Head of Spokane County Democrats walks away, claiming infighting and personal attacks

Spokane County Democratic Party Chair Naida Spencer announced her immediate resignation on Wednesday evening, capping off weeks of rising tensions, accusations of backbiting and an intergenerational rift.

She was the first party leader to last an entire term in the role in roughly a decade, and her tenure ended at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

In a public letter of resignation, Spencer argued that she had unwillingly become the center of interparty conflict and felt stepping down was necessary for the party to move forward, but otherwise made only brief mention of the conflict to which she was referring , largely focusing on the party’s accomplishments.

“I (step down) not out of a lack of belief in our mission or in you, but because my continued involvement could, unintentionally, hinder our progress,” she wrote. “There are individuals who, under the guise of protecting me, have created political complications for others within our community – those who wish to harm our county or use our organization for personal gain rather than the greater good.”

In a second letter obtained by The Spokesman-Review, initially sent only to party leadership, Spencer made more specific accusations of financial exploitation, political retribution, and the weaponization of different party factions to undermine her personally, though she still did not name the individuals she was accusing.

“There have been efforts to manipulate donor and volunteer data for personal gain and use it to benefit private consulting ventures, rather than serve the organization,” Spencer wrote. “Moreover, attempts to weaponize young Democrats for political retribution – particularly directed at me – have created a hostile environment that impairs our ability to focus on our mission.”

“The organization is in capable hands, and it is your responsibility to defend it against external influences motivated by personal ambition or greed,” the letter continued.

In an interview, Spencer described a county party in good hands and capable of moving forward, but weighed down by self-interested people trying to advance themselves at her expense, which she hoped would be mitigated if she stepped away. She clarified that she feared staying on as chair could threaten to open a rift between the main party and the Spokane County Young Democrats that has ended the tenures of former chairs.

“There have been regular rifts as long as the Young Democrats have existed,” Spencer said. “People who don’t feel like they’re getting what they want from the larger party will often go and wine and dine the Young Democrats and use them as a weapon against other people, and it’s the young Democrats who always take the hit for it. It’s their reputation time after time.”

Again, Spencer declined to directly name anyone to The Spokesman-Review, saying only that three people had attempted to undermine the party’s confidentiality agreements to get ahold of donor and volunteer data to bolster their consulting business. Those same three people were also among those trying to weaponize the Young Democrats, she said.

She appeared to be referencing Bernadine Bank, a Democrat who ran unsuccessfully last year to represent Eastern Washington in Congress, Bajun Mavalwalla, who worked as Bank’s campaign manager and whose son faces federal prosecution for his role in the June 11 protests, and Jenna Fliesen, who also worked on Bank’s campaign and currently serves on the party’s executive board. Mavalwalla and Fliesen work together on a political consulting group called Nebula, though they denied Bank was involved in the business other than as a client.

The three have also criticized Spencer’s leadership in the past, as has Ann Marie Danimus, who has criticized the party broadly and Spencer particularly for their tepid support of her campaign, among myriad other disputes. Danimus, who ran unsuccessfully as a Democratic candidate for Congress last year alongside Bank and had said she will run again in 2026 as an Independent, recently split from the Democratic Party, arguing it lacked ethical integrity and is too beholden to corporate interests.

In the Thursday interview, Spencer dismissed Danimus as having a “personality disorder,” and accused people “like Ann Marie, not Ann Marie but people like her,” of manipulating the party’s intergenerational divide.

In a brief interview, Danimus said the party was “a mess” and unable to effectively respond to the “fascist playbook” of Republicans in federal office under leadership like Spencer’s.

“This county is littered with people who have left the Democratic Party because we have not yet had leadership that puts the people first,” Danimus said. “I have heard ‘protect the party’ so many times, it makes me sick.”

Meanwhile, current members of the party with whom Spencer came into conflict in recent weeks, including those she vaguely referred to in her letter to party leadership, in most cases described Spencer as a good person who had invested her time into the party but who was unable to delegate, unable to mediate between the young Democrats and party’s old guard, and who openly escalated conflicts with others in her party.

Sabbatical

Shortly after Spencer was bailed out of jail following her arrest at the June 11 protests in support of two men detained by immigration officials, she decided to temporarily step away as chair. Members of the party who spoke to The Spokesman-Review described her as “taxed,” and the party agreed to her sabbatical through the end of September.

During that time, she tapped Matthew Sorey, the party’s number two, as the acting chair.

That confidence didn’t last long. By mid-August, Spencer had sent Sorey a long list of duties she felt he was failing and informed him that she would be seeking his removal from the position of acting chair.

That email was ostensibly private, but later revealed to have been shared with select members of the party’s leadership team. The party at large learned about it after one of those members of leadership, Christie Buckley, widely shared the list of grievances in a bid to rally support for Spencer ahead of the organization’s August meeting.

Spencer said this was among the examples of someone attempting to defend her in a way that potentially further divided the party.

“My team is not used to dealing with toxic individuals, because I’ve been able to protect them all this time from it, and they reacted in ways to try to protect me that weren’t necessarily appropriate,” Spencer said.

Shortly before the meeting, Spencer reportedly told Sorey she had unilaterally stripped him of his chairmanship and took charge of the meeting. Sorey, asked to comment, sent a statement that thanked Spencer for her service to the party and expressed hope for a collaborative party moving forward, but did not address any of the specific accusations of negligence nor the details of Spencer’s response.

Conflict broke out at the August meeting. Logan Camporeale, a member of the executive board, reportedly argued that Spencer had broken several of the group’s bylaws, including by unilaterally stripping Sorey of his chairmanship and by effectively publicly airing her grievances, a lesson the party was supposed to have learned after a very public dispute between Spencer and now-state Rep. Natasha Hill last summer.

Camporeale declined to comment for this story. Spencer disputes most, but not all, of Camporeale’s accusations that bylaws were broken.

The argument reportedly grew heated, and Camporeale declined to stop speaking when asked. According to Fliesen, a member of the party nearly called 911 to have him removed from the building.

“The cops were never called,” Spencer said. “He was asked to leave. He was out of order. He would not remove himself. We had the right to call the cops, but after looking at the room, it was so tightly packed that we felt like it was a safety issue, so we just let him be.”

It wouldn’t have been the first time in recent years that local Democrats nearly called the police to settle an internal dispute. Hill has accused Spencer of doing the same during their dispute last summer at the Spokane Pride Parade & Festival.

Next steps

Whether the party selects a new leader at its next quarterly meeting in October or at a special session in the coming weeks, Spencer said she’s hopeful the party would be able to move forward.

“I’m hoping that their hatred towards me – I’m hoping to preserve the work that we’ve done by taking that ire off of the party,” Spencer said. “Considering the past drama, this is so small in comparison, and I’m not worried, because the people who make the culture, the people who do the work are still there.”

For her own part, Spencer said she was grieving the loss of the position she had invested years of her life into.

“But I trust my people, and I hope to have a rest like I needed, and then I will get back in the fight in some other way.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify Ann Marie Danimus’ stated reasons for leaving the Democratic Party.