans, but only Col vin, 39, is endorsed by the county GOP. The Stevens County Republican Cen tral Committee contrib uted $4,000 to Colvin’s campaign. In fact, Col vin has raised more than $18,000. Sampson, mean while, is working with less than $2,000 of her own money.
A coroner is an elect ed official tasked with overseeing death inves tigations in a county.
The coroner determines the cause and manner of death by working with forensic pathologists who perform autopsies on the medical side and law en forcement on the investi gative side. The coroner does not perform autop sies, instead sending bod ies to the Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Of fice.
“It’s a unique job be cause you are not the fo rensic pathologist, you are the administrator of the entire system,” said Timothy Grisham, depu ty director of Washington Association of County Of ficials.
The coroner’s sala ry in Stevens County is $79,000.
Sampson has said that her opponent is under qualified because she does not have a medical degree. However, there are no requirements to run for coroner in Wash ington – only that they must complete a certifi cation within 12 months of becoming elected.
Coroners come from a variety of backgrounds, Grisham said, including mortuary services and law enforcement, and some even go to school to become death investiga tors. County prosecutors act as coroner in Wash ington counties with few er than 40,000 people. Larger counties like Spo kane use medical exam iners, who are appointed physicians.
The termination Colvin was fired on March 7. Her disciplinary letter, signed by Sampson, cites a number of past and current disciplinary actions including for us ing the transportation services of a local funeral home that Sampson in structed her not to use.
The letter also accuses her of “failing to make meaningful progress” on an archiving project, “refusing to come to the office when specifically requested” by Sampson and failing to respond to Sampson’s phone calls for the 17 days since Feb. 18 –about the time Colvin an nounced her candidacy.
Communication con tinued during this time,
STEVENS COUNTY CORONER
Lorrie Sampson, Republican
Age: 53
Education: Associate’s degree in Nursing, Spokane Falls Community College 2017.
Board certified medicolegal death investigator through the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators.
Work experience: Medical investigator for Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office from 1999-2010.
Political experience: Stevens County coroner since 2015.
Campaign fundraising: Has raised $1,897.40 from her own contributions.
Ramona Colvin, Republican
Age: 39
Education: Has completed several death investigation courses through the Washington Association of Coroner and Medical Examiners.
Work experience: Stevens County deputy coroner since 2017.
Political experience: Waitts Lake Precinct Committee officer, Republican, 2020 to present.
Campaign fundraising: Has raised $18,532.86. Notable donors include Danekas Funeral Chapel, Spokane Tribe of Indians and Stevens County Republican Central Committee.
however, through email. Some of these emails were attached to the ter mination letter.
“I responded about any thing with work through email, but I wouldn’t take her personal calls,” Col vin said. “She was calling me constantly begging me not to run against her.”
Colvin documented her official communications with Sampson by carbon copying the county com missioners and the coun ty’s human resources de partment.
“From the day that she knew I was running, she started making my work atmosphere hostile,” Col vin said.
In an email exchange on Feb. 21, Sampson asked Colvin to priori tize a records archiving project that Sampson had assigned to Colvin three years earlier.
Colvin responded that a June deadline was unfair with all her other duties and 148 hours a week of call time. “I must admit this feels like retribu tion from my announce ment that I am going to run against you,” Colvin wrote, adding that she would be “more than will ing to assist” if Sampson would help and dedicate more time to her elected duties.
In a March 3 email ex change, Sampson asked Colvin, who typically worked from home, to be on call March 7 and 9, and to come to the office on March 10 so they could begin the archiving proj ect together.
In reply, Colvin refused to work on those days and asked to only be sched uled five days a week to ensure she would not go over her 40-hour limit. She also complained that Sampson required her to always be on call and available to work, with little notice and without extra compensation. In fact, the deputy coroner who replaced Colvin after she was fired filed a state Labor & Industries com plaint against the county for being forced to always be available to work. The complaint has not been settled.
Sampson listed Colvin’s refusal to work as “direct insubordination” on the disciplinary letter.
But the final straw, Sampson said, was Col vin accessing files that she was not supposed to. These files contained sensitive materials, in cluding medical records, insurance and personal information, social secu rity numbers – “informa tion that she as an investi gator did not need access to.”
Colvin said she had al ways had access to those files, that they were nec essary for her job and Sampson didn’t tell her when she lost access.
On Feb. 23, Colvin emailed Sampson asking why the files were erased.
