Spokane campaigns pivot to wildfire relief efforts ahead of election day

Campaigns vying for Spokane political office shifted to fire recovery ahead of Tuesday’s election, instead of focusing on get-out-to-vote efforts and election night parties.

Several campaigns halted electioneering in the face of fires that wiped out hundreds of their would-be constituents’ homes.

“We tried to stay out of people’s way. It felt really inappropriate to yell ‘yay, vote for me’ when people were going through such trials and tribulations,” said Democratic 5th Congressional District candidate Bajun Mavalwalla.

At his campaign watch party Tuesday evening Mavalwalla collected donations for a fire victim.

Independent Nate Powell took the same approach: He turned campaign canvassers into telemarketers raising money for fire recovery.

“We’ve been calling through our donor lists seeing if they would consider donating to the Red Cross, the Spokane City’s Home Starts Here program, or the Spokane Regional Long Term Recovery Group. That long term recovery funding, I think, often gets forgotten about. But recovering from these wildfires is going to take years,” he said.

Powell, who is a Spokane firefighter, has not been on the front lines of the Spokane Complex Fire. He was doing campaign work when fires broke out and did not receive a volunteer call before California firefighters reached Spokane.

“I took a day of vacation to do campaign work when they all blew up and then when they made the call out, they staffed up before I was in a position to call in for that callback,” he said.

Democrat Carmela Conroy continued campaigning in “counties unaffected by the wildfires,” she said.

U.S. Rep. Michael Baumgartner ceased campaigning Saturday and worked over the weekend to secure federal aid for Eastern Washington. One worker for his campaign lost their home on the fire.

“I’m gonna be engaging a lot with the White House to make sure that we get the support we need. The eyes of the nation are on here, because this is really unprecedented,” Baumgartner said at his campaign offices Tuesday night.

Several Spokane County Republican candidates canceled their primary election party Tuesday evening due to the ongoing wildfires in the city.

In an announcement Tuesday morning, the GOP candidates said that as “firefighters, first responders, the American Red Cross, and countless volunteers work tirelessly to fight the fires and assist those affected,” candidates believed the focus should remain “on the families and communities facing loss and uncertainty.”

The Spokane County Democrats did not plan to host an election watch party.

Individual congressional campaigns still held campaign events Tuesday evening as results rolled in, but many of those events had shifted to donation drives for fire victims.

Candidates and campaigns also had their own tragedies from the fire. One Baumgartner campaign worker lost their home in the fire and a Conroy staffer evacuated from their home and has been staying with the congressional candidate since Saturday.