Mayoral race all talk so far

The campaign for mayor of Spokane in 2007 is starting to sound a bit like Mark Twain’s famous quote about the weather. Everybody, it seems, talks about someone else who should be running; hardly any of them actually are running.

Incumbent Mayor Dennis Hession definitely is. He has been raising money since June and formally announced his campaign last month.

City Councilman Al French almost certainly is. A formal announcement is expected any day.

Other potential candidates have been suggested, almost always by someone else. For most of those named candidates, the reaction ranges from “probably not” to “no way.”

“I can be definite about it. I am not running for mayor,” said state Sen. Lisa Brown, the Senate majority leader.

“I have no intention of running against Dennis (Hession),” said Don Barbieri, a former Spokane Chamber of Commerce chairman and a 2004 congressional candidate.

“The City Council was the height of my political aspirations. I’m busy enjoying my grandchildren,” said Cherie Rodgers, a former city councilwoman.

“Are you kidding? No,” said Shannon Sullivan, the leader of the petition drive that led to Mayor Jim West’s recall.

“A bunch of people have talked to me, but I have an easy out,” said Shaun Cross, an attorney who also ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2004. “I don’t live in the city.”

“I’m basically not even thinking about it,” said Sheri Barnard, a former mayor. But Barnard would like to see at least one woman in the race for the city’s chief executive spot, and if one doesn’t get into the race, “I just might have to run myself.”

City Councilwoman Mary Verner said she wasn’t seriously considering a campaign a few months ago and still doesn’t have any plans “at this time.”

“I have had quite a few people ask me to consider it,” she said last week. “I have told them I would think about it.”

But Verner said she’ll need to see support from a wide range of constituencies – labor, neighborhoods, business owners – before jumping in.

A contest between Hession and French would be unusual for recent Spokane political history. It would be the first Spokane mayoral election in 18 years in which both candidates hold a city office. Barnard beat fellow Councilman Rob Higgins for mayor in 1989; since that time, every successful candidate for mayor has been an “outsider” to City Hall, although some had political experience elsewhere.

The trend started under the old form of city government, when the mayor was primarily the leader of the City Council with some extra administrative duties, and technically a part-time job that paid $36,000. It continued after the voters dumped the city manager form of government in favor of an elected chief executive, or strong mayor, responsible for overseeing city operations. The job currently pays $146,900.

Outsider status is fleeting for anyone who wins the race, because a sitting mayor becomes the ultimate insider. No mayor in Spokane has been elected to a second term since 1973, although the three before Barnard didn’t run for various reasons.

Three years ago, Mayor John Powers lost in the primary to two City Hall outsiders – state Sen. Jim West and journalist Tom Grant. When West won in the general election, he became the first legislator to move into the mayor’s office. Hession, who beat French for the job of council president in the same election, was appointed mayor after voters recalled West in 2005.

West’s electoral success in 2003 isn’t luring other legislators into the race this year. Brown, most often named as a possible candidate for any office on an upcoming ballot, said she’s not interested in leaving the Senate, where she leads a large majority of Democrats and works closely with a Democratic governor.

Some political observers in Olympia have speculated that she’s just masking her intentions until the end of the session, to avoid any loss of clout among her caucus. But Brown is fairly Sherman-esque in her insistence she won’t run for mayor: “I’m going to stay put.”

Newly elected state Sen. Chris Marr – who like Brown is frequently mentioned as a candidate for almost any office, and like Brown said he is not running for mayor – doubts that another well-known, establishment candidate will get into a race between French and Hession.

“If there’s another candidate, it’s going to be a dark horse, a Tom Grant type who can play the outsider,” said Marr, a freshman Democrat. “It’s hard for Dennis and Al to play the outsider.”

David Bray, a neighborhood activist who has run for City Council, said he’s heard many names suggested in recent months for the mayor’s race, but none has committed.

“I’m sure somebody’s going to come out of the woodwork,” said Bray – also not running for mayor; he’s supporting French.

Mayoral candidates in the past have had some success getting into the race late in the game. West filed for office the next to last day possible in 2003. John Talbott, who won the office in 1997, filed with only minutes left before the deadline.

But anyone who comes out of the woodwork can’t wait as long as past candidates to decide to run. A new law moved the state’s primary up to Aug. 21 from mid-September. That moved the deadline for candidates to file for office to June 8 instead of the last Friday in July.