Ad Check

Sat., Nov. 1, 1997

“Confidential Memo”

Background: An 8-1/2 by 5-1/2-inch card was mailed to Spokane voters, urging them to oust incumbent Jack Geraghty. Criticizes Geraghty for not having open government, charging he “denied us the right to vote on important public issues like River Park Square and the Lincoln Street Bridge.”

Campaign Response: Geraghty calls the ad part of a “shadow campaign” out of Seattle to beat him. It’s also wrong on the bridge, he adds, because there’s never been a proposal before the council to put the bridge to a vote, and thus there was no vote to block such a move. The bridge proposal is being reviewed by a citizens committee.

Rebuttal: Jim Kneeland, a spokesman for the Citizens Action Coalition that mailed the ad, admits that it is wrong on the question of the bridge. But Geraghty did join the rest of the City Council in blocking a public vote on River Park Square, he added, and council members have not all pledged to put the citizens committee’s recommendation to a vote.

Analysis: The ad is false on the point of the bridge, and overstates Geraghty’s role in a vote on the redevelopment project. The council voted 6-0 against putting the project to a vote, and as only one of those votes, Geraghty can’t be described as blocking the vote, even though as Kneeland says, he is the leader. Ironically, the memo says it’s from “Spokane voters,” but it lists an address on Queen Anne Avenue in Seattle. The committee’s campaign reports list two individuals and one business in Spokane.

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