Dennis Hession |
Mary Verner |
The Spokane mayoral race has become increasingly heated, but it seemed to take a distinctly new, and fierce, turn on Monday. That came during one in a lengthy series of debates (another was scheduled for tonight) when Mayor Dennis Hession said that Council member Mary Verner, who is running against him, proposed establishing an Indian casino in a downtown building. (Verner, we should note, is staff director for a regional inter-tribe organization.)
The exchange (audio is available online) was launched with a question from Hession to Verner: Last year, “you approached me on behalf of one of the gaming native tribes about purchasing the Rookery block for the purpose of developing the area as a gaming site. What is your position about gaming in the downtown area and the city of Spokane?”
Verner: “First, I unequivocally deny that I ever approached you on behalf of any of the tribes regarding a gaming facility in downtown Spokane, and I defy you to produce any evidence that I did so.” She said that so far as she knew, none of the tribes she works with has ever approached the city with such an idea. (Hession acknowledged that he had no concrete record of the conversation.)
Here we have some high drama, of a sort you only occasionally see (less often than many people would say) in political campaigns. This isn’t a difference of opinion of a matter of interpretation: Only one of these candidates can be telling the truth.
They’ve got some interesting debates ahead of them, don’t they?
Spokane voters may wish they’d been issued a lie detector along with their ballots.
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