SPOKANE, Wash. — Nadine Woodward has been elected the next mayor of Spokane. Cindy Wendle is currently leading the race for council president but it's still too close to call.
Between those two races, the four candidates and groups backing them spent more than $2 million.
Woodward and her supporters spent $713,228.21, while Ben Stuckart and his supporters spent $540,579.27.
Wendle and company spent $599,532.28 this year, while Breean Beggs and his sponsors spent $153,730.58.
As has been the case all year, the difference-maker was independent expenditures, support from outside groups that does not require a candidate's approval.
So how does that translate per vote?
Obviously, because not every vote has been counted yet, we're going to have to do a little projecting. Though it's certainly not scientific, we can get a fairly good idea by applying the current percentages to the remainder of votes cast in the city.
At the current rate, Woodward will have spent $19.81 per vote.
Stuckart will have spent $16.35.
Now that doesn't mean much without context, so below is a table with data from the last three mayoral elections.
As you can see, none of the last six candidates came close to the 2019 numbers. In fact, the majority of candidates didn't reach double digits in per-vote spending.
Still, the really impressive numbers are in the contest for council president, particularly on the Wendle side.
At the current rate, she'll end up spending $17.01 per vote.
That's more than three times the cost for a Beggs vote at $4.54.
It's also much more than has ever been spent on that seat in the past decade-plus.
None of the last six candidates ever spent more than $4 per vote, and three of them didn't even reach a full $1 per vote.