Personal or public, Stark’s error settled

Last year’s complaint over Brad Stark’s unreported campaign money moved toward conclusion on Thursday with the councilman and former assessor candidate receiving a $500 fine from the state Public Disclosure Commission.

But the commission’s file on the matter also offered an interesting window on a dispute between Stark and a former supporter turned critic, Michael G. Smith of Choice of the People. That’s a group that tried unsuccessfully to defeat, and then to repeal, the city’s domestic partner benefits law.

A little background: Stark held a barbecue in August 2005 to help pay off debts from his 2003 council race. Smith was one of some 54 people listed as the “invitation committee” and kicked in $200. More than a year later, he wrote to the PDC to say that Stark had never reported that contribution, or anything else from the barbecue. And by the way, Stark’s signs in that year’s assessor race didn’t say “Elect,” as state law requires, and the “R” for Republican was impermissibly dinky, Smith added.

Stark replied that he was late and tried to explain. He had moved the week of the barbecue, he was busy with work, he was confused as to how to file the report, didn’t have access to a computer or the Internet, and was temporarily kidnapped by aliens.

OK, we made the last one up. But after offering the other explanations, he tried to turn the tables by accusing Smith of engaging “in politically charged activity.” The complaint was payback, Stark contended. Smith thought they were political buds after he voted against the domestic partner proposal that passed the council, but then felt betrayed when Stark wouldn’t vote to put the law’s repeal before voters after the group failed to get enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. Filing the complaint was an example of “hate-mongering” and an attempt to “drum me out of public life,” Stark wrote.

Stark argued he’d already paid a price for his mistakes through intense media scrutiny, public embarrassment and losing the assessor’s primary, but he would accept whatever penalty the PDC dished out.

The commission didn’t seem to care much about the lack of love between Stark and Smith, or the excuses. Its investigators cited the law, noted that Stark didn’t follow it, and that was pretty much that.

Shape of things to come

The Supplemental Spending proposal for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan that the House passed on Friday is sure to be changed in the Senate or vetoed by President Bush.

So that’s the end of it, right? Wrong. For years it will be ammo for political campaigns everywhere. Democrats who voted for it will be accused of not supporting the troops. Republicans who voted against it will be accused of … not supporting the troops.

American politics is as nimble as Gumby. Here’s how it will work:

Incumbents who voted “yes” will be criticized by opponents because they tried to put restrictions and timetables on the military in Iran. “Tried to micromanage the military” will be the line on some TV commercial, possibly with a photo of the incumbent morphing into a photo of Michael Dukakis with his head sticking out of a tank.

Incumbents who voted “no” will be criticized by their opponents because they refused funding needed for the troops. “Left America’s Finest in the Lurch” the commercial will say, and the bill’s number, along with a line that says something like “Voted NO on $125 billion for troops and other needed projects” will flash along the bottom of the screen.

This doesn’t take a psychic to predict. On Friday, Republicans were already accusing Democrats of “voting for defeat” and Democrats accusing Republicans of not giving troops the money they need to fight.

On a different note: protest music

A war protest is nothing without a little music. Most organizers are well aware of this, so they regularly recruit someone who can strum a guitar, lead a ballad or start a sing-along.

Protesters holding a candlelight vigil last week outside the federal courthouse in downtown Spokane recycled a couple of Vietnam-era songs for their gathering, Pete Seeger’s “Bring ‘Em Home” and Ed McCurdy’s “Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream.” Different songs create different moods. The crowd will react one way to “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” and a very different way to Jefferson Airplane’s “Volunteers.”

So if you were organizing a war protest, what songs would you play? And what songs if you were organizing a demonstration in support of the war?

Trivia question: Anti-War songs

Before, during and shortly after the 1968 Democratic Convention, one Rolling Stones’ song was banned from the radio in Chicago. What was it?

Answer below.

Odds are, she’s in

Councilwoman Mary Verner could join the mayor’s race as early as this week. She said recently she is “preparing to run” but has not made the final decision, though people are calling to urge her to run, and she’s talking to people about their support if she does.

That likely is generating a growing buzz that Verner is already in the race. But she insisted she’s not, yet.

She said she expects to make a decision – and possibly schedule an announcement – this week. Here’s a tip: If she schedules an announcement, she’s running. No one schedules an announcement to say they aren’t running for mayor of Spokane.