Spokane residents largely backed incumbents and progressive candidates in Tuesday’s election, even after polling found dissatisfaction

While one Spokane City Council race remains a nail-biter, it’s safe to say local progressives have had one of their best showings in years, despite hundreds of thousands of dollars in opposition spending and polling that found residents were dissatisfied with how local government was handling homelessness and public safety.

The city on Tuesday saw its largest leftward swing in municipal elections since 2017 – notably the last time a city election followed Donald Trump’s election to the presidency. Spokane seems to have been just one more example of the small but noteworthy blue wave across the country.

South Spokane’s progressive candidate Kate Telis won her race with a lead twice as large as progressives earned in 2023.

And Northeast council challenger Sarah Dixit took a 53-vote lead over conservative Councilman Jonathan Bingle after more ballots were counted Friday.

Councilman Zack Zappone, a progressive running for re-election in northwest Spokane, is doing more than 11 points worse than his seatmate, Councilwoman Kitty Klitzke, did in 2023, but he still improved substantially from his initial run in 2021.

Northeast Spokane has long been the city’s most conservative district and has consistently sent conservatives to City Hall since 2015 – except in 2017, when former Councilwoman Kate Burke won by more than 16 points.

In any case, it’s another bad year for the conservative Spokane Good Government Alliance, a PAC formed in 2019 to support Nadine Woodward’s first run for mayor that has dumped over $2.5 million into local elections and hasn’t pulled off a major upset in six years. Since 2021, it’s been typical for only one City Hall candidate backed by the alliance to win – in the city’s northeastern district.

Executive Director John Estey said the alliance isn’t in a rut.

“To imply that we haven’t delivered results is simply untrue,” Estey wrote in an email. “The Spokane Good Government Alliance was established in 2019 to advance pragmatic public-safety and accountability reforms. Since then, SGGA has been part of several winning citywide candidate, issue and council campaigns (including Mayor Woodward, Councilmen Cathcart and Bingle and Judges Zappone and Ochoa-Bruck, etc).”

Spokane County District Court Judge Jenny Zappone won her election 2022. Muncipal Court Judge Gloria Ochoa-Bruck won re-election this year. Spokane City Councilman Michael Cathcart won re-election in 2023.

He also stressed the 2023 proposition that banned camping in much of the city, which was backed by the Spokane Good Government Alliance and won nearly 75% of the vote. Although it was overturned by the state Supreme Court, it had been a dominating force in city politics and ultimately led the Spokane City Council to unanimously back even stricter rules late last month.

Still, after a year with no gains and possibly some lost ground, Estey acknowledged that: “After every election, there’s always a time for reflection – an opportunity to analyze results, recognize successes, acknowledge shortcomings, and identify areas for improvement and continuation.”

Interestingly, one possible sign that the alliance’s money still holds weight: the organization declined to support incumbent Bingle.

“Given his reputation as a dedicated workhorse – with the incumbent advantages of name recognition and a proven track record on district-critical issues – we chose to deploy our finite funds toward the open council seats,” Estey said.

Estey said that the organization was “surprised by the tight margin,” arguing it was confirmation of the influence of money in elections due to Dixit’s financial backing, largely from donors from western Washington. Dixit received fewer direct contributions overall than any other candidate for City Council this year.

Estey pointed to the pro-Dixit independent expenditures by the Eastern Washington Freedom for All Political Action Committee, criticizing it for a misleading name, given its West Side donors. The Eastern Washington Freedom for All PAC donated roughly $7,000 to buoy Dixit’s campaign, compared to the roughly $100,000 the alliance spent on behalf of Alejandro Barrientos, who is losing to Telis by roughly 20 points, and the $7,000 spent for Christopher Savage, who is losing to Zappone by about eight points. Overall, the Spokane Good Government Alliance outspent the Eastern Washington Freedom for All PAC 6-1 with little to show for it.

Brad Barnett, the president of the Spokane Business Association, said the SBA never endorsed or opposed any candidates in this election – though on Friday, multiple videos on the association’s website feature Barrientos discussing his concerns for Spokane. Barnett also said he thinks that Democrats pulled ahead in this election because of small turnout rates. More than 44% of Spokane voters cast their ballots in the election.

