04-08-2025
Campaign cash in Spokane elections falls along typical lines -- even in race with two Democrats
Aug. 3—Washington's primary elections are Tuesday, and while Spokane's City Council races aren't yet attracting the kind of big money they did in 2023, hundreds of thousands of dollars are already pouring in.
It's an opportunity for the council's thin conservative majority to gain the seats needed to have some power in city government, or for the liberal majority to oust one of their loudest critics — and for donors both big and small to attempt to sway the outcome.
While there are three Spokane City Council seats up for election this year, one in each district, only one appears on primary ballots.
This means more cash to spend in that race and a greater need to spend it. State law limits donations from a single source to $1,200 per candidate per election; primary and general elections count as separate elections. Races with more than two candidates appear on the primary election ballot, effectively doubling the amount of campaign cash donors can send to candidates.
In recent years, races with an active primary election have primarily benefited the coffers of Spokane's conservative candidates, who are significantly more likely to receive maxed-out donations and can make the most use out of the higher limit.
This pattern has held thus far for the only City Council seat on this year's primary ballots: Northwest Spokane, where incumbent Councilman Zack Zappone is defending his position from two conservative contenders. They are delivery driver Chris Savage and private cigar lounge co-owner Cody Arguelles.
Arguelles leads total contributions, with $45,600 raised compared to $37,000 for Zappone and roughly $35,000 for Savage. Arguelles also leads, by far, in high-dollar contributions, with four double-maxed donations of $2,400 each from the Associated Builders and Contractors of Washington political action committee, the Harley Douglass Rental Account and LKB Properties.
Arguelles has received another 11 donations of at least $1,200 from many of the area's most reliable conservative donors: real estate, hospitality and self-storage interests. Nearly half of Arguelles' donations came directly from companies or corporate associations.
These other top donors include the self-storage company Pay 'N Pak, hotel managers Peppertree Hospitality Group, the trust of the family of Jerry Dicker of GVD Commercial Properties, Backyard Public House, RenCorp property management executive Chris Batten, the Build East political action committee, commercial real estate company Kiemle Hagood CEO Gordon Hester, the Rental Housing Association of Washington, Best Western Peppertrees of Washington owner Rita Santillanes, and Alvin and Jeanie Wolff of the Wolff real estate empire.
A relatively small portion of Arguelles' campaign cash comes from small-dollar donations, around $2,700 in total.
Zappone, who holds the record for the most money raised by a Spokane City Council candidate from his 2021 race, is currently in the middle of the fundraising pack this year with support from labor interests and other typical liberal donors, raising around $37,000.
He has received two double-maxed donations: $2,400 each from the local branch of the Laborers International Union of North America and the Spokane Firefighters Union political action committee. Zappone received $1,200 from another six organizations, including three other unions, retired surgeon Jerry Leclaire, former Gesa Credit Union executive Brian Griffith, and Avista.
Zappone leads significantly in small-dollar donations, with $8,700, nearly a quarter of his coffers.
Both Zappone and Arguelles have been relatively frugal with their campaign cash with just days left in the primary election, likely in part because anything over a $1,200 donation from an individual donor generally can't be touched before the general election. The penny -pinching may also come with the expectation that they will make it past the primaries and need to spend big in the coming months. And at least in Arguelles' case, there's $5,000 in campaign debt to consider, which would need to be paid out of surplus contributions sooner or later, depending on his performance on Tuesday.
Zappone reportedly has around $23,000 cash on hand, around 62% of his takings thus far, signaling his campaign's comfort headed into Tuesday's election, while Arguelles has around $18,000, or 39% of what he's raised.
Chris Savage, on the other hand, has taken another approach entirely. This is his fourth run for Spokane City Council, and in all previous attempts he failed to make it past the primary, so his campaign cash strategy appears to be: spend it if you got it.
He certainly has raised more cash this year than in any of his previous attempts, reporting roughly $35,000 in contributions, of which he has spent more than $29,000, more than either of his better-funded opponents. It appears to be part of a name-recognition blitz campaign, along with the string of public forums Savage has attended while either only Zappone or neither of his opponents joined him.
It remains to be seen whether the strategy pays off, but if it does it will leave Savage in an initially precarious, cash-strapped position headed into the general election; at least temporarily, though he would likely soon attract the deep pockets currently in Arguelles' corner if the political newcomer fails to advance.
Savage could also potentially ask some of his top donors to dig deeper into their own pockets, as he has attracted many high-dollar donations but few that have gone beyond that $1,200 maximum allowed for the primary election. Those current top donors include Mike Kelley, of KT Contracting; Brandon Casey, of the Casey Law Office; former Spokane County GOP vice chair Lyle Dach; retiree Brett Ellis, of Winnsboro, Texas; retired teacher Jackie Gleason; Erik Nelson, of Koru Pharmacy; and both Mark and Pam Walker, of Walker's Furniture.
