Jim Camden

Spokane-area candidates locked in close races will have to keep biting their nails. Some absentee ballots might be counted later this week, but winners might not be known until the final votes are counted next Wednesday, County Elections Supervisor Tom Wilbur said. As many as 10,000 ballots remain to be counted, and that could easily reverse the Spokane City Council race, in which incumbent Orville Barnes holds a 29-vote lead over John Talbott.

With his clients heading home before midmorning, manager Dale Scott closed the U.S. Court House coffee shop Tuesday for the duration of the government shutdown. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

The planes will keep flying, the courts will keep sentencing and the mail will go through. But by noon today, hundreds of federal workers in the Inland Northwest might be taking a long lunch - days long.

Orville Barnes and John Talbott will have to wait until the middle of next week, at least, to find out who will hold a Spokane City Council seat. Barnes, the incumbent, has a 29-vote lead.

The best chance for CityVote, the experimental primary, to be considered a key factor in the 1996 election may have evaporated Wednesday. Voters in more than a dozen cities seemed to give Colin Powell a strong endorsement in the straw poll. He finished second nationally to President Clinton and beating out Kansas Sen. Bob Dole in most cities. "Dole's clock was cleaned by Powell," said Larry Agran, executive director for CityVote.

President Clinton didn't want to play at CityVote, but he seems to have won anyway. Colin Powell wasn't technically in the running, but he edged Kansas Sen. Bob Dole for second in most cities.

As if all those yard signs, ads and commercials weren't enough reminder, it's Election Day today. This year's ballot offers voters a chance to make law as well as to pick candidates. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Washington state voters face some weighty issues on the first page of their ballots. They will decide whether to allow casino-style gambling on Indian land. Restrict commercial fishermen. Limit the way government can make rules affecting private property. Change the way the state's chief justice and its Fish and Wildlife commissioner are chosen.

Too many candidates, too little space. That's the problem CityVote, a first-time presidential straw poll, presents elections officers in Washington and Idaho.

A small Air Force station near Riverside State Park that helped military officials plan operations from Vietnam to the Persian Gulf War will be closed. The federal government is consolidating its weather satellite systems. The Satellite Operations Center, which is connected with Fairchild Air Force Base, will close by September 1997. "It's not an overnight thing," said Sgt. Sue Conard. The base spokeswoman said a timetable will be announced later.

The candidate for the school board hadn't finished the third grade. He was fairly open about the fact that he barely could read and write. The candidate for the Legislature denounced divorce because families are being broken up too easily. He was on his third marriage.

1. Did you know...Alexander is a past president of the University of Tennessee? 2. The last time around...Buchanan challenged George Bush for the Republican nomination in 1992. 3. Before he was really famous...Dole was Gerald Ford's vice presidential candidate in 1976. They lost the election to Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale. 4. Do you recall...Fletcher ran for lieutenant governor of Washington state? 5. If you missed it...Forbes is the most recent Republican candidate in the race. 6. Switching gears...Gramm was first elected to Congress as a Democrat. 7. Before he decided to run...Keyes was the United States ambassador to the United Nations. 8. Before heading to D.C....Lugar was once mayor of Indianapolis. 9. In the news...Specter chaired the recent hearings on the Ruby Ridge incident. 10. His former place in the sun...Wilson was once the mayor of San Diego 11. The first time...His 1992 campaign theme was "it's the economy, stupid." 12. He just won't give up...LaRouche is making his sixth consective run for the White House. 13. An athletic past...After leading Princeton to the NCAA Final Four in 1965, Bradley was a Rhodes Scholar before an NBA career with the New York Knicks. 14. A White House first?...Hagelin would be the first quantum physicist to be president. 15. In his last election run...Jackson had strong support in Washington state in 1988. 16. Trying to get a party going...Perot's Reform Party is registering voters in California and says it has enough to qualify for next year's ballot. 17. Still hasn't said yes...Powell is not campaigning yet, but is on a book tour that is giving him national attention. 18. A 1970s TV star...Weicker was on the Senate Watergate panel chaired by Sen. Sam Ervin.

