u 2012 Washington General Election

The Spokane Valley City Council spent more than two hours Tuesday interviewing the candidates vying to fill the vacant seat created by the resignation of Councilwoman Brenda Grassel, who moved outside the city limits. Questions from council members ranged from asking why the person wanted to serve on the council to what they thought about property rights, street preservation and tax increases. The candidates all spoke of a desire to serve or give back as a motivation for seeking an appointment to the council. Read more

OLYMPIA – Changing the way the state casts its Electoral College votes for president would be fairer to Eastern Washington voters, a Spokane Valley legislator said Tuesday. A Democratic leader, however, said the bill is a way Republicans could win the White House through gerrymandered districts without a majority of the popular vote. Read more

OLYMPIA — Changing the way the state casts its Electoral College votes for president would be fairer to Eastern Washington voters, a Spokane Valley legislator said Tuesday. It’s a way Republicans could win the White House through gerrymandered districts without a majority of the popular vote, said the Democratic chairman of the House committee considering the proposal. Rep. … Read more

OLYMPIA – A proposed law requiring parents to be notified of an abortion for any girl under 18 will get a hearing in a Senate committee this year, and possibly a full debate and floor vote. State Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, told a cheering crowd of anti-abortion activists Tuesday that a parental notification bill will get the first Senate hearing in years sometime during the next few weeks. Read more

State Rep. Matt Shea no longer faces a misdemeanor gun charge sparked when he pulled a gun during a road-rage dispute. Shea, R-Spokane Valley, was charged in 2011 for keeping a loaded gun in his pickup without a valid concealed weapons permit. Read more

Former Washington state legislature candidate Amy Biviano is one of nine people who have applied to fill a vacant position on the Spokane Valley City Council. Biviano lost to Rep. Matt Shea in the November election after a closely watched campaign. Read more

The Presidential Press Posse had just prowled into the Lair of Democrats in the Red Lion Hotel at the Park when a guy I barely know sidled up to me. “Heard there was quite a panic over where the GOP’s partying,” said the man, who identified himself as Rick Lloyd. Read more

The Spokane Valley City Council hosted a special meeting Friday to ask local state legislators to help secure funding to replace the Sullivan Road Bridge. The estimated cost to replace the bridge is $19.5 million. The city has $10 million in grant funding for the project. State funding was requested this year but wasn’t approved. Read more

Democrats appear likely to hold on to both chambers of the Washington Legislature. Republicans had pushed to recapture the state Senate, where the Democrats currently have five more seats than Republicans. Control of the House has not been as much in dispute because Democrats have a wider margin, with 14 more seats than the GOP, and the party appeared to easily maintain a wide majority there. Read more

Amy Biviano, a Democrat, talks about her stance on the requirement for two-thirds votes to approve tax increases. She is running for state House in the 4th Legislative District against incumbent Republican state Rep. Matt Shea, who declined to be interviewed. Read more

State Rep. Matt Shea, R-Spokane, mailed a new ad to voters late last week that sharply criticizes media coverage of him and misrepresents his and his opponent’s positions on key issues. The race between Shea and Democrat Amy Biviano has become one of the most watched in the region, in part because of Shea’s misdemeanor gun charge for possessing a gun in his car without a valid concealed weapons permit and Biviano’s appearance in the “Women of the Ivy League” edition of Playboy magazine when she was a student at Yale University 17 years ago. Read more

Amy Biviano, a Democrat, talks about her stance on abortion policy. She is running for state House in the 4th Legislative District against incumbent Republican state Rep. Matt Shea, who declined to be interviewed. Read more

Amy Biviano, a Democrat, gives her stance on a state law approved by voters that requires larger power companies to get 15 percent of their energy supplies from renewable sources, not including existing dam infrastructure, by 2020. She is running for state House in the 4th Legislative District against incumbent Republican state Rep. Matt Shea, who declined to be interviewed. Read more

Amy Biviano, a Democrat, talks about her stance on the North Spokane Corridor and the Sullivan Road bridge. She is running for state House in the 4th Legislative District against incumbent Republican state Rep. Matt Shea, who declined to be interviewed. Read more

In August, state Rep. Matt Shea appeared to be mending bridges in the local Republican Party. He attended a meeting of the Republicans of Spokane County and won the group's endorsement. The Republicans of Spokane County is an organization that formed a few years ago among some Republicans concerned that the official Spokane County Republican Party had been taken over by Libertarians and Constitutionalists not dedicated to party unity after the primaries. Shea, who was an effective leader in the Ron Paul for president campaign, has been outspoken in his criticism of “mainstream Republicans.” In the primary, he declined to offer a recommendation for incumbent Republican and nationally recognized GOP leader, U.S. … Read more

Candidates for Spokane County Commission will face off Wednesday evening in student-led debates hosted by the Central Valley High School’s Government Club. The club also has invited the candidates in the hotly-contest Spokane Valley race for state House between incumbent Republican Matt Shea and Democrat Amy Biviano. Biviano is scheduled to attend. … Read more

The tipster called me midday Friday with two eye-popping political developments, namely that 4th District state legislative candidate Amy Biviano appeared topless in a 1995 Playboy magazine spread. Five words immediately came to mind. Read more

Amy Biviano, the Democratic challenger in a high-profile battle for a legislative seat representing Spokane Valley, is defending a 1995 topless photo shoot with Playboy magazine as a confidence-building experience while she attended Yale University. In an interview Friday, following a conservative website’s disclosure that Biviano appeared in a “Women of the Ivy League” edition of the popular men’s magazine, Biviano said she doesn’t regret the photo shoot but wouldn’t do it again as a mother. Read more

Amy Biviano, a Democrat, talks about her position on education funding and taxes. She is running for state House in the 4th Legislative District against incumbent Republican state Rep. Matt Shea, who declined to be interviewed. Read more

Amy Biviano, the Democratic challenger in a high-profile battle for a legislative seat representing Spokane Valley, is defending a 1995 topless photo shoot with Playboy magazine as a confidence-building experience while attending Yale University. Read more