Sampson responded three days later that the files were not erased, “only moved to a more conve nient location” and that she could still file her re ports.
Colvin submitted a help desk ticket to the IT de partment asking to regain access, which was grant ed.
The disciplinary letter stated that Colvin “went behind the elected offi cials back” and accessed the unauthorized files “by means of deception.”
By Sampson’s inter pretation, Colvin was ac tively trying to be fired in order to be make herself look like the victim and be freed to campaign full time.
“I knew what it would look like publicly if I came out and fired her. But she left me no choice here.”
What proves this point, Sampson says, is that Col vin revealed she had an appointment with her attorney in the March 3 email, then showed up with that attorney to her termination meeting, even though she wouldn’t have known what the meeting was about.
“That tells me she was expecting it. That tells me she intended on getting fired.”
The only thing Samp son regrets is not firing her sooner, when she re fused to come to work. “I would have respected her more if she quit.”
Sampson said that Col vin had been a great em ployee before she decided to run against her.
“She was very trusted.
She was my closest con fidant when it came to work,” Sampson said. “I mean, we deal with a lot of stressful things and you have a very tight rela tionship with that person that is in the position, and there is absolute trust.”
Feud with local funeral home
Some of Colvin’s big gest campaign contri butions were associated with Danekas Funeral Chapel & Crematory, the only funeral home in Ste vens County. Collectively, Danekas, Inc. and family donated $2,500.
Another item from Colvin’s disciplinary letter: repeatedly using Danekas’ transportation services when she was ordered not to.
The coroner’s office stopped using Danekas in 2018 when Sampson said she discovered numer ous instances of “fraud ulent billing” adding up to $14,860 dating back to 2014.
A police report based on Sampson’s allegations was made in 2020, but the investigator did not find evidence of criminal con duct.
“After meeting with Danekas, it is apparent there is a misunderstand ing about the legality of billing practices between the Coroner’s office and Danekas,” the report concluded. County Pros ecutor Tim Rasmussen declined to prosecute, calling it a civil matter.
Danekas’ lawyer, Tom Webster, sent the coun ty commissioners a libel claim last week, alleg ing damages totaling just over $1 million, and de manding Sampson resign and issue an apology.
The letter complains Sampson brought up the
fraud claims again in Colvin’s termination let ter, which was then pub lished in local newspa pers, thereby slandering the funeral home. It also complains of Sampson “maliciously spreading vile, filthy, and loath some untruths” about the Danekas family. It states that Colvin will testify to this libel and slander.
On Feb. 25, Colvin ap proved Danekas to move a body from a scene to the Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy.
With the Spo kane-based transport company the coroner’s office contracts with, re sponse times can take up to six hours to reach re mote parts of the coun ty, Colvin said. This case was time-sensitive and the family already had chosen to use Danekas’ funeral services, she said.
The Danekas campaign contributions were made two days later. If elected, Colvin said she will use Danekas’ transportation services again.
Sampson said she used an informal bid process to find the cheapest agen cy with the best services, Inland Mortuary Services in Spokane.
“I would not abuse my position and give business to companies that pad my campaign,” Sampson said. “That is so unethical.”
Stevens County Sher iff Brad Manke, who has endorsed Colvin, said Sampson is often difficult to get a hold of and that poor response times im pact the operations of his office.
“If we have a death in the north end of county, my deputies are wait ing hours and hours on scene,” he said, “costing deputies all that extra
time when they could be out doing something else besides waiting with grieving families.”
Sampson had a strained relationship with the pre vious sheriff, Kendle Al len, too. A rift between their offices led Allen to ban his deputies from talking directly to the coroner.
A previous job
Sampson has a disci plinary record of her own from her employment as a death investigator for Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office from 1999 to 2010.
Known at the time as Lorrie Hegewald, Samp son’s record included ver bal reprimands involving conflict with a coworker, attendance issues, poor work performance and making unauthorized medical speculations to family members of de ceased.
In fall 2009, Sampson was given 80 hours of un paid suspension and was required to attend profes sionalism training.
“The tone and sub stance of your response demonstrates no remorse for your actions and con tinues your pattern of at tempting to intimidate, control and blame oth ers,” medical examiners Dr. Sally Aiken and Dr. John Howard wrote in her reprimand.
She resigned in July 2010 after she was asked to respond to more con cerns.
Sampson declined to comment on her record in Spokane because she said she signed a confidential ity agreement.
James Hanlon can be reached at (509) 459-5467 or by email at jamesh@ spokesman.com.
