Following the money in Spokane’s mayoral race

SPOKANE, Wash. — The race for mayor in Spokane has given us a bit of everything — public safety, homelessness, and the housing crisis. But what about the money?

About $500,000 has already been raised between the two campaigns, and former lawmaker Kevin Parker said it will probably reach more than $1 million by November.

“I think this will be the most expensive mayor race in the history of this city,” Parker said.

Woodward already has some notable contributions from the Washington Realtors Association, while Stuckart brings in union contributions nationwide.

“Over the years there have definitely been groups that have come out on both sides of the political aisle who said ‘Hey, I know my union or group went this way but that’s not representative of me,” Parker said.

Each candidate has their own kind of campaign support, but what really separates the two is third party expenditures — that’s the money that isn’t controlled or supported by a candidate, but can be made for or against them.

Woodward has had about $150,000 come in from the Washington Realtors Committee and the Spokane Good Government Alliance.

“It takes money to get the message out, and we have a very diverse group of people who are contributing to our campaign who like our message of making Spokane the best it can be,” Woodward said.

Stuckart, on the other hand, has almost no third part expenditures. Even so, he has still raised nearly $190,000.

“I just think it’s being dwarfed by the outside money, citizens united nationwide said PACs can spend unlimited amounts, and they spent 150,000 on the primary and I think we’ll continue to see that,” Stuckart said. “We hope that people power and knocking on doors counters that outside money.”

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