Camden: Coffers relatively low in Spokane’s 6th District race

Baumgartner’s re-election campaign against Democrat Rich Cowan in 2014 was only the sixth most expensive in the state, in part because of competitive races in Western Washington, where everything is more expensive, and because the independent groups weren’t nearly as interested in risking money in a district that had been redrawn in 2011 to be more reliably red.

This year, it’s possible the campaign for an open seat between Republican Jeff Holy and Democrat Jessa Lewis might not even crack the Top 10, even though the race is shaping up to be much closer than 2014. In the primary this year, Holy’s lead over Lewis was less than 5 percentage points.

At last count, according to the Public Disclosure Commission, Lewis had raised about $223,000, less than any Democratic challenger since the 1990s. Holy, a three-term state representative who jumped into the Senate race after Baumgartner decided to run for county treasurer, has even less, about $171,000.

While neither candidate is turning away contributors, both contend they have what they need for the kind of campaign they planned to run. Each said they are focusing on the “ground game” — what candidates call getting into the precincts, knocking on doors and asking people for their vote — rather than an extensive, expensive television and radio ad campaign.

The Senate Republican Committee has given Holy $20,000, equal to what it gave Baumgartner in his re-election campaign four years ago, but about one-third of the nearly $60,000 that committee gave Baumgartner in his initial campaign.

Lewis said Democratic organizations are having to spread money over more races this year with a campaign theory of contesting “every race in every place.” Still, the state Democratic Campaign Committee has given her $40,000 — twice what it gave Cowan in 2014 or Marr in 2010. But the more valuable help the committee has given is “actual manpower,” in-kind contributions of staff to help with campaign operations.

Independent interference

Missing thus far from the 2018 race are the massive independent campaigns that marked the Marr vs. Baumgartner race in 2010. Independent campaigns often are more willing to “go negative” or cross a line from obnoxious to questionable.

The one exception this year is the mailer funded by a major donor to Donald Trump and a Republican activist that urges people who consider themselves “progressives” to cast a write-in ballot for someone who isn’t running.

Progressive groups that support Lewis but are mentioned in the ad in a way that suggests they support the write-in campaign have filed a complaint with the PDC and are talking about suing. A counter-ad by the Lewis campaign is part of an “ongoing discussion,” she said, but the phony write-in ad seems to be activating both volunteers and donors.

Holy, who said independent expenditure campaigns often throw a campaign off-message with “garbage tactics,” has denounced the ad. And while a candidate can’t tell an independent group what to do or not to do, he said his message is “Don’t do me any favors.”