Local business owner and office-building owner Steve Salvatori is running for Spokane City Council.

Salvatori has also become a noted radio talk show host, with a growing following for his weekly radio show on KSBN Radio.

Naturally, there needed to be a decision by KSBN regarding the overall fairness question; did Salvatori have an unfair platform to talk about himself through the show, and if so, how to deal with that?

So KSBN station management  made sure it offered his opponent, Karen Kearney, the chance to host her own show. Kearney, we were told, declined the offer.

UPDATE added: We learned that Kearney has dropped out, a piece of information not listed in this blog originally. The remaining other candidate, Joy Jones, was also invited by KSBN to have a show. Joy also declined the chance to have a weekly show.

So Salvatori continues his weekly show, a 30-minute question-answer recording with area business people. KSBN, we'll add, is making an effort to find a solid audience for its business news programs.

The lineup and archive of his interviews is at Salvatori's own Spokane Entrepreneurial Center page.

The guests to date include Spokesman-Review publisher Stacey Cowles, Signature Genomics co-founder Dr. Lisa Shaffer and Tom Fritz, CEO of INHS.

Salvatori ran last year for Spokane County Commissioner and didn't make it past the primary.

The race for a City Council seat representing Northwest Spokane already is down to two.

Karen Kearney, chairwoman of the Balboa South Indian Trail Neighborhood Council, late last week withdrew her candidacy for the seat currently held by Councilman Steve Corker, who is running for City Council president.

The remaining candidates are Steve Salvatori, owner of the Spokane Entrepreneurial Center; and Joy Jones, program manager of Mentoring Children of Promise, a youth program run by Goodwill Industries.

Kearney said she decided to withdraw because of “family health issues.”

“Due to increases in demands upon my time outside of the electoral process, I cannot devote the time required for a successful campaign,” she said.

Karen Kearney will return to ballot in August in hopes of landing a seat representing Northwest Spokane on City Council.

Kearney pledges to be more visible in the district than the current council members who serve Northwest Spokane, Nancy McLaughlin and Steve Corker.

“When I go into businesses and multiple businesses and they say they have never met their councilperson, and they don't even know who they are, I have issues with that,” Kearney said.

Karen Kearney, who is one of five challengers to incumbent City Councilwoman Nancy McLaughlin, has listed two new endorsements on her Web site.

One is from the Spokane Regional Labor Council. That’s no surprise. Kearney has garnered strong union support throughout her campaign.

The other, however, is from former City Councilman Dean Lynch, who was appointed to his seat and lost an extremely close battle to retain it in 2001 to Dennis Hession.

Lynch generally supports candidates aligned with the Democratic Party. He also was the first openly gay person to serve in an elected office in Spokane city government. Kearney, who has been active in the county GOP, opposes gay marriage and also opposes providing benefits to unmarried partners of employees.

No, not Lisa Brown yet for governor.

Locally, however, there’s already some interest in city council seats. A quick run through Public Disclosure Commission files shows that:

Tom Towey is running for a Spokane Valley city council seat. Towey’s a Spokane Valley planning commission member, longtime Rosauer’s manager and former write-in candidate for council against councilman Steve Taylor.

Spokane Valley Mayor Richard Munson (who appointed Towey to the commission) is also running for re-election. Munson’s a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and retired stockbroker.

Brenda Grassel, impressively, already has a website up for her run for Spokane Valley City Council. She and her husband own a manufacturing company, Precision Cutting Technologies, and have rental properties.

Steve Eugster, a longtime Spokane attorney, would-be long-haul trucker and law school classmate of Justice Richard Sanders, is running for Spokane City Council against Councilman Michael Allen, a 2007 appointee and former Eastern Washington University official who’s running for re-election.

Eugster was on the council at a more contentious time, departing 6 years ago, and he has uttered what is so far the best quote of the 2009 campaigns, referring to the now-much-less-exciting council: “This `Era of Good Feelings’ is putting us all to sleep.” (Eugster’s political resurrection prompted actual rejoicing from S-R columnist Doug Clark.) Still, judging by Allen’s former job with EWU, his fundraising should be formidable. He was director of the school’s corporate and foundation relations.

Spokane Valley City Councilman Gary Schimmels is running for re-election. He’s a longtime construction company owner who two years ago sold his business, Affordable Lock Express since 1998.

Spokane City Councilwoman Nancy McLaughlin’s running for re-election. She’s a co-owner of a kitchen and bathroom remodeling company.

Challenging McLaughlin is Karen Kearney, a women- and children’s advocate and the former campaign chairwoman for Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich.

Amber Waldref is running for Spokane City Council in District 1, for the seat currently held by Councilman Al French. She’s works for the Lands Council (a Spokane-based environmental non-profit group) is a Georgetown alumna, and counts among her Facebook friends state Sen. Chris Marr.