Electoral Hiring Process Depends On You Expanded Election Coverage Relies On Readers To Help Pose Questions

Dozens of people will apply this week for jobs that are vital to the community.

Applying is easy: They’ll just go to the county courthouse or state Capitol, fill out a form and pay a small fee.

The job interviews can be long and strenuous. The applicants must spend the next 100 days convincing their future bosses to give them the job.

The applicants are political candidates. The interview process is called the campaign season.

If you’re registered to vote - or if you register in the coming weeks - you are one of the bosses who will do the hiring.

To help you decide whom to hire, The Spokesman-Review will be expanding its election coverage this fall to provide more information on your potential candidate-employees.

In the coming weeks, we’ll publish letters of application and resumes of candidates for key positions, and post them on the newspaper’s Internet site, www.spokane.net.

We’ll also ask candidates questions you want answered before making those crucial hiring decisions.

Some jobs pay relatively well, have good benefits and are highly competitive.

Take the job of U.S. senator.

Democrat Patty Murray has that $136,700-per-year, six-year job deciding how the nation spends its tax money, manages its land and guards its people. She’d like to keep it.

Republican Linda Smith makes just as much in the U.S. House of Representatives and handles pretty much the same duties. But she’d rather be representing the whole state as one of 100 senators, instead of representing southwest Washington as one of 435 House members.

Republican Chris Bayley makes more as a private attorney - salary isn’t everything in politics - but he’d like to return to public office after leaving the job of King County prosecutor 20 years ago.

While those three applicants have the most money and the highest profiles in campaigning for the job, they’re not alone. Several other Republicans have said they might run, and Steve Thompson of Spokane, a member of the Reform Party, also wants the job.

The state’s other eight members of the U.S. House are happy enough with their jobs to apply for two more years. In Eastern Washington, two-term Republican George Nethercutt is competing with Democrat Brad Lyons, an Odessa farmer, and John Beal, a Spokane contractor with the fledgling American Heritage Party.

A new applicant could emerge this week for this or any other elected political job. All he or she has to do is file for the office and pay a fee before 5 p.m. Friday.

Some elective jobs pay less - sometimes much less - than those high-profile congressional positions. Some aren’t competitive at this point. That doesn’t make them unimportant, however.

The entire state House of Representatives and half the state Senate is up for election this year. For $28,300 a year, they write and approve the laws that cover everything from the number of children in a public school classroom to the number of years a criminal should spend in prison, and handle a $10 billion per year budget.

Some legislative jobs are drawing multiple applicants, such as the House seat Republican Mark Sterk vacated to run for county sheriff. Lynn Schindler, a GOP activist who was the party’s pick to fill Sterk’s seat until the election, faces a primary challenge from Jim Williams, a long-time school board member. The Republican winner faces Democrat John Kallas, a former police officer.

In south and northwest Spokane, state Sen. Jim West faces a challenge from retired nurse Judy Personett, and Rep. Duane Sommers from Craig Peterson. Both incumbents are Republicans; both challengers are Democrats.

In north and central Spokane, Democratic Rep. Alex Wood, a former radio broadcaster, is challenged by Republican Cheryl Steele, an official with the city’s Community Oriented Police Stations.

Other legislators reapplying for their jobs have no competition in sight, such as first-term Republican Rep. Brad Benson, who represents south and northwest Spokane, first-term Democratic Rep. Jeff Gomboski, who represents central and north Spokane, and two-term Republican Rep. Larry Crouse from the Spokane Valley.

County courthouses around the state also have their executive positions up for hire. Spokane’s county executives have been predominantly Democrat for more than a generation, but Republicans started early this year trying to find candidates who can take the jobs away. A couple of retirements could help them.

Sheriff John Goldman is retiring after one term as the county’s top cop. That sets up a race for the $90,344-a-year job between Sterk, a legislator and city police sergeant, and sheriff’s Lt. Jim Finke, a Democrat who commands the department’s graveyard shift.

Auditor Bill Donahue is retiring after 16 years of overseeing the county’s elections, filing documents, and issuing marriage licenses and auto registrations. Two Democrats in his office, Vicky Dalton and Noel Elliott, want the job, as does Republican Matt McCoy, a financial manager for United Parcel Service.

The choice for assessor - the person whose staff figures out how much property is worth so it can be taxed - may be the same as four years ago. Incumbent Democrat Sadie Charlene Cooney wants four more years; Republican challenger Bob Blum says he can do a better job.

County Prosecutor Jim Sweetser, a Democrat whose office is responsible for taking criminals to court and keeping county officials out of it, faces a challenge from Republican attorney Steve Tucker, a former deputy prosecutor.

Treasurer Linda Wolverton, who collects the county’s taxes as they come in, invests them until they need to be spent, then pays the bills, is unopposed so far. So is Clerk Tom Fallquist, whose office keeps track of the hundreds of documents filed with Spokane County Superior Court each week and rounds up jurors for trials.

All nine District Court judges face re-election this year as does Linda Tompkins, who was appointed to an opening on the Superior Court.

So does Commissioner Phil Harris, one of three members of the board that passes laws, spends the county’s money and oversees growth in unincorporated areas. Harris, a Republican, has a challenger from his own party, Eastern Washington University student Phil Kiver, and from Democrat Dennis Crumley, a juvenile corrections supervisor, for the $59,158-a-year job.

Tell us You’re the boss. Candidates are the job-seekers. What do you want to know before deciding whom to hire? Send your questions for candidates to us c/o Campaign ‘98, Newsroom, The Spokesman Review, Box 2160, Spokane WA, 99210. Or fax them to (509) 459-5482; or e-mail them to jimc@spokesman.com. Or you can call Cityline at 458-8800, ext 9865. Answers to voters’ questions will appear throughout the campaign season in The Spokesman-Review and at www.spokane.net.