“
From the day that she knew I was running, she started making my work atmosphere hostile.”
Ramona Colvin
“
I knew what it would look like publicly if I came out and fired her. but she left me no choice here.”
Lorrie Sampson
Voters face wide array of views in race for tenured spot
By Orion Donovan-Smith THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEWWASHINGTON – Since Mike Crapo was first elected to repre sent Idaho in the U.S. Senate in 1998, he has never faced a seri ous challenge. While he appears likely to coast to a fifth term in office in the Nov. 8 election, four challengers hope an unusual set of circumstances give them an opening for an upset.
Crapo’s opponents are Dem ocrat David Roth of Idaho Falls, independent Scott Cleveland of Garden City, Constitution Party candidate Ray Writz of Coeur d’Alene and a Libertarian from Pocatello who goes by the name Idaho Law.
During his 24 years in the Senate, Crapo has made his way to some of the most influential committees in the upper cham ber, where he has carved out a role as a staunch conservative who is nevertheless willing to work with Democrats to craft legislation.
“I believe that I have been very consistent and very aggressive in pursuing the protection of our Constitution and the protec tion of our free markets and the protection of our personal free doms,” Crapo said, while adding that he has also worked to devel op “the reputation and the per sonal respect from my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to know that I am someone who can be trusted, whose word is good, and who they can work with.”
To Cleveland, a financial ad viser who is running for office for the first time, Crapo’s will ingness to vote last year for a bi partisan bill to spend about $550 billion to modernize U.S. infra structure was a bridge too far.
“That was kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Cleveland said of Crapo’s vote on the infrastructure bill, recalling the turning point that came in his garden on a Saturday in No vember 2021.
“I had a talk with my toma toes,” he said. “I had a talk with my lord and savior, Jesus Christ. And then after dinner and a mov ie, I had a talk with the boss – my wife, Kathy, of 33 years – and I said, ‘You know what, the coun try is getting worse. You can see it and feel it day by day. And I want to run in this race.’ ”
Crapo has a massive fundrais ing advantage over his oppo nents, with $5.6 million on hand at the end of June, but Cleveland said he sees a low-budget path to victory by pulling roughly a third of votes while Roth takes anoth er third, edging Crapo narrowly.
Roth has a similar vision of a potential upset win, but he said his campaign began with more modest goals.
“There are so many groups out there that get left behind, that get left out of the conversation, because every politician in this state seems to be chasing the same sort of moderate Republi can voter,” Roth said. “So when
I got into this race, my original thought was I just want to be a voice for all of these disaffected people.
Never in a million years did I think it would actually have the effect that it’s had.”
Roth, who directs a nonprofit in his hometown of Idaho Falls, said he has been surprised by the support he has received – not only from traditionally Demo cratic voters, but also from con servative women who have told him they plan to vote for him be cause of the Supreme Court’s de cision in Dobbs v. Jackson Wom en’s Health Organization in June that overturned the federal right to abortion.
“Prior to the Dobbs decision, I didn’t really think that I had a path to victory,” Roth said.
In addition to the abortion is sue, Roth said Idaho voters have been upset by Crapo’s “no” votes on bills that would have subsi dized the U.S. semiconductor industry, provided health care to veterans exposed to toxic burn pits in overseas wars and capped the price seniors pay for insulin. Crapo also has opted out of a new congressional earmark process that could have brought federal funds to Idaho.
“I think any one or two of those things would probably not be enough to give us the edge that we need,” Roth said, “but all of those together just might cre ate the perfect storm where we can make this happen.”
Ray Writz has run for office several times, always winning a small percentage of votes, and said his goal in running again is “mainly to send a message to voters that maybe you might want to consider a third party as a counterbalance.” In an in terview, he expressed frustra tion that Crapo did not publicly oppose pandemic measures im posed by Idaho Gov. Brad Little, a Republican.
Attempts to reach Idaho Law were unsuccessful.
Crapo said a race with candi dates across the political spec trum is nothing new for Idaho
By Betsy Z. Russell IDAHO PRESSBOISE – The duties of the Ida ho Attorney General are clearly laid out in state law, in a list of 18 specific tasks ranging from repre senting all state agencies, officers and institutions in court, to pro viding legal advice to the Legis lature, to enforcing specific laws, from internet crimes against chil dren to prosecuting corrupt coun ty officials.
Yet the two candidates vying for the position on the November bal lot have sharply differing views of how they’d address the role.
