With filing week over, election season in Spokane County asks if voters want to shake up their cities

Medical Lake residents will be asked whether to re-elect a mayor determined to see the city grow and further developed, or a former mayor worried growth is outpacing the city’s capacity to pay for it and could start to price out current residents.

Mayor Terri Cooper is running for her second term, touting the work her office has done to secure grants and other state support she believes has put the city on a path to revitalization. She highlighted the recent acquisition of Medical Lake Waterfront Park, for example, which the city had leased from the state for decades under terms set to become more expensive but that will now be transferred to the city outright in 2026 under an agreement secured with support from the state legislature.

“I had a vision of creating Medical Lake as an outdoor recreation resort town that people would enjoy coming to enjoy the lakes and trails and beauty of our region,” Cooper said in a brief interview Friday. “The city had basically been in a state of deterioration for many years.”

Cooper said she’s proud of the work her staff and she have done to update local infrastructure and the city’s economic development plan, and boost local festivals and park events, so she’s seeking another four years to build on the foundation she feels she’s laid in the first four.

Cooper also came to regional prominence for her leadership in the face of a devastating fire in 2023 that destroyed dozens of homes in her city. A personal friend of former Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Cooper made a bid last year for that seat but dropped out before filing week.

Her opponent this November will be John Higgins, who served as mayor for 12 years but declined to run for re-election in 2013. He also more recently served as a member of the Medical Lake School Board and worked as a local softball coach for decades before entering politics.

Higgins praised Cooper’s office’s deftness in securing grants, but expressed concerns that the city didn’t have the sales tax base necessary to sustain continued growth in the long term. He pointed to a pending 101-lot development and argued Medical Lake would have to expand its reliance on relatively costly water drawn from the city of Spokane, as well as the potential increase in area property values that would coincide.

“It’s pretty much a retirement community in Medical Lake; there’s not a lot of young folks coming in, except the military,” Higgins said. “I don’t want to see folks pushed out of their homes. And when all this government money, like Biden’s infrastructure stuff, when all that money’s gone, there’s not going to be much money left out there to keep up with all the people moving into Medical Lake.”

Higgins touted that the city had balanced its budget for 12 years under his leadership without raising local utility taxes, which he noted was one of the few levers the city had to increase local revenue.

Last-minute additions in Spokane, Spokane Valley

A few last-minute candidates for local races in Spokane and Spokane Valley mean real primary contests for more races. Races with only two candidates still appear on the August primary ballots, but only in races with three or more candidates is anyone eliminated before the November general.

Justin Reed, co-owner of family business Great American Construction and freelance sports reporter for The Spokesman-Review, filed Friday to run for the Spokane City Council seat representing northeast Spokane against incumbent Jonathan Bingle and social justice advocate Sarah Dixit.

The northwest Spokane council seat also has three candidates: incumbent Councilman Zack Zappone, private cigar lounge co-owner Cody Arguelles and Meals on Wheels board member Christopher Savage.

In the final Spokane City Council seat up for election this year, Alejandro Barrientos, chief operating officer at SCAFCO Steel Stud Company, and Kate Telis, a former deputy prosecutor in New Mexico, are both seeking a seat being vacated by Councilwoman Lili Navarette, who was appointed to the seat in early 2024 and announced earlier this year she would not seek a new term.

Three more candidates for Spokane Valley City Council also filed in the past two days, making that city’s elections the most competitive in the county this year.

Councilman Rod Higgins, the longest continuous serving member of the council, is not running for re-election this year. Four people have filed to try to claim his seat, including Kristopher Pockell, a software engineer and co-owner of Elixir Sauce Company; Mike Kelly, an entrepreneur who serves as chief financial officer for Salem-based KT Contracting; and Lisa Miller, a member of the Spokane County Board of Equalization.

Finally, Adam Smith, owner of Smash Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, filed Friday as the fourth and final candidate vying for the seat. Smith ran unsuccessfully for the Spokane Valley City Council in 2019, 2021 and 2023.

Councilwoman Laura Padden has picked up two opponents this week, including Brad Hohn, manager of the salvage yard High Mountain Horsepower. Joseph Ghodsee, a member of the city’s Homeless and Housing Task Force and Gonzaga University student named Friday to the school’s President’s List, also filed for the position Friday.

Spokane Valley Mayor Pam Haley received an opponent for her council seat Thursday in Realtor Catherine Nelson. Spokane Valley does not have a separate election for mayor, but rather the City Council appoints a mayor from among its members.

Councilman Ben Wick, a councilmember from 2012 to 2015 before rejoining the council in 2017, has drawn a challenge from Daryl Williams, an employee of Fairmount Memorial Park who goes by “The Karaoke Guy” while operating his local karaoke pop-up business.

The county’s largest school district finally picked up a challenger Friday as well. All four Spokane Public Schools board members in seats up for re-election, Nikki Otero Lockwood, Hilary Kozel, Nicole Bishop and Jenny Slagle, have filed to retain their seats. Jessica Anundson, owner of Eye to Eye Advising, filed Friday to run against Kozel.

A second Spokane municipal court position will also be contested.

Judges Kristin O’Sullivan, Mary Logan and Gloria Ochoa-Bruck each filed for re-election Monday. As of Wednesday evening, Logan was the only to draw a challenge – from former Spokane City Attorney Lynden Smithson. On Friday, criminal defense attorney Sarah Freedman filed to run against Ochoa-Bruck.