Businessman to seek Senate

Spokane car dealer and business leader Chris Marr is planning a run for the state Senate against Republican Sen. Brad Benson.

Marr, a Democrat, is selling his interest in Foothills Auto Group and has told friends and co-workers he expects to make a formal announcement in mid-Jan-uary.

A former chairman of the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce, Marr said he’s tired of ideologues in both parties who go to Olympia with narrow agendas and don’t accomplish things for Spokane.

“They may rail about whether something’s called a ‘Christmas tree,’ ” said Marr, a reference to a complaint made last month by Rep. John Ahern, another Republican who represents the 6th Legislative District.

While that may make headlines, what to call the tree that is put up each December in the Capitol Rotunda wouldn’t make the list of the top 5,000 things in Spokane, Marr says.

“The business community typically kind of sat there and wrung its hands while politicians said outlandish things,” he said. If businessmen and women aren’t willing to get involved in politics, “things won’t get better.”

A former member of the state Transportation Commission, Marr is a Washington State University regent and has served on the boards of Empire Health Services, the Spokane Symphony Orchestra and the Regional Transportation Council.

His name often comes up when political offices open. In 2004, he was mentioned as a possible congressional candidate when Republican Rep. George Nethercutt gave up his U.S. House seat to run against Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray; last year, Marr was mentioned as a possible Spokane mayoral candidate when Jim West was facing recall.

Marr said recently he is more interested in issues such as higher education, transportation, jobs and health care, which more often are the focus of state government than the federal or city governments. He said he plans to campaign as a fiscal conservative and a social moderate, a pragmatist who can work across party lines on issues.

Marr will run in a district that last elected a Democrat to the state Senate in 1938. But Democrats control both houses of the Legislature, he noted, and Spokane’s only Senate Democrat, Lisa Brown, is majority leader. Brown is one of the people who urged him to run for the Senate.

“The Senate tends to be more collegial, with half the members (of the House) and less structure,” Marr said. “Working with Lisa (Brown), I can get a lot more done for Spokane.”

He likely will face Benson, who has filed his candidate registration forms with the state Public Disclosure Commission but hasn’t formally announced a re-election campaign. While the Legislature is in session, incumbents cannot raise campaign money.

Benson, who served eight years in the state House of Representatives, won the Senate seat in 2004 after West resigned to become Spokane’s mayor. He defeated West’s handpicked replacement, Brian Murray, in the GOP primary and defeated Democrat Laurie Dolan, a former administrator for Spokane Public Schools who now serves as an adviser to Gov. Christine Gregoire, in the general election.

The 2002 race between West and Dolan set a record for campaign spending in a legislative race – a record that still stands. But Marr said the 2006 race could set another record.

“This will be a very hard-fought race,” he said.