"Independent" Money in the Spokane Elections
Spending by special interests in the 2019 Spokane municipal elections shattered the prior record by a factor six. Who spent it? What were they able to buy? What was the timeline and who was the instigator?
By October 30, a week before the November 5th voting deadline, "independent" expenditures topped a million dollars. The previous record for PAC spending in City of Spokane municipal elections was a mere $176,000 (established in 2013).
The 500 pound gorilla of independent expenditure was the Washington Realtors Political Action Committee (WA RPAC). Consider:
1) WA RPAC's spending in Spokane elections in 2019 totaled $620,000, well more than half of the total $1,114,000 of all the independent expenditures in the Spokane elections.
2) WA RPAC's $620,000 exceeded the money raised and spent by the official campaigns of the four candidates they supported ($601,000 was the total directly controlled and spent by the Woodward, Wendle, Rathbun, and Cathcart official campaigns combined).
3) WA RPAC's $620,000 spent on Spokane is more than half of all the money WA RPAC spent on the 2019 elections statewide. Why us?
Spokane Valley resident Tom Hormel and chairman of WA RPAC takes credit. Here he is quoted in the Spokesman two days before the general election:
“If you’re going to get involved, you got to get involved to win,” he said. “If you’re going to spend $300,000 and lose, that’s insanity.”
He spent $620,000 of mostly outside money (See P.S. below), pissed off a lot of people, and still mostly lost.
The timeline of WA RPAC's and other special interest "independent" spending is worth examining. Without the timing, there is a tendency to dismiss the whole affair as the usual political infighting, a face-off between builders, realtors, and various unions, ho hum, the usual stuff of politics. The data tell a different story, a surprise attack and a gross attempt to buy an election using outside money. The spending totals and the timing of the expenditures are all available at pdc.wa.gov. (The numbers I present are rounded to the nearest thousand.)
The opening salvo came from the Washington Realtors Political Action Committee (WA RPAC) with $176,000 expended in support of Woodward, Wendle, Rathbun, and Cathcart, reported to the PDC on July 23th and 26th.* All of this was in advance of the August primary election and long before any countervailing independent expenditures could be gathered and made. Directed by Tom Hormel, WA RPAC waded in with electoral equivalent of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
For a Spokane election this was a never-before-seen incursion of outside funds. It wasn't until October 9, more than two months later, that the first opposing independent expenditure (of more than $75 dollars) was reported to the PDC. An existing, but very new PAC (established on a shoestring in March of 2019), called Citizens for Liberty and Labor (confusingly listed as "CIT FOR LIBERTY AND LABOR, 2019" at the pdc website) was enlisted and mobilized to respond to the onslaught of money from the Washington Realtors PAC.
With WA RPAC in the lead, Republican interests lavished a total of 870,000 dollars ($620,000 of that was RPAC money) in support of Woodward, Wendle, Rathbun, and Cathcart. (See below at the ** for the breakdown.) Citizens for Liberty and Labor, playing catch-up, managed to gather and spend just 244 thousand in support of only two candidates, Ben Stuckart for Mayor (235K) and Breean Beggs for City Council President (9K).
Republicans, supported by WA RPAC and local wealthy interests, outspent Democrats and Progressives by a 3 to 1 margin. What did they get for their money? The answer depends on whether you're an optimist or a pessimist:
Optimist: All the Republicans achieved with all that money, organization, and strategizing was to maintain the status quo. Woodward replaced Condon for Mayor, Cathcart replaced Mike Fagan for City Council (NE Spokane). Both Condon and Fagan termed out, both have Republican views. The balance of power in city government didn't change with their replacements.
Pessimist: Trump lost among voters in the City of Spokane in 2016 by a margin of more than 10,000 votes. That $870,000 the Republicans spent counteracted what could have been a massive loss for them. Moreover, they got Michael Cathcart, a realtor/developer favorite, instead of a far right Northwest Grassroots type who might have been a problem for real estate interests (Tim Benn).
Keep to the high ground, Jerry
*The "Spokane Good Governance Alliance," funded by a few wealthy localswith interests in real estate and Republican politics, reported a $10,000 expenditure in favor of Woodward on July 30, further upping the ante before the Primary.
P.S. The galling thing about WA RPAC is its support of a slate of obviously doctrinaire Republican (but nominally "non-partisan") candidates, mostly political neophytes, using money from all over Washington State. The money that came from local realtors was largely gathered in $35 amounts from often unsuspecting realtors who checked the box on their membership renewal. If I were a realtor, I'd be pissed.
The total contributions to WA RPAC's coffers from the 986 contributing members with Spokane addresses was only $68,000 (of the $620,000 WA RPAC spent on Spokane's elections). Nine hundred and ten of those 986 Spokanites (presumably realtors) made donations of $35 or less, i.e. they "checked the box."
P.P.S. One more optimist viewpoint: Maybe, just maybe, Tom Hormel and his Realtors fouled any reputation for fairness they might once have had with the general public.
**Breakdown of outside expenditures:
Nadine Woodward for Mayor (423K) Cindy Wendle for City Council President (343K) Andrew Rathbun for City Council (NW Spokane) (66K) Michael Cathcart for City Council (NE) (38K). Total: 870K
Ben Stuckart for Mayor (235K) Breean Beggs for City Council President (9K) Total: 244K