Does Your Vote Hinge On Name Recognition Above All?

In a battle for what politicians and pundits call “name familiarity,” two would-be U.S. Senate candidates have launched their radio commercials earlier than usual.

The two are Republicans Linda Smith and Chris Bayley, both of whom want to challenge incumbent Patty Murray, a Democrat. Smith is a congresswoman from Clark County. Bayley is a onetime King County prosecuting attorney.

Neither will formally file as a candidate until the end of next month but both are airing campaign commercials, hoping to etch themselves and their issues on voters’ consciousness.

Don’t expect the ads to go deeply into complex issues. Do expect them to imprint the names Bayley and Smith on your minds.

Will that, plus any smattering of actual issues, help you decide as a voter which, if either of Smith and Bayley, you want to support?

If not, what do you want to know about these and other candidates who will be on this fall’s ballots?

Skywalks vs. sidewalks

Efforts to enlist the public in crafting a new downtown plan for Spokane have revived an old discussion: Is Spokane’s skywalk system an asset, which makes it convenient for shoppers to patronize downtown no matter what the weather is, or a liability, which diverts pedestrians away from the sidewalks, harming street-level businesses and making the city look dead?

Cops and saucers

On Tuesday mornings, the place to look for retired Spokane police officer Francis Peck is the Chef Restaurant.

That, says Peck, is when and where a group of older police retirees (“I’m talking in their 70s”) regularly gathers to sip coffee, recall experiences and share ideas on the law enforcement of today.

This group is not to be confused with a second group of more-recently retired police officers, probably in their 50s, who have their own standing get-together on Thursday mornings at Colonial Bowl.

A couple of fellows take in both sessions, says Peck, whose service included 17 years as a detective. That, he says, was a less-specialized era when “any detective handled anything from larceny of a garbage can to a homicide.”

Peck is the latest reader to share a favorite haunt where community members assemble informally to keep their civic attachments strong. If you know of others, pass them along.