2024 – 05-13 – On to the Primary – WA 4th LD State Senate Candidates

Movie Night for May13 follows the 2024 Candidate Filing Date. Cecily made sure that ALL candidates (4 Republicans and 2 Democrats) were invited to present. Only Miguel Valencia presented as a (D) candidate.

The event was presented before a full house. The email announcement provided websites for all candidates and the audience was encouraged to review their materials and come with questions.

The mtg process followed this outline:

Start of meeting with short overview of International, National, State and Local updates.

Next starts the candidate introduction speeches – in the following order:
0:38:18 Leonard Christian – 4th LD State Representative
0:45:37 Pam Haley – Mayor of Spokane Valley
0:49:23 Mike Kelly – recent transplant to Spokane, business owner and local newcomer to politics – endorsed by resigning Senator Mike Padden
0:53:43 Al Merkel – Spokane Valley City Council
1:00:08 Page Scott – no show.
1:02:05 Miguel Valencia – new to politics

1:09:48 Group Q&A – at this point all candidates are on stage and take questions directly from audience. Questions were open; that is, to individuals or to the group to answer. Al Merkel took considerable time explaining his position and being censured by Spokane Valley City Council, etc.

When it seemed that all the questions had been asked, Cecily tactfully asked the question of the candidates “Is there anything in your past that may be used by the media to smear you or the Republican Party? The answers start with Pam Haley and end with Mike King. Considering that Mike King presented on his web page that he was convicted of drug trafficking while carrying a firearm, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison (30 years ago), appealed the sentencing of the crime, resulting in a lowered sentencing time, and was released after about 7 years’ incarceration. we wanted the audience to hear his response to that.

After Mike completed his answers, John clarified the intent of the question; ‘If the media (Spokesman / Inlander) determine to do an exposé on the story, indicating the detail of the charges, and that could destroy his run for the seat and also cause the race to go to a Democrat. John also questioned the reasonableness of retiring Senator Padden’s endorsement (on the same day as he announced his retirement), and Kings announcement the same day. Senator Mike Padden spoke to his reasons for endorsement.

There was a short-removed section here where John got a bit foul-mouthed about the Republican Party’s continual slating of anti-America First, GOPe (establishment) candidates; like Bush, Romney, McCain, and now Reichert candidates.

All in all, it was an interesting event and we hope this video will help others recognize the kind of people running for this office.