Jim Camden

With Congress in the control of one party and the White House controlled by another, it's time to ask the obvious question: Are Democrats as funny as Republicans? Not quite, it would seem from the Capitol Steps show Sunday night at the INB Performing Arts Center. But they're getting there.

A Republican push in the closing days of the campaign doesn't seem strong enough for Spokane County Commissioner Phil Harris or State Rep. John Serben to overtake Democratic challengers. With the number of uncounted ballots dwindling, Harris and Serben can't win re-election without pulling large majorities in the remaining votes – larger than they've seen at any previous count.

Spokane County elections officials received more than 3,500 ballots that they couldn't count for the Nov. 7 election because of problems with signatures. In some cases, the signature didn't match the one on file with the voter's registration form. In others, there was no signature on the ballot envelope.

State Rep. John Serben closed the gap with Democratic challenger Don Barlow in ballots that were counted Tuesday, and County Commissioner Phil Harris remained close to Democratic challenger Bonnie Mager. Both Republican incumbents benefited from strong surges among ballots that have been counted since election night, and the two could overtake their challengers if those trends continue in the remaining ballots.

After months of partisan fighting and no-holds-barred campaigning, members of the U.S. House and Senate return to Washington, D.C., this week with no choice but to work together. They left several major items – including most of the spending bills for the current fiscal year and important tax issues – undone when they broke for the campaigns at the end of September. They may work late into 2006 to complete that work, then come back with a change in regimes a few days later in 2007.

Despite his arguments that citizens have the right to say "No" to their government, a local attorney was convicted of criminal trespassing for saying "No" to the war in Iraq in a National Guard recruiting office on North Division. A six-person jury in Spokane District Court deliberated for less than 20 minutes Thursday before convicting Jim Sheehan of first-degree criminal trespass during a protest of the war in March.

In whatever part of the great beyond where deceased politicians while away eternity, John Happy, Sam Guess and Jim West may be sitting around a table, shaking their heads and calling for a weather report from "the other place" down below. Hell may have frozen over. Spokane's 6th Legislative District – which those three Republican politicians represented in the state Senate for more than 50 years total – is sending a Democrat to Olympia.

Although ballots were sent to Washington homes more than two weeks ago, Tuesday is The Day. The last chance. The big enchilada. Election Day.

With only a few days before the election, some unfamiliar groups are stepping up efforts to persuade Spokane-area voters against casting ballots for particular candidates. One ad arriving in the mail this week praises Republicans and criticizes Democrats on several fronts, including a claim that the GOP wants to put sex predators in prison, but Democrats spend money on "sex change operations for incarcerated felons."

No matter how bad this year's campaign commercials seem – and they're admittedly pretty bad – they are apparently tame here compared to what's going on in other parts of the country. Anyone flipping through cable news shows between innings of the World Series couldn't help but see a television commercial in the U.S. Senate race being dissected. It features a series of phony "man on the street" interviews with people talking about allegations against Democratic candidate Harold Ford Jr. It closes with a woman, who's supposedly a Playboy bunny, making a telephone sign with her thumb and pinky and cooing "call me, Harold."

The ad: A 30-second commercial by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee accuses freshman GOP Rep. Cathy McMorris of trading Washington state for "the other Washington" and allowing that to influence her votes. The screen shows images of wheat fields being replaced by the Capitol dome, Social Security cards being shredded, and senior citizens. She "voted twice to raid the Social Security Trust Fund," an announcer says, "endangering retirement security for future generations. Votes to jeopardize Social Security aren't our values in this Washington."McMorris' reaction: The McMorris campaign calls the ad a "baseless scare tactic" that preys on seniors' fears about Social Security. The law regulates how the Trust Fund is spent or invested, spokeswoman Jill Strait said, and money that is used for other federal spending is replaced with Treasury bonds backed by the federal government. Democratic congresses and presidents used the same system, she said.DCCC response: Sarah Feinberg of the DCCC said that group stands by the ad, saying that it accurately portrays votes on the Congressional Budget Resolution in 2005 and 2006. "She's trying to make excuses for why she took the votes she took. Regular folks believe that the Social Security surplus is supposed to remain where it is." Television stations wouldn't run the ad if it weren't true, Feinberg added.Bottom line: McMorris' campaign is right: There is no "raid" on Social Security. The money that comes in each year in Social Security taxes is either paid in benefits or invested in government-backed securities. Brooks Jackson of factcheck.org, a national organization that reviews political ads, said similar commercials are running against Republicans in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Georgia, and against a Democrat in Oregon. "It's political rhetoric. It's not an accurate description of fiscal policy," Jackson said. Finally, there is something odd about the line "our values in this Washington," which comes from a campaign organization based in Washington, D.C.

