Greene Denounces ‘Shadow Campaign’ Points To Television Ad Campaign That Doesn’T Endorse Any Candidates

Spokane City Councilwoman Roberta Greene is denouncing what she calls a shadow campaign waged by “people who stand in corners and lob bombs.”

Greene, who’s running this fall for a second term, points to a television commercial sponsored by the Greater Spokane Symposium Series as part of that campaign. The ad has Spokane City Hall as a backdrop and tells viewers it’s time for new leadership.

“They just want change,” Greene said recently. “Change for the sake of change.”

She said she doesn’t know who’s running the campaign, although a check of campaign finance records shows several major contributors to challengers are active in the symposium.

They include Metropolitan Mortgage President Paul Sandifur, developer John Stone and Packet Engines founder Bernard Daines.

The three have given at least $17,000 to candidates and political action committees active in the city election.

The donations are part of the symposium’s push for change, said Stone, a real estate developer who has criticized city decisions on downtown development and the proposed Lincoln Street bridge.

“If we do what we’ve always done, we’re going to get what we’ve always gotten,” Stone said.

Steve Corker, a candidate for the open council seat, said it’s no secret why leaders of the symposium group - which is holding meetings about the need to bring more business to Spokane - are becoming very active in the city elections.

“These are entrepreneurs who feel excluded from leadership in this community,” Corker said Thursday at a forum sponsored by the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce.

Corker listed Stone as one of the businessmen who has been shut out of Spokane’s power structure.

“We’ve got to be more inclusive and bring more people to the table,” he told some 40 business leaders gathered for the chamber’s candidates forum.

But Stone said Corker is wrong to suggest that he feels excluded from the city’s business leadership.

“I’ve been working with just about everyone, including (The Spokesman-Review’s) ownership and Chamber of Commerce President Rich Hadley,” Stone said Thursday.

He added he was unaware why Corker, who has received money from political action committees Stone supports, would say he felt excluded.

Corker said in a later interview he made a mistake. “I was talking about the goal of the group, to broaden participation and put more people at the table.”

The symposium-sponsored commercial cited by Greene mentions a study by Forbes Magazine that placed Spokane 161st out of 162 cities as a place to do business. “It’s time for new leadership,” it says.

But the commercial doesn’t advocate voting for or against a candidate, or mention the Nov. 2 election.

Stone said the commercial is educational, not political. It also lists the symposium’s Web site, which has ways for volunteers to join different symposium projects.

The group checked with the state’s Public Disclosure Commission, he said, and was told it would not have to file reports on funding for the commercials.