Hasson Concedes To Mccaslin Roskelley Holds Big Lead Over Democratic Challenger

Voters who twice elected a raucous Steve Hasson rejected a more mature model Tuesday.

Hasson, a paisley politician in a town of basic black, appeared headed for a thrashing in the Republican primary for the Spokane County Commission seat he’s held for eight years.

In the second commission race, incumbent John Roskelley held a commanding lead over Cliff Cameron in the Democratic primary. Roskelley will face Republican Lila Howe in the Nov. 5 general election.

So wide were the numbers in Hasson’s race that he conceded defeat to conservative Valley activist Kate McCaslin with just 10 percent of the votes counted.

“That’s it. That’s a wrap,” he said at a somber gathering in the Valley.

Later figures showed McCaslin netting two votes for every one given to Hasson. Fellow Republican Don Manning was close behind Hasson.

McCaslin will face Democrat Ron Hormann in the general election, and will win unless Hormann does significantly better than he did Tuesday.

“What it comes down to is, the voters are ready for a change and our message (of cutting county spending) resonated,” said McCaslin, who had more than 100 volunteers and nearly $50,000 in campaign contributions.

Weary from a campaign that was interrupted when his 8-year-old son underwent heart surgery, Hasson said he may go into sales or teaching, or go back to his old trade of carpentry. He may again run for office, he said, noting that at 46, “I’ve got my whole life ahead of me.

“It’s been a great run,” he said of his two terms. “It was an honor to serve the public all these years.”

Hasson came on the public scene in the mid-1980s as county coordinator of the unpopular Valley sewer program, designed to protect water supplies.

At one typical meeting, a woman demanded to know what proof he had the aquifer existed. “You ever swim in it?” she asked, to applause.

Many objections to the project could have been settled with more communication from commissioners, he said during his 1988 campaign. He called his bosses “tottering old giants who want to preserve a cautious, conservative, backwards image.”

In that race, in which he won an upset over the incumbent, the late Keith Shepard, Hasson developed the campaign technique that became his trademark: waving from street corners. He endured obscene gestures, flying coffee cups and threats of arrest from Washington State Patrol troopers.

Hasson promised to consolidate county departments, fire some top administrators and build a new county office.

Eight years later, the building and planning departments are combined, and fill a $5.7 million building completed in 1993.

From the start, Hasson enjoyed strong support in the Valley. He stuck to a promise to move there if elected, then supported three failed incorporation votes and was the only elected official to oppose an unpopular plan to consolidate the city and county sewer systems.

“The Valley owes Steve Hasson,” reads a flier circulated last week.

Outside the Valley, most voters recognize Hasson more for a list of bizarre acts that will be legends long after he steps down in January.

Hasson testified that a drug-dealers’ hangout served the best corn bread in town and reprimanded a Boy Scout for stenciling environmental messages near storm drains.

After winning a close race in 1992, Hasson jumped out a ground-floor window rather than face reporters.

Said one former Spokane reporter while covering the courthouse: “Steve Hasson is the reason I get up in the morning.”

Last year, Hasson announced he had outgrown the Democratic Party and was becoming a Republican.

Since then, he’s taken up conservative causes like placing tougher restrictions on adult bookstores. And though he didn’t sell the Volkswagen bus he bought in the 1960s, a new sticker appeared on its rear bumper: “Make welfare as hard to get as building permits.”

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