This day in history: A push to gather support for eventual president Jimmy Carter landed in Spokane

From 1976: The Western states’ campaign coordinator for Jimmy Carter who had emerged as a front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination – arrived in Spokane to drum up support in the state.

This was an ambitious goal, considering that one of Carter’s chief rivals was Washington’s Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson. Also, two other Western politicians were in the running: Idaho’s Sen. Frank Church and California Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. (aka Jerry Brown).

Carter’s representative dismissed those two names.

“They are regional candidates, favorite sons, not serious candidates, and maybe they will have 100 delegates at the Democratic convention piece,” he said.

He also dismissed Humbert Humphrey’s chances.

“Carter and Jackson are the only two candidates who can get the nomination,” he said.

Carter would go on to win not just the nomination, but the presidential election.

From 1926: The East Sprague Commercial District was establishing itself as one of the up-and-coming business districts in Spokane.

“East Sprague Avenue is catching the eye of the automobile industry and several large garages and salesrooms have opened in recent months,” The Spokesman-Review reported. “An outstanding business activity along another line was the coming of the Inland-American Printing Company, which erected a fine modern plant on the avenue.”

The S-R said that the Sperry flour mill remained the “outstanding industrial enterprise of the district,” along with a number of match block factories, lumber yards, lumber mills and packing plants.

“East Sprague and the Apple Way are also part of one of the principal transcontinental highways between Chicago, the Twin Cities and the Coast,” The S-R wrote. “Thousands of tourists traverse it during the summer season.”