Republican Raul Labrador, an outspoken former four-term congressman who defeated fiveterm incumbent Attorney Gener al Lawrence Wasden in the May GOP primary, wants to be “the people’s lawyer, rather than a tool for the bureaucracy and special interests.” He sees himself “up holding and enforcing Idaho val ues and preserving a wide berth of freedom in which the people can live their lives without govern ment interference.”
In a debate against Wasden in April, Labrador said, “This job is not just a legal job, it’s a political job. I would just be a lot more ag gressive.”
Democrat Tom Arkoosh, a long time independent who’s built his career practicing law in Idaho for the past 44 years, says he’s “not a politician,” and says, “I would like to continue the good work that’s
CANDIDATES FOR U.S. SENATE
Mike Crapo, Republican
Age: 71 Education: Graduated from Idaho Falls High School in 1969, earned a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University in 1973 and a doctorate from Harvard Law School in 1977.
Political experience: Has served four terms in the Senate, starting in 1999. Previously represented Idaho in the House of Representatives from 1993 to 1999, and before that was a member of the Idaho State Senate from 1984 to 1992.
Work experience: Practiced law in Idaho Falls before entering politics.
Family: Married to Susan Crapo. Has five adult children.
Campaign contributions: Reported raising $6.4 million with $5.6 million cash on hand as of June 30.
Age: 41 Education: Graduated from Hillcrest High School in Ammon in 1991. Earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Phoenix and currently pursuing a master’s degree in educational leadership from Concordia University Wisconsin.
Political experience: Ran unsuccessfully for state legislature in 2020.
Work experience: Executive director of the Bonneville Youth Development Council, a nonprofit in Idaho Falls focused on substance abuse. Previously worked as a realtor and school administrator. Family: Single. Has two adopted sons, ages 11 and 14.
Campaign contributions: Reported raising $26,146 with $5,921 cash on hand as of June 30.
Education: Graduated from Eldorado High School in Albuquerque in 1979. Did not attend college.
Political experience: None.
Work experience: Has worked for 30 years as a financial adviser. Family: Married to Kathy Cleveland. No children. Campaign contributions: Reported raising $51,826 with $15,838 cash on hand as of June 30.
Age: 71
Education: Graduated from Grant High School in Fox Lake, Illinois, in 1969. Studied accounting at the nowdefunct Kinman Business University in Spokane in 1982-83.
Political experience: Ran unsuccessfully for Idaho state Senate in 2010, state House of Representatives in 2012, again for state Senate in 2014 and for U.S. Senate in 2016 and 2020. Work experience: Semi-retired owner of a janitorial business.
Family: Married to Rosana Writz. Has two adult children and five grandchildren. Campaign contributions: Reported raising $550 with $20 cash on hand as of June 30.
Idaho Law, Libertarian
Efforts to reach Mr. Law were unsuccessful. Campaign contributions: No reported fundraising.
and he has approached this race the same way he has in past years. While he looks at the Ida ho electorate as three general categories – Democratic-aligned, Republican-aligned and inde
pendent – he said a broad ma jority of Idahoans “hold to very consistent principles about basic conservatism.”
November’s election will demonstrate whether Idahoans
are still satisfied with that ap proach. Election Day is Nov. 8. Orion Donovan-Smith can be reached at (202) 853-2524 or at orionds@spokesman.com.
gone before in a series of very good attorneys general,” including Wasden. “There’s a vast difference between me and Raul Labrador,” he said. “I am in fact a practicing lawyer.”
“I’m not political,” Arkoosh said. But he said when the Dem ocratic Party asked him to run, he said yes because “I think Idaho ought to have a two-party system. There ought to be a choice.”
Labrador lists his top three is sues as standing up for individual liberty, including to “protect our Idaho conservative values”; de fending Idaho’s natural resourc es, “including water and grazing rights, from federal overreach”; and to “reorient the Office of At torney General so it works on be half of the people of Idaho, not the government bureaucracy.”
Arkoosh lists his top three is sues as to “insist the office engage in a nonpartisan objective appli cation of the rule of law about things that matter,” rather than “pursue cultural wars as a partner of conservative legislators”; re productive health care; and water, including helping the state reach a long-term plan to reduce Idaho’s “overdrawn water budget.”
Labrador says he wants to “re invigorate the Office of Attorney General” with a “new standard of professionalism and service to the state,” including adding an office of solicitor general.