Many of the election results may seem surprising amid repeated surveys seemingly indicating the public was fed up with the progressive’s leadership. Greater Spokane Incorporated, the region’s chamber of commerce, published its third biannual poll on local perceptions on Oct. 23.

The survey did seemingly predict the success of the Spokane parks levy and what appears to likely be the success of the Spokane schools bond, with 73% of Spokane residents surveyed saying they would support increased public investment in parks and schools, though the survey did cast more doubt on whether voters would choose to raise taxes to secure that investment.

But only 22% of respondents indicated they trusted city leaders to be able to address issues like public safety and homelessness, which were also the top concerns of respondents.

The survey also found that 72% of Spokane residents don’t trust the city to spend their tax dollars responsibly; 78% of Spokane residents don’t trust the city to effectively plan and address issues like homelessness, affordability and public safety; and 75% of Spokane residents believe that recent council policy has negatively impacted local businesses.

Given Spokane is led by progressives, that result would seem to have been a warning sign for the progressives up for election this year.

Perhaps it still was, in a way. Zappone is the only progressive incumbent running this year and is also the only one doing worse than left-leaning candidates did in 2023.

Others argue the disconnect between survey results and election results are the manifestation of an old adage: people don’t like the body, but they like their person, said state Senator Marcus Riccelli, D-Spokane.

“People might not be liking the City Council, but they seem to be liking their council person,” Riccelli said. “Louder voices are negative.”

This election proves that even though Spokane is a place with a plethora of problems, the city still has a lot of positive attributes, Riccelli said.

School Bond Passes with just over 61% yes votes

The passage of the Spokane parks levy and apparent passage of the Spokane Public Schools bond probably can’t be chalked up to a Trump bump or leftward drift this year. Though the Together Spokane proposal was backed by liberals in the area, it also had the support of some local conservatives, including Cathcart and former Mayor David Condon, while the Spokane County GOP decided against the vocal opposition campaign they led in 2023 when the last bond failed.

It’s likely not possible to say if any particular strategy was make-or-break for the tax increases, but given how close the margin was – the Spokane school bond needed 60% to pass and currently has 61.4% – the proposal probably needed every advantage it could get.

It’s a victory that Riccelli says both Republicans and Democrats are behind.

“This is a counter story to hyper partisanship,” Riccelli said. “If you put a good plan together, and people get on board and can see the value, we can do pretty great stuff when we’re all rowing in the same direction.”

Riccelli and Condon both joined the Yes Parks and Schools campaign in August. The pair quickly organized aggressive voter contact plans, Riccelli said.

“We had a great ground operation,” Riccelli said. “It was a very grassroots effort, and it turns out every little bit was needed.”

The campaign knocked on thousands of doors all in the name of what Riccelli calls a “once-in-a-lifetime generational opportunity” to invest in schools. Campaigning for the bond would be difficult, Condon said, and likely passed because parks and schools collaborated in their campaigns.

“It’s a travesty that we don’t feel safe, that our families don’t feel safe in parks,” Condon said. “Making those changes in parks will be critical.”

The election shows that public safety, quality of life and prioritizing kids in Spokane is top of mind for locals, Condon said.

And it’s entirely possible that Spokane City Council’s decision to toughen its laws regulating where homeless people can sleep, sit or loiter in public, a week before Election Day, could have given the bond the edge it needed to win.

“Anything could have tipped the scale,” Riccelli said.

The new law was a significant pivot for a City Council that long resisted enforcement-heavy approaches to homeless camping. Under the previous law, police could not issue citations for homeless people camping.

But Riccelli said that timing was a coincidence. He and Condon were never in touch with City Council members about pushing the new law forward, Riccelli said. If they were, Riccelli said he would have pushed to have the law pass sooner so that Spokane residents could have their concerns addressed.

“Now parks and schools have to deliver,” Riccelli said. “Spokane is still very much a place that will get behind a vision of change, but you’ve got to get out there and communicate it. People have to have that trust that their tax dollars can be put to good use.”