Campaign ‘95

With the ‘95 campaigns over, there are no Candidate Q and A’s to report, no forums or debates to list and no political dates looming on the calendar.

So before the ‘96 campaigns crank up, let’s take a breath and recognize the best and worst of a long election season.

The Picasso Citation, for the most artistic political accessory of the season, goes to County Commissioner-elect John Roskelley for his lapel buttons. Eschewing the traditional - but BORING! - red, white and blue color schemes and flags, mountaineer Roskelley opted instead for a half-tone rendering of himself scaling a cliff.

The War & Politics Award, for the strangest campaign bedfellows, goes to two directors of the We The Taxpayers anti-charter group, Bill First and Duane Alton. First was an aide to Tom Foley for many years; Alton ran against Foley three times.

The Pinocchio Award for the most mendacious statement of the year - always a tough choice - goes to Margaret Leonard. The former city councilwoman, in a brochure from the Grass Roots Citizen Committee, claimed that her research showed there was a secret city-county charter that voters would not see until after the election. The only thing she left out was that the secret charter was stolen by the Trilateral Commission and given to Elvis for safekeeping in his UFO.

The Blunted Guillotine Trophy, for the worst execution of the season, goes to the national CityVote campaign, which canceled two debates, failed to address the promised topics at the Spokane forum, got bumped off the ballot in a half-dozen cities, and constantly promised more than it could deliver on its novel presidential straw poll. A measure of the confusion over CityVote could be found in the vote totals: Of the 42,110 Spokane city voters who cast ballots, more than 7,000 either didn’t vote in the straw poll, or punched more than one name on the list that stretched over two ballot pages.

The Bobby Riggs Ribbon, for the least feminist comment by a candidate, goes to Democratic legislative hopeful Mary “Chey” Austin and her explanation to party members why she once ran for office as a Republican. Those two previous campaigns for local offices in Montana occurred when she didn’t know much about politics, Austin told the Warren G. Magnuson Democratic Club. She filed as a Republican back then because her husband was a Republican and she just went along. Since that time, however, she had divorced said husband, renounced the GOP and “chosen to be a Democrat.”

The Great Auk Notation, for the campaign phrase or practice we would most like to see become extinct, goes to any campaign group that starts its name “We the…” Both sides in the city-county charter fight had names that began that way. It probably caused voters to ask “Whaddya mean we, bucko?” to both groups.

The Jubilation T. Cornpone Memoriam, named for the Civil War general in “Li’l Abner” noted for his retreats, goes to off-and-on commission candidate Chris Anderson. After making it through the primary as an independent, he withdrew, endorsing Republican Martin Burnette and trying unsuccessfully to get his name off the general election ballot. A few days before the election, he posted a message to the computerized bulletin board in City Hall Link in which he called Roskelley a person who “lacks detail knowledge” on county issues. The day after the election, Anderson was sending e-mail congrats to Roskelley, saying “I’ll work with you in every way possible as a ‘colleague across the river.”’

Makes you all pretty anxious for 1996, huh? Ready or not, this column will be reborn as Campaign ‘96 in just a few months.

, DataTimes