Arkoosh says he’d work with other state officials, rather than clash with the governor – Labra
dor ran against Gov. Brad Little in the 2018 GOP primary. “We’d have gridlock in our executive branch,” with Labrador, Arkoosh said. “It’s going to be difficult for the gover nor to function without an attor ney general that’s cooperative.”
Both cite their past experience as uniquely qualifying them for the post. Here’s a look at their backgrounds:
Labrador, 54, a native of Puer to Rico who was raised by a single mom, holds a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University and a law degree from the Uni versity of Washington School of Law. He practiced immigration, criminal and administrative law in Idaho and served two terms in the state House of Representatives before first being elected to Con gress in 2010.
In Congress, he co-founded the House Freedom Caucus and worked on legislation on immi gration and criminal sentencing reform. Since his run for governor in 2018, he’s worked with Skaug Law in Nampa, a personal injury law firm, as an attorney and lob byist; he served a year as Idaho Republican Party chairman, from June 2019 to June 2020.
His lobbying clients this year, according to state records, have included the Coeur d’Alene tribe, EdChoice Inc. of Indianapolis, Independent Doctors of Idaho, the National Coalition for Public School Options and Treasure Val ley Hospital.
Labrador and his wife, Rebecca,
live in Eagle; they have five chil dren and two grandchildren.
Arkoosh, 70, is a self-de scribed “farm kid from Gooding” who attended public schools and was admitted to Harvard, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in government and economics. He holds a law degree from the Uni versity of Idaho. His legal practice has covered a wide variety of dis ciplines, including civil, commer cial, criminal, natural and water resources, and administrative law. He played a key role in the Snake River Basin Adjudication and Eastern Snake River Plan wa ter litigation; and has been both a prosecutor, serving a term as the Gem County prosecutor, and a criminal defense attorney.
He also has practiced as a lob byist, representing the Surface Water Coalition, the Idaho Crim inal Defense Lawyers Association, and various business interests; he practiced in a law partnership with the late Bill Roden, a prom inent Idaho attorney and lobbyist, for 10 years.
Arkoosh, whose law firm, Ar koosh Law Offices, has six law yers, said he’s argued eight times in front of the U.S. Court of Ap peals for the 9th Circuit; served as counsel in 107 cases in U.S. District Court in Idaho; argued nine times in front of the Idaho Supreme Court; practiced administrative law before 29 state agencies; prac ticed in bankruptcy court numer ous times; and has litigated “liter ally hundreds” of state trials.
He and his wife, Linda, live in Garden City and have three grown children.
Both Labrador and Arkoosh have raised substantial funds for their campaigns and list high-pro file endorsements. Labrador’s an nounced endorsements include former GOP Idaho Attorney Gen eral and Lt. Gov. David Leroy; Arkoosh’s include three former Idaho attorneys general, includ ing two Republicans and one Democrat; they are Republicans Jim Jones and Wayne Kidwell and Democrat Tony Park.
In addition, Labrador lists en dorsements by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah; and former Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who served in Congress with Labrador as a GOP represen tative from Kansas.
Arkoosh has announced en dorsements from former longtime GOP Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa; former GOP state Treasur er Lydia Justice Edwards; former state Sen. Judi Danielson, R-Coun cil; and former state Sen. Cherie Buckner-Webb, D-Boise, all of whom, along with Jones and Park, are co-chairing his campaign.
The attorney general serves a four-year term, and the job in cludes overseeing what’s consid ered the largest law firm in the state of Idaho, with about 120 law yers. Per the Idaho Constitution, the attorney general also serves as a voting member on the state Land Board and the state Board of Examiners.
BOISE – Idaho will have a new state superintendent of schools next year, either Republican Deb bie Critchfield or Democrat Terry Gilbert.
The two come from differing backgrounds and have varying priorities, but both want to make Idaho’s education system a na tional leader and point of pride.
“We’re capable of being a lead er nationally in programs and opportunities that we offer stu dents,” said Critchfield, the for mer president of the State Board of Education.
“We don’t have to be first,” said Gilbert, a former teacher and for mer president of the Idaho Edu cation Association. “But we can create a perception that Idaho has reformed its system and has be come the pride of our nation.”
Idaho’s elected state super intendent of public instruction oversees and provides assistance to the state’s school districts on finances, curriculum and instruc tion, pupil transportation and in terpretation of school laws and regulations. The superintendent also serves as a voting member of the State Board of Education and the state Land Board, chairs the board of Idaho Educational Ser vices for the Deaf and Blind and heads the state Department of Education.
