Mayor candidates list donors

Spokane’s mayoral candidates are starting their campaigns by tapping money sources closest to home.

A review of the campaign contribution reports from the three announced candidates for mayor shows they are drawing money from different sources, and finding their strongest support in different parts of the community.

Mayor Dennis Hession’s biggest source of campaign cash and other assistance continues to be Avista Corp., the region’s largest utility. In March, Avista gave the Hession campaign $2,000 in cash, plus computers worth $1,950, and paid the campaign’s office rent of $350. That’s on top of the $9,900 it spent in February for a political poll on local candidates and issues, which it shared with the Hession campaign.

Outside of the Avista contributions, Hession has drawn about a third of the rest of his funds from two ZIP codes in the center of Spokane’s South Hill, areas he represented as a councilman from Spokane’s 2nd District. The 99203 ZIP code, where Hession lives, is the area where he’s received the most money from individual donors.

He has relatively little money from northeast Spokane, and none from an area bounded roughly by Division, Market, Mission and Francis. That area, which is the 99207 ZIP code, is where City Councilman Al French lives.

It’s also the area that has contributed the most money to the campaign, solely on the strength of the money French himself has spent. The ZIP code directly south, which includes the Logan Neighborhood, Gonzaga University and East Central, has the largest total of donations from sources other than French himself.

City Councilwoman Mary Verner, who officially entered the race last month, is also the largest source of money for her campaign. She’s loaned the campaign $2,000, and the only other significant contribution is from Lincoln Heights Investment Company, which operates Big Daddy’s casino in a South Hill shopping mall. Verner also represents the 2nd Council District.

This early in the campaign, a few contributions from wealthy donors can cause major shifts in the money patterns. While Hession has been raising money since mid-2006, French and Verner began campaigning after the first of the year.

Among Hession’s latest donors is James P. Cowles, the chairman of Inland Empire Paper Co., former president of the company that publishes The Spokesman-Review, and uncle of newspaper publisher W. Stacey Cowles. The donor list also includes Steven B. Smith, who is no relation to Spokesman-Review Editor Steven A. Smith.

French, Hession and Verner have all received contributions from a few of the same donors in the past, including Avista, recently elected state Sen. Chris Marr and local business leader Don Barbieri. But thus far, the only contributor to more than one campaign is Spokane Valley City Councilman Rich Munson, who has given French and Hession each $50.