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July 26, 2009 in City
Envision Spokane says ‘smear campaign’ already in works
The Spokane City Council has a hearing Monday night on putting the Community Bill of Rights on the November ballot. No one who fancies him- or herself an astute political observer would wager against the proposition making the ballot.
The bet that is almost as safe is that the campaign between now and Nov. 3 will be a full-out affair. The question is: Will both sides live by the “Chicago Way” maxim “If they bring a knife, you bring a gun”?
Last week, Envision Spokane, the prime mover of the charter change, cried foul in a letter to council members and Rich Hadley, the head of Greater Spokane Inc., over opposition tactics thus far. Instead of a full and frank discussion, opponents seemed ready to launch a “smear campaign,” wrote Kai Huschke, campaign director.
The tactics cited include filing a public records request with Spokane Public Schools for any e-mails sent by Brad Read, a district employee who is Envision Spokane president; filing a complaint with the state Public Disclosure Commission in July, which Huschke described as “an attempt to resuscitate a complaint” originally filed in March; and hiring Naomi Nims, who claims to be a journalist writing an exposé on Envision Spokane board members.
“We don’t believe that these actions are in keeping with the spirit of debate on the substantive merits of the Community Bill of Rights,” Huschke wrote.
There’s no doubt that the first two points are correct. Edie Streicher of the Spokane Home Builders Association said that group asked for Read’s e-mails. “Why not?” she said. “We have the right to see them” because Read is a public employee.
The school district is processing the request and asking for some clarification, spokeswoman Terren Roloff said. District policy allows “incidental and infrequent personal use,” which is how Read characterizes his e-mail use. It does not allow using a district account for commercial activities or political lobbying, unless the lobbying has the approval of the superintendent.
As previously reported, the Home Builders did file a complaint with the PDC that is not yet resolved. But Streicher counters – and Huschke agrees – that it’s really the first complaint. In March, they made an inquiry about whether the group was following campaign laws but didn’t file a formal complaint.
Streicher insists both tactics are standard in any serious campaign. Hadley, who is on vacation and hadn’t seen the letter until forwarded a copy to get comments for this column, agreed: “To call that a smear is a little overstated,” he said. “This is fairly normal.”
Voters are usually the best arbiter of normal. It would be hardball in the school board race but standard operating procedure in a congressional campaign.
Streicher and Hadley said they knew nothing of a person posing as a journalist to write an exposé or gather what sounds like opposition research. “That’s not ethical at all. That’s not a tactic we would use,” Streicher said. Nor does she know a person named Naomi Nims.
But that doesn’t mean Huschke is wrong about it. Someone identifying herself as Naomi Nims contacted people who have worked with Envision Spokane board members; she claimed to be working for unnamed opponents of the proposal and was trying to dig up dirt, said a source not connected with either side.
That tactic, if it surfaces, could blow up on anyone using it. Even with a tangential connection to the opposition campaign, the fallout could be pretty widespread and the whole campaign could spiral down in a local political version of Mutually Assured Destruction.
Not that political reporters would complain, of course. But it doesn’t hurt to remember the line after “you bring a gun” when Jimmy Malone describes “the Chicago Way” to Eliot Ness in “The Untouchables.”
Spin Control is a weekly political column that also appears as a Web log with daily posts, reader comments and videos at www.spokesman.com/ blogs/spincontrol. Can’t remember the next line to the Chicago Way? It’s on the blog.
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liarsinnews on July 26 at 8:22 a.m.
Sounds to me as if Hadley vacationed on board the ship of fools from Spokane city hall. The ship has no rudder because of Mayor Verner`s lack of leadership. Hadley of course always puts in his 2 cents worth. That is OK, but I think the citizens finally have his number.
johnclarke on July 26 at 8:57 a.m.
Can someone explain why we need this bill of rights ? Don’t we have elected officials to run our local government?
George_Sands on July 26 at 10:32 a.m.
Hadley…well somewhat of a joke. Someone get him some elevator shoes.. please?
