In an unsurprising move, former County Commissioner Bonnie Mager endorsed Democrat Mary Lou Johnson on Tuesday in her bid to unseat GOP incumbent Al French in the November election.

Mager, who finished third in the August primary as an independent, served as a Democrat on the commission from 2006 to 2010. She was unseated by French, a former Spokane City Council member, in the 2010 general election.

Johnson's campaign announced the endorsement in an email Tuesday morning. The campaign said Mager had encouraged her supporters to back Johnson in the November general election.

The incumbent defeated his Democratic challenger by just 222 votes in the primary, but Mager carried an additional 8,000 ballots and the general election is open to voters countywide while the primary included only ballots cast in the county's third district. In the primary, fewer than 30,000 votes were cast; that number will likely quintuple in the general election.

To read the rest of this item, go inside the blog.

Mager's endorsement follows a volley of barbs leveled by Johnson and French at a monthly meeting of the Spokane Valley Business Association last week. French, who has served in elected office for more than a decade, touted what he called a proven record of bringing jobs to the community.

"I don't talk about theories, and unproven hypotheses, about what we could and should do," French said. "I'm actually out there, bringing jobs to this community."

Johnson referred to a recent profile of French published in the Inlander that labeled the incumbent a "bulldozer" for what supporters and critics alike called a no-nonsense approach to politics. Johnson said that mentality reflected poorly on the office and caused rifts in the county.

"There have been a lot of headlines, and a perception in the community, that the incumbent, Mr. French, has been creating some problems, rather than solving some problems," Johnson said.

French called the Inlander article a "hit piece" and dismissed Johnson's criticisms of his governing style.

"I'm not a mediator," French said. "You know what a mediator is? A mediator is somebody that resolves conflict, which means that both sides compromise to a solution that neither one of you are happy with. I'm a facilitator. I'm a trained facilitator."

Johnson, who describes herself as a mediator based upon her professional background in the law, took exception to French's description of the job.

"Apparently being a mediator is a negative thing to my opponent," Johnson said. "He says he's been trained as a facilitator. I don't know where he was trained. In terms of mediation, what you do is give people a voice. That's what mediation is about."

Ballots will be mailed next month in Spokane County. The Spokesman-Review will begin rolling out election coverage, including an online voter's guide, in the coming weeks.

---

---