Settle The Score On Election Day

When candidates and their supporters throw mud, they forget that some of the dirt stays on their own hands.

As election day nears, the mudballs get more odious - as if those who hide in the weeds and lob this stuff think they won’t get caught until the election is past and accountability doesn’t matter.

It does matter.

It cheapens our community. It discredits the good people who use this tactic. It makes the public cynical. It dehumanizes candidates and discourages good people from running for office. It makes governing more difficult when the campaigns end.

Consider, for example, a few vile tactics used just recently in local campaigns.

Sheriff Mark Sterk, a popular public servant and a good man who did not need to stoop this low, sent a letter that slimed County Commissioner John Roskelley. The words that Sterk tried to stuff in Roskelley’s mouth weren’t Roskelley’s, they were concocted by Sterk or perhaps some ghost writer. Sterk claimed that Roskelley didn’t care about the victims of Spokane’s serial killer. What a despicable allegation. No responsible public official feels that way, least of all Roskelley, who has worked long and hard to improve county government and cares as much as anyone about bringing murderers to justice.

If Sterk has some honest disagreement with Roskelley, let him or his ghost writer stand up in front of the voters and describe the issue fairly and completely so the public can decide who’s right.

The second use of low campaigning was an effort to slime Spokane mayoral candidate John Powers. Some televison ads pretended that there is something mysterious and sinister about Powers. (This would come as a surprise to the many who know Powers and have his signs in their yards). The ads appealed to fear, resentment and paranoia. Is that the way to build a healthy city?

Meanwhile, someone whose identity has yet to be determined hired a company to conduct a “push poll” whose goal also was to hurt Powers. Push polls telephone people and ask if they’d still support so-and-so if they knew such-and-such. The such-and-such this poll lobbed at Powers included murky innuendo based on the fact he lives on the South Hill and works as an attorney. The chances are good that those who funded this attack also live in pleasant neighborhoods and work in well-paid professions.

So what’s the point? There is no point, except that human bigotry and envy make class warfare a tempting tactic.

Unfortunately, class warfare divides the public and promotes distrust among people who need each other.

We are a better community than these tactics indicate.

We need leaders who will pull us together.

Sure, campaigns are rough and tumble competitions. Candidates disagree about goals and about how to reach them. It can be healthy and instructive when campaigns feature passion and conflict.

Campaigns that draw accurate, critical contrasts between candidates perform a valuable service. But campaigns go too far when they use innuendo, fear and distortion to divide the public and slime an opponent. When this occurs, voters should hold offending candidates accountable.