Presidential candidates at CityVote, left to right, John Hagelin, Harry Browne, Lyndon LaRouche, Chuck Collins and Art Fletcher. At far right is moderator Sander Vanocur. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review

Five men who would like to be president - but must be considered the longest of long shots - will discuss the nation's cities and its environment tonight. They'll do it in Spokane, a spot that doesn't usually play a pivotal role in choosing the next president. They'll be part of an untested proposal to shift the emphasis of the presidential campaign, the CityVote straw poll.

The ad: A mass mailing by the pro-charter group touts savings for the proposed city-county merger. "Save money by eliminating costly duplicated management and departments," it says. "Millions can be saved just by ending duplicated management of services provided by both the city and county." The background: The city and county have departments that perform the same functions. But savings are one of the most hotly contested topics in the charter debate because costs for a government that does not yet exist are hard to estimate.

Jesse Jackson and Alan Keyes - two candidates who had helped lend stature to a panel of lesser-known presidential hopefuls - will not attend the CityVote presidential forum in Spokane. CityVote officials said Wednesday both candidates dropped out of the Sunday evening forum at the Spokane Ag Trade Center.

Republican Norm Maleng would dismantle the state's social services agency and take away the third strike from sexual predators if he's elected governor. "Voters are demanding a change, not just in the size of government but in the direction of government," said Maleng, who kicked off his second campaign for governor Monday with a cross-state bus tour. The King County prosecutor also promised to roll back the business and occupation tax and increase the percentage of the state budget spent on colleges and universities.

1. Jesse Jackson is the most prominent Democrat to confirm an appearance at Sunday's CityVote forum in Spokane... 2. ...while maverick Lyndon LaRouche, making his sixth run for the presidency, also has said he'll be here.

Social and fiscal conservatives have to work together for the good of the country, former congressman and one-time Republican presidential candidate Jack Kemp said Wednesday. "You can't have a strong economy without a strong culture, and you can't have a strong culture without a strong economy," Kemp told some 200 people gathered in Spokane for a dinner of the Washington Family Council. In a speech that was part history lesson, part pep talk and part homily, the former NFL quarterback urged the crowd to have the courage to fight against racism and stand up for family values.

A proposal to cut off federal funds to non-profit groups that get involved in politics could break up coalitions to build low-income housing, teach homeless children and feed the hungry, representatives of Spokane charities said Wednesday. Some 20 representatives of local non-profit organizations criticized a proposal by House Republicans that sharply restricts non-profit organizations from engaging in "political activity" if they receive federal funds. The definition of political activity is so broad, argued Jim Bamberger of Spokane Legal Services, that it could include suggesting changes in a government program or publishing a church newsletter.

A court fight over CityVote, the presidential straw poll, probably will be dropped in Spokane because a similar challenge failed in Olympia. A Thurston County judge denied Monday a request by the state Democratic Party to keep Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater from participating in the straw poll. Paul Berendt, state party chairman, said he does not expect an appeal and the party likely will drop similar motions in Spokane and Pierce counties.

Bet he's really worried now The city and county employees union is taking off the gloves in its long-running dispute with County Prosecutor Jim Sweetser. Union leaders are asking the Spokane Labor Council to place Sweetser on its "unfair to labor" list...The union isn't stopping there in its battle with Sweetser, who already faces a slew of labor complaints before the Public Employees Relations Commission. It wants the Spokane Democratic Party to remove Sweetser from the party...OK, so that might be a little embarrassing for a while, but it wouldn't keep Sweetser from running for re-election with a big D after his name. In Washington state, any candidate can claim to be a Democrat (or a Republican) regardless of political beliefs.

President Clinton will share a ballot in Spokane and Coeur d'Alene this November with 20 other active or potential candidates for his job. Officials in both cities say they won't take Clinton's name off the ballot just because national Democratic Party officials want them to.

Allowing slot machines on Washington's Indian reservations would lead to unrestricted gambling statewide and corruption, a Republican candidate for governor predicted Monday. Jim Waldo, a Tacoma attorney and longtime GOP activist, held a press conference in Spokane to denounce the ballot proposal to permit more types of reservation gambling. Initiative 651, backed by the Spokane, Shoalwater and Puyallup tribes, will be on the Nov. 7 general election ballot. It would allow slot machines, video poker and other types of casino gambling on reservations.

1. The cruiser Spokane slides down the ways. 2. Opera star and city native Patrice Munsel, with bouquet at center, was joined by other Spokane residents to launch the USS Spokane in 1945.