More than a year before election day, two attorneys are already going toe-to-toe to be the next Spokane County Prosecutor

There are still 438 days to go before voters will select a new Spokane County prosecutor, but the voracity with which a pair of attorneys are approaching the eventual contest promises a heated campaign.

Both are fathers with more than a quarter-century in the county’s law firm between them and are drawing distinctions about how they would run the office.

Preston McCollam, who has overseen the criminal side of the office since 2023 as chief civil deputy prosecutor, is hoping his track record and experience will lead voters to elevate him one more notch to the top role in the office. He is challenged by Steve Garvin, an assistant Washington attorney general who spent 15 years as a county prosecutor before leaving the office in 2022.

Garvin and McCollam each have the opportunity to lead in the interim in the coming weeks; they are among the list of three nominees that the Spokane County Republican Party advanced to the board of county commissioners last week to serve the remainder of former Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Haskell’s term. Haskell, first elected in 2014 is a retired U.S. airman resigned in late July with a year to go. Rounding out the nominees is private attorney Marshall Casey, although he’s only in the running so the party could fill all three slots, he said.

State law dictates that the county commissioners must appoint Haskell’s replacement by Sept. 16, 60 days after his resignation took effect, or the decision then goes to Gov. Bob Ferguson.

Although they both were likely shoo-ins to make the shortlist of nominees, Garvin and McCollam lobbied for the opportunity with an intensity that signals their eventual 2026 match-up may be one of the most hotly contested races of the year. Once coworkers, the two have now turned competitors.

Garvin said his decision to seek the nomination, and run as a candidate next year, is more of a calling. His time in the office provided him insight into what he described as a lack of leadership that has affected the office’s culture, effectiveness and reputation, and he believes his experience advocating for victims across multiple public law offices spanning three decades has prepared him to lead the office.

“I would prefer to just work hard and fight for victims in court, but the failures of leadership, the failures to address these issues, and my unique qualifications and experience compel me to move forward with this, with running,” Garvin said.

McCollam, who joined the office in 2015 shortly after Haskell took over the helm, said it’s time for the office to step into the modern era. He’d like to continue his efforts to increase transparency, recruit and retain top talent and advocate for improved facilities to address overcrowding in the jail and a lack of addiction and mental health treatment services. That’s in addition to carrying on his commitment to bringing satisfactory resolutions to victims and the community, of which he said he has a long track record .

“I can see the good that we can do in this community,” McCollam said. “It was natural to take the next step and step into the head role, and I believe that I can take the office higher and farther with my youth and innovation.”

And both men believe the other is the wrong fit for Spokane County Prosecutor.

The new direction in which Garvin hopes to take deputy prosecutors starts with cutting out the “politics” he saw “infiltrating the office” under Haskell’s watch, he said, referring to the social media posts made by Haskell’s wife, considered by many as prejudiced and racist and what Garvin described as an expectation that office members support Haskell in his past re-election campaigns.

“I don’t know what’s in the man’s heart, but these are the facts,” Garvin said. “The facts are that the people who are being promoted to leadership positions were Larry’s political supporters and political donors, and that consistent pattern played out.”

The politics in the office, or the appearance of it, have driven away current and prospective employees, Garvin said.

Records show 32 attorneys have left the county since the start of 2023, according to data obtained by The Spokesman-Review. Leading the list of provided reasons was “career advancement,” cited by 15 outgoing attorneys. Six cited dissatisfaction with pay, the job or their manager, and five retired, including Haskell.

“Nobody left for the money,” Garvin said.

Haskell has faced similar accusations from other former deputy prosecutors. Stefanie Collins, who challenged Haskell for the position in 2022, was left without of a job after the election. The 28-year veteran of the prosecutor’s office said Haskell declined to renew her contract that December, after having her office moved into what was formerly a storage closet, as reported by The Spokesman-Review.

In response to Garvin’s concerns, McCollam said he never saw Haskell’s work affected by his wife’s opinions, and that he believes some members of the office used the issue “for their own political purposes.” During his 10 years in the office that included two of Haskell’s re-election campaigns, McCollam said there was never an expectation that office staffers support the former prosecutor.

“Candidly, I think that’s just an excuse to explain why the other attorneys in the office don’t support him,” McCollam said, referring to the numerous county attorneys who’ve endorsed him over Garvin. “So when you look out there and say, ‘Well, there’s an expectation that they support Preston.’ I could promise you that’s not the case.”

