With ballots delivered to Spokane voters and two weeks until Election Day, spending on the mayoral race between Ben Stuckart and Nadine Woodward breached the $1 million mark after an independent conservative political group spent $50,000 on ads attacking Stuckart.
The increase in outside dollars being spent in Spokane and elsewhere is a consequence of the landmark 2010 Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which said the First Amendment prohibited limits on independent expenditures by corporations, labor unions and other groups.
“The Supreme Court, in the last decade, has really made it easier for money to get into the system,” said Travis Ridout, a political science professor at Washington State University who studies campaign financing. “And we’re not just seeing more spending at the federal level, but at the state and local level.”
Federal elections tend to draw more dollars, making one person or group’s spending less influential, said Ridout. Local elections, however, are much easier to influence with a much smaller outlay of money. Beyond that, he said, local elections draw large sums when they’re competitive, like the race between Stuckart and Woodward, and if they’re “the training ground for future congressional races.”
Ridout warned against drawing conclusions from what the spending earns a contributor.
“Maybe it buys you better access. It doesn’t necessarily,” he said. “Maybe a politician is more likely to listen to you, or trust you. … On the other hand, it’s not the beneficiaries of social services who are spending the money. Not everyone gets an equal voice in the process.”