The horse race

The big topic of discussion this morning was the latest development in the GOP primary for Spokane County Assessor . In case you missed it, the county Republican Party has withdrawn its support for candidate Brad Stark, which should prove to be an interesting conundrum if he happens to win the primary.

“What’s prompting this is not 100 percent clear right now,” political reporter Jim Camden said. Usually, if a party is certain that a candidate won’t win a primary, they won’t make a statement one way or the other, he said.

The involvement of a former opponent’s mother made the story all the more intriguing. Readers may recall that this is the same race in which one candidate reportedly called the other one “fat.”

“And we thought the Cal-Ozzie race was going to be the fun one,” deputy city editor Dan Hansen noted. “Maybe their mothers will get involved.”

It wouldn’t be the first time. Camden said that a few years ago, we received an anonymous drop-off of incriminating evidence against a candidate (no one could immediately recall what race this was or when exactly it happened). The mysterious tipster left the package at our front desk, but security camera footage revealed that it was the opponent’s mom.

Camden said that when this was publicized, we were accused of outing an anonymous source, which he said isn’t quite how it works. “You don’t get to anonymously drop something off.”

(shameless plug) And speaking of the election, those of you who still have primary ballots sitting on the kitchen table might find our election database helpful in filling them out. (/shameless plug)