The ad: "Seattle Crowd," a 30-second commercial by incumbent Cathy McMorris' campaign, criticizes Democrat Peter Goldmark on two points. It shows photos of him and Mike Lowry, and has a voice-over saying that while he was in the then-governor's Cabinet he "worked with Lowry to increase state taxes by over $1.1 billion. … He was the tax man even way back then." It switches to a different issue with text and a voice that says "Goldmark says George Bush and the Republicans caused 9/11. Think about that: Peter Goldmark believes 9/11 was America's fault." To back up the claim on the 2001 terrorist attacks, it cites the Oct. 6 edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. A column that day, which is not shown in the ad, quotes Goldmark as saying "9/11 was directly attributable to George Bush and the Republican administration."Goldmark campaign reaction: A spokesman said that as state agriculture director, Goldmark had nothing to do with taxes, and inherited a budget. Lowry, in a recent interview, said he recalls no tax discussions with Goldmark. On Sept. 11, the campaign released a statement from columnist Joel Connelly, who said the quote is taken out of context and the ad is "stretching the truth to the breaking point." Goldmark was discussing a recent book on Bush and Iraq by Bob Woodward, the columnist said, and talking about FBI Director George Tenet's warning to national security adviser Condoleezza Rice of an impending al-Qaida attack.McMorris campaign response: A spokeswoman defends the linkage of Goldmark to Lowry and the 1993 tax increase because as a Cabinet member "he had a voice" in budget discussions. State agriculture funding went from $23 million to $13 million the same year that taxes went up, spokeswoman Jill Strait said. On Sept. 11, she notes that Connelly does say that those are Goldmark's words, so the citation is accurate, and whatever the context, "he still said it." The president and his administration represent America, she added. "If he believes that George Bush and his White House was responsible for 9/11, then I think it's fair to say he believes it's America's fault," she said.Bottom line: This ad seems designed to motivate Republican voters who might be thinking of sitting out the election. Lowry and the tax increase are favorite punching bags for the GOP. It tries to reinforce a previous ad that accused Goldmark of calling for tax increases that he said he doesn't support, but makes a stretch of logic by suggesting that a state ag director has any say over tax policy. The Sept. 11 claim is an even bigger stretch, because the column did have the specifics about the administration ignoring warnings, and for the campaign's suggestion that criticizing the administration is akin to blaming America.

Some Eastern Washington residents got recorded calls late at night or early in the morning last weekend, urging them to vote for Democrat Peter Goldmark for Congress. Others got the same call, over and over. Others got an obscene call, or a call with no sound except the click of a hangup, with the campaign's caller ID.

Spokane may have some of the highest gasoline prices in the country because of market forces involving Rocky Mountain refineries, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell said Monday. But she doubts it. " 'Market forces' is exactly what they told us at the beginning of the Enron investigation, too," Cantwell said at a rally before campaigning door-to-door on Spokane's South Hill. "Why isn't the whole region having the same impact if that's the case?"

Attempting to shore up support in what she describes as a surprisingly close race, freshman Rep. Cathy McMorris held a phone-in "town hall meeting" Tuesday morning and enlisted a Senate ally to defend her actions on veterans' issues. Democratic challenger Peter Goldmark is "hitting very hard" on veterans budget votes she's taken, and on recent cuts in veterans services, McMorris told Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho. She asked Craig to emphasize the increase in total veterans funding.

Both candidates for Eastern Washington's congressional seat agreed there are problems with the care that veterans are receiving from the federal government, but disagreed over who was responsible. In a joint interview with The Spokesman-Review's editorial board, Republican incumbent Cathy McMorris and Democratic challenger Peter Goldmark also disagreed on taxes and congressional ethics.

Sen. Larry Craig on Tuesday called allegations from a gay-rights activist that he's had homosexual relationships "completely ridiculous." Mike Rogers, who bills himself as the nation's top gay activist blogger, BlogActive.com, published the allegations on his Internet site Tuesday. He repeated them on the Ed Schultz show, a syndicated liberal radio talk show.