Garvin said he’s taken an oath not to accept endorsements from attorneys in the office or across the county campus in the public defender’s office to avoid any potential conflict or appearance that such support is necessary.

McCollam said he’s proud of the “phenomenal” team he’s assembled under him as chief criminal deputy prosecutor, which includes a mix of veteran, midcareer and freshly minted attorneys. Those in charge of the different units, like property crimes or juvenile, are getting the most out of their teams, share a “unity of purpose” and are helping to shape the law firm into a sought after place of employment.

Also assisting with that latter point are the salary raises McCollam led the charge in securing last year, he said. The increases brought the county’s pay scale for prosecutors and public defenders from one of the lowest in the state to more in line with its peer jurisdictions.

McCollam said the improvements to office synergy were made possible, in part, by individuals like Garvin opting to leave the office.

“You have to be a leader that garners respect and is willing to give respect to others, and that is something that I bring to the table that, quite frankly, my opponent does not,” McCollam said. “Because he does not have the respect of the people that are working in the industry, and that’s largely in part because of how he makes them feel and how he treats them.”

Garvin holds a different perception of his time leading both the juvenile and property crime teams. He told the gathering of Republican precinct committee officers last weekend that he helped tackle backlogs of up to nearly a thousand cases while mentoring young attorneys and collaborating with others. He said he’ll do so again for the entire office as top prosecutor.

Garvin decried what he said are major delays over the last few years from when cases are handed from local law enforcement to the prosecutors and when those cases are filed.

“It’s a cliché, but it’s true that justice delayed is justice denied,” Garvin said. “That’s true both for the crime victims as well as for the offenders. Everyone has a right to a speedy trial and for their matters to be addressed promptly.”

McCollam takes “a lot of personal affront to the notion that our attorneys aren’t working hard enough.”

Last year, Spokane County prosecutors filed more than 3,900 felony cases – more than any other county law firm in the state. By comparison, McCollam said the larger Snohomish and Pierce counties saw 1,500 and 3,400 filed, respectively, despite having much larger teams.

“Some argument can be made that filing that many cases is what’s gumming up the system, but that is simply not true,” McCollam told the Spokane County GOP last week. “We are reflective of what our law enforcement is bringing to us, and I can tell you that your law enforcement community in Eastern Washington is far more vigorous than what we see on the western side of the state.”

McCollam said his office would like to do more to advocate for victims and address crime in Spokane County, but that they are limited by large case loads and higher powers. If elected, he said he’d advocate at the state level to give his office more power and agency that he believes has been stripped away by the state Legislature and Bob Ferguson in his current role as governor and prior role as Washington attorney general. As an employee of the office, McCollam lumped Garvin in by extension.

Garvin argues the prosecutor’s office has failed, and is continuing to come up short in meeting the region’s biggest challenges, which include the issues affecting downtown Spokane.

He said property crimes go largely ignored while drug crimes have not been addressed effectively since being reduced to misdemeanors, which are handled by the city’s prosecutors in district court. While both men would like to see those come back under the office’s purview through the Legislature returning the possibility of felony charges, Garvin thinks the office should be doing more.

On Day 1, Garvin said he would direct his staff to begin preparing a lawsuit against the city of Spokane to address what he described as “lawlessness we see in the streets.” It’s yet to be seen if the Spokane County Board of Commissioners, who hold final decision -making power over county business, would support Garvin’s idea and direct him to file the suit.

“We do not have to be victims of the poor management of the city, and by bringing real time justice and swift and certain justice, we will address these urgent problems in our community,” Garvin said.

The county commissioners will vote to appoint a replacement for Haskell in the weeks to come. As the only serious nominees, the choice is between Garvin and McCollam. McCollam received the most support from the Republican party in the nomination process, and has received endorsements from Commissioners Al French and Mary Kuney.

Earning the appointment to lead the prosecutor’s office for the next year will require a majority vote, three of the five members of the commission.

Regardless of whom the board chooses, however, the race and the sharp criticisms already bubbling to the surface will likely only get more intense.

The first matchup put to the voters will come in the 2026 primary scheduled for Aug. 4, 2026, as both have filed as Republican candidates.