Verner takes solid primary lead

Appointed Spokane City Councilwoman Mary Verner cleared her first hurdle in seeking to win election to the District 2 seat she has held for 18 months.

Verner outpaced two other candidates in Tuesday’s primary voting, gathering more votes than the challengers combined in early returns.

Insurance agency owner Dallas Hawkins was running second and appeared to be headed for the Nov. 8 runoff against Verner.

Trailing was Gonzaga University physics Professor Jeffrey D. Bierman.

“That’s good so far,” Verner said of results released shortly after polls closed at 8 p.m.

“I’m not surprised because I sense the voters connect with what I stand for,” said Verner, whose message has been that she is fiscally responsible and socially progressive, and at the same time a patient listener.

Hawkins reacted with surprise at Verner’s strong lead. “It just means we are going to work hard” during the general election campaign, he said. “We had hoped to have a closer number (of votes).”

Hawkins is campaigning on fostering economic development, strong neighborhoods and sound financial management.

Verner, 49, was appointed to a council vacancy in March 2004 to fill a seat left open when Dennis Hession won the council presidency the previous fall. During the campaign, she went door to door to contact voters directly. She said she learned that many voters pay close attention to city politics.

Hawkins, 53, is seeking to parlay years of civic involvement in traffic and street issues, as well as a stint as chair of the Rockwood Neighborhood Council, into an election victory. He, too, put up a campaign with yard signs and door-to-door contacts.

Bierman, 37, ran a low-budget campaign. A member of the city Plan Commission since 2001, Bierman had said he was pleased to be part of the campaign debate.

Verner moved to the Spokane area in 1992 to take a job with the Spokane Indian Tribe and is now the executive director of Upper Columbia United Tribes. She has extensive experience in tribal, community and environmental affairs. She spent two years working in environmental protection in the Virgin Islands. She is a pilot and descendant of the Muskogee. She moved into the city of Spokane in 2002.

Hawkins, 53, is owner of Spokane Falls Insurance and chairman of the city’s Citizens’ Streets Commission. He was part of a citizens’ committee that helped develop a successful street bond issue last year. His father, Dallas E. Hawkins, was a Texas oil wildcatter who moved the family to Calgary, Alberta, where Hawkins attended high school. He came to Spokane in 1975 to attend Gonzaga University.

Bierman, 37, has government experience through working on local government committees. He earned his doctoral degree from the University of Washington with a dissertation on the distribution of nuclear fusion barriers.