As of Jan. 1, the superinten dent’s salary will be $128,690 a year, identical to the salaries for the Idaho secretary of state, state treasurer and state controller.
Debbie Critchfield Critchfield, 52, holds a bach elor’s degree in political science from Brigham Young University. She was appointed to the State Board of Education in 2015 and served as its president from 2019 to 2021. She’s also a former elect ed school board member in the Cassia County School District, where she served for 10 years, and is a former local elected library trustee.
She worked for nine years as the communications director for the Cassia school district, a po sition she left over the summer; worked for six years as a substi tute teacher in grades 7-12; taught GED classes for the College of Southern Idaho for one year; and was twice elected to GOP precinct committee posts. She also man aged the Oakley Swimming Pool for 10 years and started the Oak ley swim team, serving as a coach and swimming instructor.
Critchfield says she’s running for superintendent because her experience on the State Board of Education, along with serving on numerous state education task forces, “gave me an opportunity to see how policies did or didn’t work,” and she saw “some missed opportunities.“
“We’re doing a lot of things well in Idaho – let’s keep doing that,” she said. But she also sees big possibilities for change, includ ing providing “a more relevant educational experience for our high school students,” while still stressing early reading skills and math.
Terry Gilbert Gilbert, 77, holds both a bache lor’s in English and a master’s in curriculum development from Northwest Nazarene University. After working his way through college, he worked for nine years as a classroom teacher in Marsing, in Aberdeen, Washington, and in Nampa, Idaho, teaching at the ju nior high and high school levels.
He was president of the Nampa Education Association for three years and served as president of the IEA, the state’s teachers union, from 1976-77. Gilbert also ran unsuccessfully for the Legis lature from Nampa in 1977.
He then became a regional di rector for the North Dakota Ed ucation Association for three and a half years, before returning to Idaho to work as a regional direc tor for the IEA from 1983 to his retirement in 2007. He served as district governor for all of south ern Idaho for the Rotary Club in 2010-11. After his retirement, he became a substitute teacher in the Boise School District.
Gilbert said he’s running be cause “we live in a one-party state, and that is not healthy in a democ racy. … Had I not run, there would not have been a voice to counter the one-voice state.”
“My career has been to work side by side with teachers, most ly in Idaho,” Gilbert said. “So I’ve counseled them, advised them, worked with them, cried with them. Teachers are my profes sional family.”
On the issues
Critchfield lists her top three issues as skill development; sup porting the work of Idaho’s school districts and teachers; and fund ing, including “how and where we fund.”
Critchfield Gilbert
The two candidates for Idaho state superintendent of public instruction, Republican Debbie Critchfield and Democrat Terry Gilbert, will face off in a debate that will be broadcast live statewide on Idaho Public Television on Oct. 24 as part of the “Idaho Debates.” The debate will air at 7 p.m.
“I want to be thoughtful and strategic about how we’re using taxpayer money for the outcomes we want,” she said.
Gilbert wants to keep public money in public schools.
“I’m very opposed to the ‘voucher-vulture’ schemes to siphon money from our public schools, the cornerstone of our democracy, into for-profit, private schools,” he said.
Secondly, he said he wants to “ensure adequate funding for public schools. And to increase funding for vocational education. I want our youngsters to have more choices. We need to im prove our graduation rate in this state, and one way you do that is to give our young people more vocational opportunities that will keep them in high schools.”
Vocational and career-techni cal education also are a top pri ority for Critchfield, for whom they’re a key part of re-imagin ing the high school experience for Idaho students, including the requirements to graduate from high school. “We haven’t taken a comprehensive look at those graduation requirements in a very long time,” she said. “Frankly, I initiated that work as president of the State Board of Education, and then we had COVID … and that all had to pause, and rightly so.”
Critchfield said the state sets the “foundational” graduation requirements, and then local dis tricts add their local priorities as a layer on top of those. “The area that I’ve really focused in on and strongly believe in is the career-technical education/voca tional work,” she said. “I consis tently hear not only from districts but from students and parents there’s no room in schedules. So these programs become elec tives.”
Students have to decide, for example, whether to take a CTE class or learn Spanish, she said.
“The historical and traditional pathway that we have for gradua tion is to go through this one door, which leads to college,” Critch field said. “I’m not against college. … We’re very good at that.” But, she said, “For everyone else … we’re not matching the interests and goals of our students because we have a very rigid ‘this is how you’re going to go through high school’ state part” to the require ments. “And then districts try to come in and add their own inter ests and goals,” and pretty soon the 80 credits required to gradu ate from high school are taken up.
