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Doug Clark: Thank Mayor Bair for the one-term curse
November 10, 2011 - Updated: 4:13 a.m.
Now comes that post-election moment for rationally minded pundits to scientifically pick apart how David Condon, a political upstart, made up a Goliath-size disadvantage to knock off a sitting Spokane mayor Tuesday night.
Remember the August primary?
Mayor Mary Verner looked invincible by capturing 59.9 percent of the votes.
Condon squeaked into second with a measly 33.3 percent.
How did he do it?
Those same cool-headed analysts will point to Condon’s drive and dedicated door-knocking. They’ll talk about his cash advantage, his backing by the city’s power elite and his ability to put Verner on the defensive by attacking her on hot-button issues like sky-high water rates, Otto Zehm and other SPD malfeasance.
True, Condon was endorsed by this newspaper, but that’s more often a kiss of doom.
Don’t be fooled by all this reasoning, however.
Verner was scorched toast back in April 2010.
That’s when she defied the fates and common sense by announcing her campaign for a second term.
I tried to warn her then about Spokane’s Curse of the One-Term Mayor.
Would she listen to me?
Heck, no.
None of our other in-and-out mayors did, either.
They all had to learn the hard way that there is a force hanging over the city’s top job that is beyond the realm of human perception.
Need evidence?
I give you Ron Bair, James Chase, Vicki McNeill, Sheri Barnard, Jack Geraghty, John Talbott, John Powers, Jim West and Dennis Hession.
These are the one-term mayors who followed the great David H. Rodgers, the last Spokane mayor to enjoy not only a second term but a 10-year run that ended in 1978.
Now we must add Verner to the list.
Let the record reveal that I was first to identify and authenticate this phenomenon back in 2003.
I plan to have “The Curse of the One-Term Mayor” trademarked. That way I can charge a fee to all the other news outlets and reporters who lately have been parroting our one-term mayoral “curse” or “jinx” as if they coined the bloody phrase.
Scoundrels.
My friend Andy Dinnison once offered an excellent opinion as to what triggered this civic hex.
He believes it came about when President Jimmy Carter visited the region in the wake of the Mount St. Helens eruption. Mayor Bair, a pint-size former television news anchor with a big-gulp ego, greeted the commander in chief wearing a buffoonish khaki safari outfit and Australian bush hat.
Bair’s dorkish duds, Dinnison reasoned, scarred our metropolis in the eyes of the world and made every mayor to come along a short-timer.
Verner’s just the latest victim although she probably still won’t accept the truth.
“I think you owe me lunch,” she boomed at me when I visited her gathering inside an Indian restaurant on election night.
As the words left her lips, she gave me a wounded look I’ll never forget.
It made me flash on that “Et tu, Brute?” line that Julius Caesar laid on Brutus.
The mayor probably thinks I’ve been overly harsh in some of my criticisms of her in recent weeks.
Messy business, politics.
Honestly, I don’t know if Verner’s choice for a last hurrah was a good one.
There was no TV in sight. Somebody had scrawled the latest depressing mayoral numbers in Magic Marker on an oversized white tablet.
Whatever crowd had been there had thinned considerably by the time I arrived.
This one unrealistically optimistic guy was saying, “It ain’t over till it’s over. It ain’t over till it’s over.”
Yeah, pal. I’m afraid it really is.
What a contrast it was over at Camp Condon, a trendy winery with exposed bricks and beams a la Manhattan chic.
This is how you organize a political event.
No amateur hour white board. There was a large flat-screen TV on a wall to broadcast actual election reports.
There were lights, microphones and a good sound system for speechifying. Campaign signs littered everywhere.
The joint, to be blunt, looked like it had been laid out by professionals who actually knew what they were doing.
Perhaps this difference in professionalism is at the heart of the amazing Condon comeback.
If you don’t buy into the curse, that is.
I may tell Verner this if she takes me up on that lunch.
I hope she doesn’t want Indian food.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Indian cuisine.
But after giving my condolences to the mayor on election night, I’ll probably always associate the smell of curry with sadness and defeat.
Doug Clark is a columnist for The Spokesman-Review. He can be reached at (509) 459-5432 or by email at dougc@spokesman.com.
Cute, Doug, but we all saw Condon suddenly gain ground on Verner once he “discovered” the Zehm case and related police homicide and cover-up issues.
As Mr. Zehm-button, you know this.
I thought Robert Herold was correct in the Inlander last week that Condon turning to Zehm would make it “close.”
But the election was Verner’s to lose. And there is no “cosmic” curse.
Verner’s fate lay not in the stars but in herself.
She was tone-deaf to the gravity of the Zehm case, as she has shown by saying the issue lacked “substance.”
To minimize the police and city attorney (and…who else, Mary?) cover-up of the Zehm killing is what doomed her.
Her choice.
I guess Condon will have to turn in his court jester hat and will Condon have McRoRo do the coronation?
So if no ones been doing Condon’s job over there at the McRoRo Fun Forest and the world hasn’t collapsed, just what was he doing that was all so important except plotting out how to let Verner destroy herself?
