Spokane7
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November 6, 2009 in City
Snyder clinches seat on council
Fire bond inches closer to passage
Mike Allen conceded his Spokane City Council seat Thursday to magazine publisher Jon Snyder.
Because Allen was appointed to his seat to fill a vacancy, Snyder will take office as soon as the vote is certified. That’s expected Nov. 24.
After Thursday’s count, Snyder led Allen with 53.5 percent of the vote.
Snyder won strong support in a large portion of the area north of 29th Avenue, but also won some precincts around 37th Avenue and Regal Street, near where the City Council approved a deal allowing big-box stores. During the campaign, Snyder sharply criticized Allen’s vote in support of the change.
Allen gave credit to Snyder’s campaign for the outcome, but added: “In retrospect, even though the position is nonpartisan, you need party backing.”
Snyder was endorsed by the Democratic Party. Allen ran as a fiscal conservative, but he has moderate stances on social issues and did not seek party backing from the GOP for his City Council bid.
Also in Spokane, the city’s fire bond inched closer to passage Thursday after the third round of ballots was counted.
The 10-year property tax would raise $33 million for equipment, trucks and stations. It needs 60 percent approval. After Thursday’s count, it is failing with 59.2 percent support. That’s up from 58.6 percent Tuesday.
“We remain optimistic,” Spokane Fire Chief Bobby Williams said Thursday.
About 15,000 ballots are left to count countywide. More results are expected this evening.
In the Spokane school board elections, slight leads held by the two incumbents grew Thursday. Rocky Treppiedi, who is seeking a third term, leads Laura Carder with 51.6 percent of the vote. Jeff Bierman, seeking his first full term after being appointed to the board, leads Heidi Olson with 51.3 percent.
Carder’s support was extremely strong in northeast Spokane, while Treppiedi carried most of the southern part of the city. Northwest Spokane was relatively split between the two candidates. The pattern is similar in Bierman’s race against Olson, with Bierman doing well in south Spokane and Olson doing well in northeast Spokane.
MAC faces angry crowd 
rshroll on November 06 at 5:35 p.m.
It seems that writers have referred to South Spokane’s Democrat Candidate’s success to a strong showing north of 29th with only pockets south of 29th preferring the Democrat. I have noticed this now and in the last president/governor race. I hope that is not a suggestion that the overall area north of 29th is less wealthy, educated, or savvy. The north part of the southside contains the some of the coolest of all Spokane residential areas. In addition to Brownes Addition and Cannon Addition there are the very nice large homes in the west 21st area. The area around Manito Park is tremendous. The mansions of the Cliff area. The mansions on and around Rockwood Blvd. The huge single family homes in the Hutton area and the large newer mansions (that look like castles) on Pinecrest Rd. And many other top notch Spokane neighborhoods. Democrats won nearly 90% of the precincts in the City of Spokane in the last president/governor race. The only consistent republican area was around Indian Trails and tiny areas of the far south side. I believe the Indian Trails thing may effect the entire Northwest Spokane voting profile. They didn’t even field a candidate in this election. Although officially bipartisan, the Mayor of Spokane is a Democrat. The council member victor’s from the south and the northeast areas in this election were the Democrat candidates. Remember in the 2008 election everyone felt sorry for whoever won because they were going to inherit the worst economy since the great depression? The same thing for Mary Verner. She received this horrible situation for Spokane. No level of government was spared. Mary has done a great job under these circumstances for this position. Does everyone remember our big time republican mayor Jim West? We are doing much better. I think it is time to realize the city has become Democrat leaning and it will probably increase. Don’t worry, Spokane Valley and the rest of the county more than make up for it being right leaning. Spokane is becoming urbanized. It is not surprising a large northwest city (not suburb) votes Democratic. Portland, Seattle, Eugene, Tacoma, etc.