Candidate apologizes for claiming endorsement

Spokane City Council candidate Tina Howard apologized Monday for claiming an endorsement she doesn’t have, from someone she never asked.

In a recent campaign mailer and a television commercial, first-time candidate Howard claimed to have the endorsement of Shannon Sullivan, the author of the recall petition against Mayor Jim West. The mailer contends her opponent, incumbent Al French, “has remained nearly silent while our mayor has embarrassed the city.”

But Sullivan, who stepped down from the recall effort once it was certified for a special election ballot, has insisted for weeks that she’s not endorsing anyone in the Nov. 8 city elections. She said Monday she hasn’t changed her mind and would have told Howard so – had the candidate asked.

“I worked hard to keep (the recall effort) clean,” she said. “I just feel violated.”

Howard said she relied on the assurances of someone else who said Sullivan was endorsing her. But she acknowledged Monday she should not have used anyone’s name in her ads without checking personally.

She attributed the mistake to inexperience. But, as someone who is running on holding public officials accountable, she said she should be accountable, too.

“I made a mistake and I’m probably going to pay for that mistake,” she said.

Howard also wasn’t sure how Sullivan’s first name was misspelled on the campaign mailer, which went out to about 9,000 voters in the district. She said she didn’t prepare the ads, and couldn’t even remember the last name of the person who did. The television commercial is not scheduled for further broadcast, she added.

Sullivan said she doesn’t agree with either candidate on every issue, and won’t be voting for either of them because she lives in a different council district. “If I lived in that district, under the circumstances … my vote would be for French,” she said.

Howard’s contention that French has been nearly silent on the West controversy is also open to debate. Howard signed the recall petition and said the mayor should be recalled, while French declined to sign it and said he has not yet decided how he would vote.

But as a member of the council, French supported a resolution earlier this year calling for West to resign and supported hiring an investigator into West’s activities. He also has been critical of a deal between that investigator and the mayor’s private attorneys to keep the investigation report secret for at least 10 days, and possibly longer if West takes further legal action.

In their most recent reports filed with the state’s Public Disclosure Commission, French had raised about $10,000 through Oct. 11 for his campaign while Howard had raised about $200 as of the end of September.