I recall the Spokesman running a picture of Hession wearing a set of black running tights on the news of his Mayor job. Maybe the Spokesman can get a quick snap shot of Condon in his Bizzaro Superman Costume?
Smoking crack wil not make the pain go away Another_Perspec…
mooncalf,
Perhaps…..but it couldn’t hurt…..
Doug Clark your the biggest Idiot in Spokane and your part of the Spokane media problem and why Spokane Media IE Spokesman-KHQ KRUM KXLY SUCK, its time to watch KLEW CBS on Channel 3 for real news, thank gawd the Spokane DMA is one of the two market DMAs that have 2 network affailates of the same network, Boston is the other market, where they have to ABC stations one in Boston and the other in Manchester.
Glad you are still here Drywitt99….Another_Perspec 1:20 am jabberwocky post was so odd I could not help but comment….
Shadedmuse’s surly rant and rave reeks of rage,,,
,,
Here until next Wednesday AM….apparently getting out just in the nick of time.
Mayor Condon???? :(
Doug now has plenty of copy for the next 4 years as the Boy Who Bought the Mayor’s Office “leads” us through our difficult trials.
It’s bound to be a laugh a minute.
I think Doug made this happen.
Ron Bair was the man! I remember meeting him at a gala being held at the Davenport. I was in high school and a couple friends and myself decided to crash this event after dropping a hit of acid. We got all gussied up and walked in like we owned the place. I spent most of my time dancing with elderly gals until I got a tap on the shoulder and turned to face, of all people, my mother!
Is it any wonder with the corruption that Spokane has witnessed for several decades that Verner got the boot? Think River Park Square`s parking garage as one example. And possibly the worst, the cover-up of the Otto Zehm crime.
Shademuse is having a tough month…..or is that a reality check?
Doug, although I consistently appreciate your humor I don’t agree with mystification of this election result beyond what her honor has already done.
Mayor Verner lost this election through her own actions around the Zehm case, which were marked by duplicity and complicity.
These actions and inactions lost her the support of a sufficient amount of her base that her substantial lead in the primary election eroded.
Although I voted for her as the lesser of two evils I have no gripe with those who switched to Condon. As I had said in previous posts if Condon had presented a clear and cogent policy position around police accountability, rather than just threatening to fire Trippiedi (personnel actions are not policy statements) and using accountability as a mere buzzword, I might have swung over to his side.
If anyone is wondering why Mary Verner is not admitting any mistakes it is because she is likely considering her future career in politics.
Ed
Mayor Verner lost the election because enough people were disgusted with how the Spokane is run and how the SPD answers to no one. Newly elected Mayor Condon has his work cut out for himself as the voters expect him to take on the SPD and fire/demote those who were involved in the Zelm coverup. I recently read that the water department’s salary/benefits increased +30% over the last five years. How is that even possible? What other City departments are getting away with that kind of increase? The new mayor will not enjoy a long honeymoon as the voters demand accountability and doing the right thing at all levels of local government.
It was Verner’s to loose and she did. What sunk her was her failure to lead. This wasn’t a “kumbaya” moment. Heads needed to roll - City Atty Delaney, Asst. City Atty Treppiedi, Chief Kirkpatrick and Asst. Chief Nicks. Then ask the feds to examine the SPD from top to bottom.
Whats a Ron Blair? any relation to Tony?
Demotion should NOT be an option here. FIRED is the answer,
since it sets precedence and sends a strong warning for the next person should they deceive or pretend to be a loyal
public servant. There’s no room for teetering on questionable
actions or decisions. HEADS should ROLL, and those folks that
are in the background making these assinine and ridiculous
decisions and statements NEED to GO! Go play your silly game
of building an empire for yourself on your own. You been on the
teet too long, and you need to find out how life and REALLITY
truly is. No excuses any more. And to be taken down by your
own wielding hand of decisions is truly sweet and righteous.
GOOD RIDDANCE!!!! If you’re smart you’ll leave NOW, RAT!
Don’t worry… Mary Verner will land on her feet, securing a mid-management job with the Fed. EPA or the state DOE, where she can run around all day long shreiking “The Aquifer’s drying up! The Aquifer’s drying up!”
@misjustice
I know you try and data mine. But I would like you to go back and data mine Erin Blessing take a good look at what happened after she did what she did, and how it was dealt with. Yep it’s a tough job, she did it and got her ass kicked. But that is the way it goes.
BTW, Karl, I would never give you a hug like just before your Loudermill hearing in the PSB halls, someone might take a picture. How about just taking your lumps or are you such a selfish bastard you will take everyone with you?
Mentor, my ass.
Obtuse alert!
Where’s MisJ on this thread?
whatever happened to bszottlinger?
@Green
Like I told Ron_the_Cop go back and look at the Obits, and see whether or not it was me or some one else.
Ron Blair?
Ron Bair….former mayor……tv anchor…..travel agent….
Oh…..the young?????