She cites an example from the Cassia district, which has a Ca reer-Technical Center where a motivated student can take a twoyear health occupations course and graduate from high school with an EMT or other certifica tions. But that still doesn’t satisfy Idaho’s graduation requirement for 10th grade health, she said.
“How do we incentivize kids to see that high school is relevant for them?” she asks. “I believe one of the reasons that our high school graduation rate has declined over the last eight years has a lot to do with the fact that many students get to school and think, ‘There’s nothing for me here unless I’m going to go to college.’”
She also points to a welding class she visited at Twin Falls High School that can accommo date 80 students, but turns away an additional 100 a year. “The interest is there,” she said. “How do we provide resources and sup port for districts to make that an important part of what’s happen ing?”
Critchfield’s answer is for the state to be “less prescriptive” to local districts on how require ments are met and how funds are used, allowing them to match lo cal priorities and to recognize dif ferent ways for students to meet requirements that are meaningful for them, such as apprenticeships. She’d also pair accountability measures with those moves, to ensure results are tracked.
Gilbert says he wants to “estab lish a working relationship with every Idaho public school district by ensuring that the state depart ment provides relevant and time ly service. The state department should be a service entity to our public schools.”
The election is Nov. 8.
What are your thoughts on Washington’s current abortion regulations (up to 24 weeks gestation)?
Do you support Washington’s police reform laws passed in the last two years?
Do you think the governor’s emergency powers should be reformed?
Do you believe climate change is a key factor in the devastating wildfires across the west in recent years?
Do you support Washington’s new capand-trade program and low carbon fuel standard, both set to go into effect next year?
Do you support a capital gains tax?
Do you think there should be a ban on large capacity magazines for guns?
Do you support efforts to divide Washington so that Eastern Washington would become a new state?
Continued from 8
law by 2023 or all prosecutions for simple drug possession would be eliminated in Washington.
Christian said law enforce ment officers need the tools, such as a possession law, to help
Rob Chase Leonard ChristianOpposes Washington’s law and supports restricting abortion.
Says life begins at conception.
Opposes exceptions that allow for abortions for women who are raped.
Opposes Washington’s law and supports restricting abortion. Described himself as “100% prolife,” in “We Believe, We Vote” survey.
Opposes exceptions that allow for abortions for women who are raped, noting that he was conceived when his mother was raped.
No. No.
Yes.
No.
Yes.
Believes humans are affecting the climate.
No. No.
No.
No.
No. No.
Yes. Has sponsored bills to do so. No. Says making attempts to divide Washington is a waste of time and that doing so would drain resources from Spokane.
people who are dealing with sub stance abuse.
“Those are the tools that offi cers need to be able to get some body started in the process of getting clean and improving the lives of the citizens in our soci ety,” he said.
Chase said he wants to make “hard drugs illegal,” but said he
was OK with keeping marijuana legal.
Chase voted against the law passed by the Legislature last year to address the Supreme Court decision.
Laurel Demkovich can be reached at (509) 416-6260 or at laureld@ spokesman.com.
Do you support Washington’s current abortion regulations (up to 24 weeks gestation)?
Do you support Washington’s police reform laws passed in the last two years?
Do you think the governor’s emergency powers should be reformed?
Do you believe climate change is a key factor in the devastating wildfires across the West in recent years?
Do you support Washington’s new capand-trade program and low carbon fuel standard, both set to go into effect next year?
Do you support a capital gains tax?
Do you support the plan to ban the sale of some new vehicles with internal combustion engines by 2015?
Do you support the state Building Codes Council decision to mandate heat pump installation in all new commercial construction and multifamily homes?
Continued from 8
In an attempt to address the ruling, lawmakers passed a bill during the 2021 session that made possession a simple mis demeanor, punishable by up to 90 days in jail, a $1,000 fine or both. For the first two offenses, those possessing drugs would be diverted to treatment instead of jail.
But the law also says that the Legislature must come up with a long-term plan to address the state’s possession law by 2023 or all prosecutions for simple drug possession would be elimi nated in Washington.
The Legislature is likely to take up the issue again this up coming session.
Graham said she already has been a part of conversations surrounding the next steps but that there is a lot that needs to be done on the issue during a very limited session.
