Race heats up in District 6

OLYMPIA – Quick: What does western Spokane have in common with the outlying suburbs of Seattle?

Its politics, believe it or not.

More so than any other legislative district in Eastern Washington, Legislative District 6 is a battleground between Republicans and Democrats vying for party clout in the Statehouse.

In an expensive battle that left GOP officials stunned, voters in the long-Republican district in 2006 replaced two conservatives with Democrats.

This year, the battle resumes. Freshman state Rep. Don Barlow, D-Spokane, is trying to hold his seat against two Republican challengers and an independent. And the district’s lone remaining Republican state representative, Spokane’s John Ahern, faces a challenge from Democrat John Driscoll.

The crescent-shaped district wraps around western Spokane, stretching almost to Airway Heights and about halfway to both Deer Park and Cheney. With $279,000 raised so far, it’s the most expensive Statehouse tug-of-war in northeastern Washington.

The candidates include a former Spokane school board chairman, a coffee-business entrepreneur, a local doctor of optometry and a low-paid home-health-care aide who saved for years to pay for campaign ads.

Driscoll and Ahern will automatically both advance to the November ballot under the state’s new “top two” primary. But the Aug. 19 primary will winnow to two the four-way race for Barlow’s seat.

Here are those candidates, in the order they’ll appear on the ballot:

Marcos James Ruiz Jr., 38, independent: Ruiz has one of the most unusual campaign expenses of any candidate this year: dog food for the campaign mascot, his German shepherd Sif.

“The Republicans have got the elephant, the Democrats have got the donkey,” he said. “I’ve got the dog. It’s loyal. It’s faithful.”

Raised as an oft-moving son of a Marine, Ruiz went to elementary school in Spokane, returning to the city after graduating from high school in Okinawa, Japan. After stints in manufacturing and on a crab boat in Alaska, he joined the Marines, serving four years before returning to Spokane. He works as a home-health-care worker, bathing, feeding and dressing disabled clients.

“Other than the Marine Corps, this is probably the most rewarding job I’ve had,” he said.

But he feels the major parties are merely “bickering” while average people fall farther behind. He’s spending about $6,000 of his own savings on TV campaign ads.

“I was brought up to believe you work hard, you pay your dues, and you get rewarded,” he said. Yet he cannot afford a home or good health insurance on his $30,000 salary, he said, and many people are in the same boat.

Ruiz wants to boost the region’s economy by focusing on agriculture. He also sees himself as bringing an everyman’s perspective to Olympia.

Mel Lindauer, 45, Republican: Lindauer, a doctor of optometry and real estate investor, also says he’s watched the quality of life diminish for many Spokane-area people. Health-care costs, in particular, are squeezing people.

His top issue, he said, would be expanding the state’s basic health care plan so that small businesses and uninsured people could join the state-subsidized plan.

“We don’t need to re-create the wheel here,” he said.

The Eastern Washington native said he’d also like to strengthen the business climate, particularly with tax relief.

Lindauer describes himself as a “socially conscious Republican” who would be able to work across the aisle with the Legislature’s Democratic majority.

“I bring an open mind to how we can improve Eastern Washington,” he said.

Don Barlow, 70, Democrat: Elected to the state House of Representatives two years ago, Barlow is a mental health counselor and former administrator for Spokane Public Schools. He also served nine years on the Spokane school board.

In Olympia, Democratic leaders have given Barlow some prime bills to sponsor: establishing an Eastern Washington veterans’ cemetery, for example, and continuing state funding for some senior citizen prescriptions. As a counselor, he took on a controversial bill to toughen the then-minimal state regulation of registered counselors. After two years of trying, the bill passed this spring.

Barlow had heart surgery this spring to repair a congenital valve defect. He’s in good health, he said, with more energy than before.

If re-elected, he said, he wants to abolish the statute of limitations for sex offenses against children. He said he’ll also push for more money for the North Spokane Corridor, a new armed forces and aerospace museum, and other local projects.

“I just want to build on Spokane and Eastern Washington in terms of programs, education and health care,” he said.

Kevin Parker, 34, Republican: Parker, an entrepreneur who owns the Spokane-area Dutch Brothers coffee chain, came to Spokane as a Whitworth college student in 1992. After working for an Oregon congressman and as an area director for youth ministry Young Life, he and his family returned to Spokane 2 1/2 years ago.

“Having a business and a young family, I’m intensely interested in the future of Spokane,” he said. After an unsuccessful run for a parks board in Oregon years ago, this is his first major political campaign.

Parker says he’ll bring energy and business sense to the job. He wants better funding for the essentials of education, which he feels includes classified staff salaries, classroom supplies and special education. He also wants to renew the push for money for the North Spokane Corridor, a long-awaited freeway link between U.S. 395 and Interstate 90.

“It doesn’t just connect us from one part of town to another, it connects us to Western Washington,” he said.

He describes himself as a fiscal conservative with a social conscience. He says he can work well with West Side Democrats on issues benefiting the region.