Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor Dave Stevens has announced that he’ll challenge his boss, Prosecutor Steve Tucker, in the August primary.

Both Tucker (right) and Stevens (left) are Republicans, and the battle is off to a tough start.

“Until I came here, I’ve never seen a total lack of leadership,” Stevens said in an interview today with Spokesman-Review reporter Jonathan Brunt. “There needs to be a determined leader, not an absent administrator.”

Tucker told me yesterday afternoon that he is running for reelection.

Brunt has more on the race at the Spin Control blog.

Stevens' campaign manager is Michael Cathcart, who was removed as a juror for a first-degree murder trial after Stevens reported a a comment Cathcart had made about a prosecutor's hair. (Story here.) Cathcart said today that Stevens was just doing his job.

---

---