Smith Will Challenge Murray For Senate Seat Spokane Voters Give Support To Levy For Fire Department

Conservative Rep. Linda Smith defeated a millionaire former prosecutor for Washington’s Republican Senate nomination Tues day night and will face first-term Democratic incumbent Patty Murray in November.

With about a third of the vote counted, Smith had double the votes of her competitor, Chris Bayley.

With Murray a prohibitive favorite throughout the primary season, most of the attention in the Senate race has been on the down-to-the-wire race between Smith, the author of the state’s campaign-finance and spending-limit laws, and Bayley, a Harvard-educated attorney who hadn’t held office for nearly 20 years.

Murray crushed four political unknowns in her own party and in the early tally had almost as many votes as all 12 of her challengers combined.

Three Reform Party candidates, Steve Thompson, Charlie Jackson and Mike The Mover, were vying for their party’s nomination.

In the race for the Democratic nomination for Spokane County commissioner, Kathy Reid, a seasoned politician and longtime party activist, was defeating Dennis Crumley, a political newcomer.

In November, Reid will face incumbent Commissioner Phil Harris, a Republican, and long-shot candidate Phil Kiver. An Eastern Washington University student who ran for mayor of Cheney last year, Kiver is running as a member of the Reform Party.

In Legislative District 4, which covers the Spokane Valley, Republican party insider Lynn Schindler was defeating civic activist Jim Williams. Schindler will face Democrat John Kallas, a former narcotics and gang detective, in November.

In District 6, Democrat Judy Personett, a retired nurse, held a narrow lead over former CIA agent Keith Johnson for the right to challenge incumbent Sen. Jim West, chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

Votes from the Spokane Valley were being tallied slowly Tuesday night. In very early returns, a $78 million bond measure to rebuild two high schools was trailing in the Central Valley School District.

Spokane County voters were supporting levies that aid firefighters, paramedics, streets and sidewalks.

Levies proposed by the Spokane Fire Department and county fire districts 4 and 9 seemed assured of easy passage.