“There’s so many great as pects of that, but there’s great things that I believe I have the ability to do,” she said.
Graham said she does not support fully decriminalizing possession because she has heard from people who suf fer from substance abuse that going to jail has helped them.
Jenny Graham Michaela KelsoSaid she supported the will of the people, who voted on Washington’s abortion law in 1970. Would not say if she would support legislation to limit abortion, only that if voters came back to the Legislature and wanted it, she would support it.
No.
Absolutely.
Said climate plays a role, but that not managing the state’s forests is a larger contributor.
Yes. Would not support legislation to limit abortion access.
Yes.
Maybe. Said she would support limiting to the point that a state of emergency is revisited every once in a while.
Yes.
No. Undecided, but in general does not like cap-and-trade programs as they are “rife for abuse” from companies.
No.
No.
No.
She said she would support legislation that would increase penalties for people who man ufacture and distribute drugs.
She also said she wants to see more funding for mental health and substance abuse services to support people who need treat ment.
Kelso said she is not in favor of decriminalizing all drugs but is definitely in favor of having alternatives to incarceration.
She said she supports penalties for people dealing drugs, unless they are being forced to.
She said she wants to defer to mental health experts or sub stance abuse experts for their ideas for treatment programs.
Other issues on the minds of the candidates include housing and education.
Kelso called education in the United States “a mess.” She said the quality of a child’s education depends more on their ZIP code than their actual ability.
“It’s not equitable or even equal across the state or across the nation,” she said.
If elected, Kelso said she will work to ensure that schools are well-funded and that educators are getting proper wages.
On education, Graham wrote on her Facebook page that she believes parents should have a choice in where they send their children to school. She
Yes.
In favor of banning internal combustion cars but that it is “an ambitious goal.”
Yes, but only if there is also help for low-income individuals who want to own a home.
co-sponsored a bill in the Leg islature last year that would have set up a family empower ment scholarship program to give families more schooling choices. It would have allowed parents to use the scholarship for home schooling or private institutions. The bill did not get a hearing.
On housing, Kelso said she wants to see more construction of multifamily homes, more medium density and mixed-use areas and less urban sprawl. On her campaign website, she said if necessary, municipalities should be able to implement rent con trols to ensure residents aren’t priced out of their homes.
Graham said the state is going in “this crazy merry-go-round” where they are wanting to in crease affordable housing but making it more difficult to get permits and adding in regula tions and fees when buying or building a house. Specifically, she criticized the state Building Code Council’s decision to man date heat pumps in new con struction and the Legislature’s passing of new climate bills, such as the cap-and-trade pro gram, that she said would add costs to homeowners.
Laurel Demkovich can be reached at (509) 416-6260 or at laureld@spokesman.com.
Dave Aldrich
Jane Aldrich
Mark Anthony
Jana
Jessica Bellus
Rick Bye
Paul Carlisle
Tammy Carlisle
Andrea Clark
Chris Clark
Cornwall
Dach
Lyle Dach
Shelley Dach
Dach
Lori Dedrick
Shannon Eaglin
Jen Fillis
Lloyd Fillis
Faye Finke
Jim Finke
Allison Figart Craig Figart
Yvonne Fredrick
Dave Hatten
Robin Hatten
Kevin Helt
Gina Howerton
Wayne Howerton
Corinne Hunt David Hunt Jim Jensen
Josh Jensen
Emily Jensen
Renee Jensen
Chuck Kienholz
Sandy Kienholz
Tim Kinley
Ericka Lalka
Allison Larson
Alica Lasko
Barb Leshae
Mike Mahn
Teresa Mahn
Dr. Kent Mankins
April Marquis Ron Meier
Tami Meier
Chris McIntosh Paul McQueen
Staci McQueen
Nora Monroe
Leticia Miller
Steve Miller Tanya Noble Rachel Noble isaiah Noble
Elaine Olp Chad Orebaugh Pam Orebaugh
Lauri Roskamp
Aaron Smith Alexis Smith Nikole Schafer Ron Schafer Brian Schelley Sarah Schelley
Aaron Snider
Lynn Thibault Mike Thibault
Dave Thomas
Libby Thomas
Will Trovich
Bev Turner
Jerry Turner
Leon Vincent Kent Vincent Chris Watson
Brittany Webster
Jason Webster Brenda Wesselius
Tom Wesselius
Danica Wick Brenda Willard
Mike Willard
Bill Williams
Judi Williams
Joy Yake
