Jim Camden

A Seattle developer is spending heavily on the Spokane mayor's race, dwarfing any single contribution the candidates have collected for their own campaigns. David Sabey, owner of NorthTown Mall, has contributed more than $30,000 to try to defeat Mayor Jack Geraghty in an effort that is separate from the campaign of challenger John Talbott. Sabey's campaign, mounted by the Seattle-based Citizens Action Coalition, is the biggest of several independent efforts trying to sway voters this fall. The coalition has placed radio ads on several Spokane stations and recently mailed voters an 8-1/2-by-5-1/2-inch card blasting Geraghty for "poor planning and misplaced priorities."

If you live in the city of Spokane, you might want to practice writing a new return address: Spokane Falls, Wash. If it were up to likely voters in Tuesday's election, the idea of changing the name back to the city's original moniker would pass overwhelmingly, a new scientific survey shows. City voters are expected to get a chance to vote on the proposal next spring. Right now, the idea is riding high.

Washington voters seem willing to let sick people get marijuana if a doctor thinks it will help their medical problem. But they're dead set against letting them have heroin or LSD. That may be why a new poll shows support flagging for an initiative that would radically change the state's drug laws.

A telephone survey asking what some voters consider loaded questions about Spokane's mayoral candidates is being denounced by the incumbent and disavowed by the challenger. Pollsters hired by the Sabey Corp. asked voters if they would support a candidate who can't manage his personal finances. Although the question didn't name a candidate, it's an obvious reference to Mayor Jack Geraghty's court dispute with his estranged wife over payments from their legal separation. Pollsters also asked whether voters would support a candidate who was raised in Spokane, had a distinguished military career, then returned to serve his community.

Washington voters strongly believe people should be able to keep their doctors when they change insurance plans. They think their insurance companies should cover visits to licensed chiropractors and naturopaths, even if that means higher premiums. But they aren't wild about Initiative 673, a ballot proposal that would place those requirements into state law. A new scientific survey suggests that I-673, one of eight statewide ballot measures, is headed for defeat, perhaps because voters have trouble connecting the proposal with concepts they support.

Washington voters overwhelmingly think it's wrong to fire someone because that person is homosexual. The vast majority think a landlord should not be able to refuse a renter who is gay or lesbian. They think homosexuals should receive the same protection from discrimination as people of religious, ethnic or national minorities do.

A deal between President Clinton and the nation's gun makers to put safety devices on new handguns should help a Washington state initiative, the proposed law's supporters said Thursday. "I think it mirrors our arguments," said Karen Besserman, a spokeswoman for SafetyFirst. No, it should help defeat the proposal, opponents said.

Rep. George Nethercutt has decided whether he will run for the U.S. Senate. He'll let everyone else know next Tuesday. The Spokane Republican said he will announce his decision at a news conference near the end of a visit to Washington state that includes stops in Spokane, Seattle and Pullman - and maybe elsewhere, if the decision is to run.

A Washington state initiative that would allow doctors to recommend that patients take illegal drugs for their medical problems got a $335,000 boost Monday from a New York billionaire. George Soros - an investment expert who has given more than a billion dollars to promote democracy in Eastern Europe and millions to change U.S. drug laws - sent a check to the group supporting Initiative 685. Dr. Rob Killian, a Tacoma physician who is heading the initiative campaign, said the money will help pay for television commercials, which begin airing this week.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars poured into Washington state last year for television commercials that allowed state Democrats to blast congressional Republicans. State Chairman Paul Berendt said it was more money than the state party had ever spent on such commercials, known as issue ads because they promote a cause rather than a candidate. But the ads were legal, and common practice by both parties, Berendt said Thursday.

1. John Talbott, mayoral candidate 2. Jack Geraghty, incumbent mayor

The Lincoln Street bridge will get a complete review that could force the city to consider scrapping the $36 million project. On Thursday, Mayor Jack Geraghty asked members of a citizens committee that picked a design for the bridge four years ago to conduct a "full review based on changing conditions" for the project. The review could take up to two months.

The biggest spender in the Spokane primary wasn't Mayor Jack Geraghty, challenger John Talbott or any of a dozen other candidates seeking city office. That distinction belongs to a recently formed group that opposes a plan for downtown redevelopment and other recent city decisions. Spokane for a New Century mounted a $17,500 campaign that criticized city officials for decisions on such things as River Park Square, the proposed Lincoln Street bridge and street repair.

Pierce County's top elected official entered the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, trying to claim the middle ground between incumbent Democrat Patty Murray and GOP challenger Linda Smith. Doug Sutherland called for a simpler tax system, greater local control of natural resources and more attention to the economy as he opened his campaign in Spokane. He criticized Murray, who is completing her first term in the Senate, for not doing enough.

Gov. Gary Locke ended a run of dominoes with two judicial appointments Wednesday. The resignation of Appeals Court Judge Philip Thompson set off the dominoes. Locke named Spokane County Superior Court Judge Ken Kato to fill Thompson's post. Kato has been a Superior Court judge since 1996 and served as commissioner of the appeals court for eight years before that.

1. Mayoral candidate John Talbott talks on the phone while awaiting election results Tuesday. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review 2. Rob Higgins watches early election returns at his North Side home with his dog, Beebee. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review 3. GiCouncil Position 2: Gilmore 4. Council Position 2: Higgins 5. Council Position 3: Holmes 6. Council Position 3: Thompson

If you live in the right place, today is election day. But don't worry about spending too much time at the polls. No voter in Spokane County has more than four holes to punch in his or her primary ballot. Voters in the cities of Spokane, Airway Heights, Cheney, Deer Park, Medical Lake and Spangle have a chance to trim the field of candidates who want to serve as their mayors or council members.

The refrain from north Spokane residents is familiar: Why does city government pay more attention to South Side concerns? Here's one possible explanation: South Side residents give local politicians more money. Campaign donors like to say that contributions don't buy votes, they merely ensure access. But if a person or group wants to talk about a bad road, a traffic problem or zoning issue, that requires access.

Fairchild Air Force Base would move into the 21st century a couple of years early under a deal Congress reached this week on the nation's military construction budget. Negotiators for the two houses of Congress have said some $30 million should be spent starting next year at the West Plains base. They want to move up the schedule for three major construction projects. President Clinton's 1998 budget had proposed a $7.3 million operations center for one of the base's KC-135 squadrons.

Northwest Indians have a thank-you of sorts for longtime adversary U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton. Normally independent tribes are being galvanized by Gorton's proposal to peel back their sovereign immunity, said delegates to the 44th-annual meeting of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians.

1. Jane Schelly works with students last week at Arlington Elementary. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review 2. Jane Schelly hands out brochures to bus riders near the Pakistan/India border in July. Photo courtesy of Jane Schelly

With less than two weeks to go before the city primary elections, two new groups - one relatively well-heeled, the other operating on a shoestring - are pushing issue-oriented campaigns. One effort, run by a group calling itself Spokane for a New Century, questions city leaders' decisions on everything from the Lincoln Street bridge and River Park Square projects to the 11-year legal battle with the Gypsy community.

Nethercutt

Spokane's airports and a West Plains industrial park will become foreign trade zones, offering businesses a way to save money on fees and tariffs on imported goods. Federal, state and local officials Monday hailed the designation of a trade zone as a way to help existing businesses and attract new ones. "You've got to have lots of tools in your tool kit," Rich Hadley, president of the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce said at the trade zone's announcement.