Savage's own family also gave the lion's share of the candidate's early campaign cash, and a Friends of Christopher Savage political action committee also donated around $2,400. Despite significantly lower contributions overall, Savage's small-dollar contributions total around the same as Arguelles, just shy of $2,700.
Northeast Spokane
Nowhere in Spokane is there a greater disparity between warchests than in northeast Spokane, where incumbent Councilman Jonathan Bingle — the only member of the city's conservative minority defending their seat this year — is facing reproductive rights activist Sarah Dixit.
Despite not having a primary election and being unable to raise more than $1,200 from any single source, Bingle has thus far raised more cash than almost any candidate in the city with a whopping 25 maxed-out donations. Even after an infusion of cash from a Seattle-area fundraising group, Dixit has raised only around $35,000, currently one of the smallest war chests in the city this year.
Bingle's top contributors are a veritable who's-who of Spokane developers and real estate interests, with maximum donations from the Associated Builders and Contractors of Washington; Batton, of RenCorp Real Estate; Build East PAC; Bonnie Quinn, of KVC Development; the Rental Housing Association of Washington; Sheldon Jackson, of Selkirk Development; Jackson's wife Melanie; LKP Properties; Hester, of Kiemle Hagood; the Washington Multi Family Housing Association PAC; Urban Empire Homes; Mead Works Development; and the Spokane Home Builders Association PAC.
Other maxed-out donors include restaurant owner Derek Baziotis; Dallas Low, of Golden Rule Brakes; Santillanes, of Best Western Peppertrees of Washington; the Washington Hospitality Association; Jonathan Ferraiulio, of the Pacific Holding Corporation; and Avista.
Perhaps the most surprising top donor is the Spokane Firefighters Union PAC, which has typically been more closely aligned with prounion liberal candidates.
Meanwhile, every one of Dixit's maxed-out donors is either from the Puget Sound area or, in one case, her father, Augustin Dixit. She was a recipient of a "money bomb" from the First Mile donor circle, which works to boost the campaigns of progressive candidates of color throughout Washington with the support of deep-pocketed West Side contributors; that added nearly $15,000 to her coffers.
At most, $12,000 of Dixit's contributions have come from Spokane — and more than half of that is small -dollar contributions that don't require information about the donor so the origin can't be quickly verified — while the majority of her campaign is currently funded by out-of-towners.
Outside of the Seattle millionaire's who funneled cash to Dixit via First Mile's recommendation, her top donors the Seattle-based caregivers union SEIU 775.
South Spokane
South Spokane has an interesting election this year, with the only open seat up for election and two candidates who are both Democrats but whose contributions may indicate very different kinds of supporters.
Former Councilwoman Lili Navarrete held the seat until recently, and Shelby Lambdin was appointed last Monday to fill the spot for the next four months while business executive Alejandro Barrientos and former prosecutor Kate Talis seek election this November for a full four-year term.
Barrientos has attempted to position himself as a moderate Democrat concerned about liberal causes like immigrant rights while being friendlier to conservative efforts for stronger law enforcement.
He faces a progressive closely aligned with the council majority. Barrientos has faced accusations of being too closely linked with local business conservatives from the jump, initially due to his employer, businessman Larry Stone, whose big budget political ads and independent electioneering have hounded Spokane's progressives for years with mixed success. Those accusations, potentially potent in the city's bluest district, have only mounted as Barrientos' campaign donations have come in.
Many of his top donors are the standard supporters of local conservatives: $2,400 each from the Wolff family, Patricia and Jerry Dicker, and Bonnie Quinn-Clausen and Kent Clausen, who own marketing and hospitality businesses respectively. Batten donated $1,200, developer Cyrus Vaughn donated another $1,200, retired boat dealership owner William Trudeau gave another $1,200, as have the Build East PAC, the Associated Builders and Contractors PAC.
Conservative politicians have also chipped in, with attempted Republican politician Kim Plese donating $250. Spokane County Commissioner Al French initially donated $125, as did his wife Rosalie, though this was later amended so the entire $250 appears only under Rosalie's name.
Telis, meanwhile, has a coffer more familiar for left-leaning candidates in the city. That coffer's bursting with unions, Democratic politicians, liberal retirees and a significant number of small dollar donations, and at roughly $53,000, it's the largest war chest in the city currently.
LeClaire has donated $1,200, as has attorney and Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown's husband Brian McClatchey, SEIU 775, the Washington Education Association and the Spokane Firefighters Union. Don Barbieri and Sharon Smith of the Smith-Barbieri Progressive Fund each donated $1,200, as have Scott and Kathryn O'Hare, a partner at Austin investment firm Daylight Partners and an attorney respectively.
Two retirees from the Department of Homeland Security donated another $1,200, Leslia Hope and Sheila Rawls, as did retiree Kathryn Maynard. Three members of Telis' own family each pitched in $1,200: Alex, Sherman and Karen Telis.
Others have donated smaller amounts, including City Council President Betsy Wilkerson, former state Sen. Andy Billig, the Washington state Democratic Party and the Washington Machinists Council.
Solve the daily Crossword