Reid is an example of why our school’s fail. Could you imagine the spewing in that class room?
Envision Spokane is of the same cloth. They need to quit subscribing to the 420 magazine and lifestyle.
I’ll just repost Doug Clarks Column. Pretty much somes it up for me.
Doug Clark
Envision Spokane, a small group of smug naval-gazing social meddlers, has been working on establishing a charter-changing “bill of rights” for the Lilac City.
Their proposal includes 11 pipe dreams (er, I meant amendments) designed to grant rights such as the environment’s “right to exist and flourish.”
What a strange stroke of coincidence.
I have released Zip It, Spokane. This is my 11-point plan for improving the city and keeping it safe from condescending loons like Envision Spokane.
Isn’t it odd how great ideas sometimes burst on the scene at the exact same time?
I don’t want to get metaphysical. But it’s almost as if there is some all-seeing force or cosmic Twinkie at work.
And so …
1. Never trust glassy-eyed do-gooders who spout New Age gobbledygook about how they can make life a big blooming bed of petunias.
2. The local environment’s right to exist and flourish extends as far as the cord on my electric chain saw.
3. There’s nothing wrong with thinking of the environment. As long as you make sense. For instance: You can’t buy phosphate-enriched dishwasher soap in Spokane County. So I can take your orders and pick up boxes of Cascade detergent next time I go to Coeur d’Alene. This could save a lot of gas.
4. Trying to make Spokane a utopia is a flawed proposition. Have you forgotten about the curse laid on Spokane 20-some years ago by the now deceased Jimmy Marks and his late father, Grover? The Gypsy Curse should be part of the curriculum taught in all Spokane schools.
5. Envision Spokane wants to give neighborhoods the right to “determine their own futures.” What redundant drivel. We already have a perfectly fine system of numbskulls ruining Spokane. It’s called the City Council. Duh.
6. Envision Spokane also wants to give workers the right to a living wage. Oh, yeah? Well, tell it to my publisher. He thinks he has the right to take back 5 percent of my living wage.
7. Here’s the deal. I lose 5 percent of my living wage? You lose 5 percent of the living length of my column. How’s that for fair?
8. City Councilman Steve Corker says Envision Spokane’s guaranteed health care and housing ideas could “bankrupt the city of Spokane.” Mark this moment as the wisest thing Citizen Corker has uttered in his long and checkered political career.
9. Cuba Gooding Jr. is shooting his third Spokane movie. We should rename the Bing theater “The Cuba” to show our appreciation. Bing, after all, has been dead a long time.
And Cuba has made more films in Spokane than Crosby ever did.
10. National studies show that 1 out of every 200 children is a vegetarian. It’s time for our meat-and- potatoes town to take a lead in reversing this disturbing trend. I hereby declare the Domini turkey and salami with Swiss on French (mayo and sweet-hot mustard optional) as the official sandwich of downtown Spokane.
11. Oops! And that’s 95 percent of a column. What a shame. And here I had such a terrific ending.
Doug Clark is a columnist for The Spokesman-Review. He can be reached at (509) 459-5432 or by e-mail at dougc@spokesman.com.
wa7qzr on July 27 at 3:24 p.m.
I’ve read some of the tripe coming out of “Envision Spokane,” and it reads like a chapter from the new Red playbook: “The Coming Insurrection”, by “The Invisible Committee,” which is a group of neo-Communists and Progressives from France. They are not worth hearing, but we have to hear them, otherwise, they will win.
Spokane has it’s share of problems; anyone who has lived has for any length of time knows this is true; but turning it on it’s political ear with a bunch of inane European socialist and communist ideas isn’t the way to go. We need a well-balanced economy: one that produces as well as consumes, and I’m not talking about hamburgers, either.
Trying to “grow” out of our economic troubles hasn’t worked either. Let’s stop with the nonstop growth (remembering that cancer is also non-stop growth, after all), and work on creating an economic foundation that can survive on it’s own, without selling our future to some lunatic bureaucrat from Olympia, Washington D.C., or God forbid, Brussels.