Geraghty, Ahern In Close Race Incumbents Keep Their Seats In 6Th, 3Rd, 4Th, 7Th And 9Th

LEGISLATIVE ROUNDUP

A costly and closely watched race for a 6th District state House seat was in a dead heat late Tuesday.

The race, between one of the best-known names in Spokane politics, Democrat Jack Geraghty, and first-time Republican candidate John Ahern, will likely be decided by absentee votes to be counted this week.

The two men were separated by fewer than 100 votes out of more than 30,000 cast, according to late results.

The 6th District last sent a Democrat to the House during the Depression, but Geraghty’s name recognition drew nearly $125,000 in contributions, almost half from the state party. It was the most expensive race in state history for an open House seat, with Geraghty and Ahern combining for more than $200,000 in campaign spending.

Previous Rep. Duane Sommers retired this year.

The race is considered by both state parties as a possible tie-breaker in the House of Representatives divided 49-49.

Ahern, 65, said he expected to win with absentee voters, noting that those ballots have favored him.

“I think the absentees are going to definitely put us over the top,” he said.

Geraghty was less sure, but said he needed a well-funded campaign to overcome the historic voting trend in the district.

“It’s just a tough district for Democrats, even though it’s narrowed in recent years,” he said.

Voters in the 6th District - a curl of the South Hill, West Plains and Northwest Spokane - were deluged with dozens of campaign mailings.

Geraghty, 65, touted his five decades of political experience and his stands for public education and economic development. He served as Spokane mayor from 1993-97 and as county commissioner in the 1960s.

Geraghty weathered attacks from political groups who questioned his role as mayor in the financing of the troubled River Park Square parking garage.

Ahern surprised party officials and others by running an energetic campaign in his first bid for public office. Ahern put his office supply distribution company, Janco Products, on hold for months to ring more than 14,000 doorbells.

He carried a conservative message to the doormats: cuts in property and business taxes, privatizing government services and tougher criminal sentences.

In the second 6th District House campaign, two-term Republican Brad Benson, 41, easily beat Democrat Bernie Nelson, a 72-year-old retired state welfare official. The two faced off in 1998 for the House seat.

3rd District: Democrats retained their historic grip on the district with the party’s incumbents easily beating their Republican challengers in two sleeper races.

Former talk radio host and Democrat Alex Wood, 54, won a third term in the House of Representatives after beating Republican challenger Andrew Lesofski, 25, by a wide margin. Lesofski works at Home Depot and for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Lesofski had run for office once before, in Montana, where he sought a seat in the state House of Representatives.

Democrat Jeff Gombosky, 29, won a third term in the House after beating Republican Michael Parks, 40, also by a wide margin. Gombosky is a consultant to Avista. Parks owns a coffee stand.

Parks and Lesofski were both last-minute entrants to the races, having been nominated by the county Republican Party.

Sen. Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, ran unopposed for her second term serving the 3rd District.

4th District: Republican incumbents swept the 4th District races Tuesday night. Sen. Bob McCaslin, 74, soundly defeated two newcomers to earn a sixth term in office representing voters in the Spokane Valley and parts of northeast Spokane County.

Voters returned McCaslin to office over Democrat Jim Peck of Liberty Lake, a 56-year-old retired Army officer and substitute teacher, and Libertarian Rob Chase, 47, a Liberty Lake man who works at Agilent Technologies.

Rep. Larry Crouse, 56, easily turned back the challenge from Democrat Carol Ford-Duncan, winning a fourth term in office. Crouse worked for Kaiser Aluminum before he was first elected to office. Ford-Duncan, 46, is a Kaiser Steelworker who launched her first run for political office after lobbying for extended unemployment benefits in last year’s Legislature.

Retired gang and narcotics detective John Kallas, 48, lost his second bid against incumbent Rep. Lynn Schindler.

Schindler, 56, the former vice chairwoman of the Spokane County Republican party, earned her second term in office.

7th District: In the conservative 7th District, incumbent Republican Reps. Cathy McMorris and Bob Sump defeated Democratic challengers Gary McKinney and Ron McCoy.

McKinney, 54, ran against McMorris after being frustrated earlier this year when he unsuccessfully lobbied for three bills important to organized labor. He felt the bills had majority support on the House floor, but he was unable to get them out of committee.

McKinney, of Loon Lake, is the lead machinist at Kaiser Aluminum’s Mead smelter and a member of the board of Steelworkers Local 329.

McMorris, 31, of Colville, worked as a legislative assistant before she was appointed to the House in 1994. She has now been elected three times.

McCoy, 43, is in his first term as mayor of Chewelah.

Sump, 59, retired about 1-1/2 years ago as a heavy equipment mechanic for Echo Bay Minerals in Republic. This will be his third term in the House of Representatives.

9th District: Republicans had a string of easy wins in the district. Incumbent Republican Don Cox, 61, won against the district’s lone Democrat candidate, 21-year-old student Mike Johnson. Both Cox and his opponent have close ties to higher education interests. Cox is the director of Washington State University’s Rural Education Center and Johnson is a political science major at Eastern Washington University. This will be Cox’s second term in the House.

In position 2, House Republican incumbent Mark Schoesler, 43, of Ritzville will add two more years to his eight already served. He defeated Libertarian candidate John Gearhart, a drapery cleaning business owner from Palouse.

Finally, a third incumbent, Republican State Senator Larry Sheahan of Rosalia trounced his Libertarian opponent Randall Keeney of Pullman. Sheahan, 40, is an attorney in business with his father. This will be his second term in the Senate. Randall, 38, works in a music store in Moscow, Idaho.