Shar Lichty, an organizer with the Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane, said Monday she is running for Spokane mayor, declaring that she is “one of the people” and drawing a contrast with Mayor David Condon, who she called the “millionaire mayor.”

Lichty, who begins the race a month ahead of the official filing candidate date but well behind Condon’s impressive fundraising totals, said it will be a difficult race but had faith that she could connect with voters.

“He’s not a voice of the people,” Lichty, 48, said of Condon. “He represents a few, like fellow millionaires and bigger business. The working class families and small businesses are not being recognized and heard.”

Lichty comes to the race with no elected experience but many strong views, as she criticized the mayor on issues ranging from pay raises for the city’s top administrators to what she described as weak police oversight. Above all, Lichty argued that Condon favored the powerful.

“His budget approach is a clear example of these policies, his trickledown economics approach to things,” she said. “Cutting positions at the bottom to give raises at the top just makes no sense. It’s not how I was raised. It’s not how you do things.”

In Condon’s 2013 budget, the first he crafted as mayor, Condon cut 93 positions from the city’s payroll. The following year, almost 40 positions were eliminated at the city, primarily due to a shift in solid waste duties to the county.

When Condon released his 2015 budget proposal last fall, no positions were cut but the budget included pay increases for his position and a majority of his cabinet. City Council publicly criticized the proposal.

Raises for Condon’s cabinet were ultimately approved by the council, after City Council President Ben Stuckart asked for and was shown annual performance reviews for the cabinet members.

After facing stiff public pressure, Condon had said he wouldn’t take the $7,000 pay increase.

Lichty said this reversal showed Condon’s style of leadership, pointing to his recent call for a public vote to set up a Salary Review Commission to determine mayoral compensation.

“He’s painting it as if the voters would get to decide the mayor’s pay, which is not true. The voters get to decide if a commission gets to decide,” she said. “I find it to be typical of what I call his pretty propaganda packages to pacify the public.”

Lichty said Condon’s bow to pressure on his salary was in line with previous behavior.

“The improvements he’s made in office don’t come from his leadership,” she said. “They came from great pressure from the public that forced his hand where he could no longer ignore the issue.”

Lichty said the current oversight of police actions is another example, though she took aim at Condon’s predecessor, Mary Verner, on the same issue.

“I would’ve not have created and hired an ombudsman without it being a true ombudsman for that department,” she said. “That was Mayor Verner’s major fail on the subject. I would have fixed it before I filled it.”

Lichty said the current police oversight program at the city is “in violation of the city charter.” In 2013, 69 percent of voters approved the creation of a police ombudsman office with the authority to independently investigate alleged police misconduct. Over the following year, a deal was struck with the Police Guild for a labor contract that met some of the requirements of the ballot measure, but was criticized for not creating adequate oversight of police actions.

“There were some things that were put into place, but it wasn’t fully implemented. It’s an improvement, but there’s nobody sitting in on investigations,” she said. “He does the minimal, but goes no further.”

Lichty suggested her politics were learned after she left her husband of 17 years in what she called a ”domestic violence marriage.”

”The hardest thing I ever did was leave, it was also the best thing I ever did. Everything from that day forward has just made me a stronger and better person, a more compassionate person,” she said. ”It’s been about 11 years of freedom.”

She acknowledged her lack of elective experience, but was quick to say she was ”qualified to do this job. I’m certainly more qualified than Condon was when he got into it.”

She added that she’s not a stranger to campaigns. She spent 11 months working on the effort to approve Referendum 74, the 2012 statewide ballot measure that legalized same-sex marriage.

”That was one of my proudest moments, that night when we won,” she said. ”The next year, states began passing legislation for the freedom to marry.”

Lichty said her priorities were “building a local, robust economy” to “keep the youth here,” though she wouldn’t provide specifics on how this could be achieved.

She also said she would “fully implement” the Blueprint for Reform, a wide-ranging platform of cost-saving and justice-oriented improvements to the region’s criminal justice system.

Lichty said she planned to raise $150,000 in her campaign, far below what Condon has already raised, $243,784.

She knows she's the underdog in this respect, and at times sounded like the fictitious Rocky Balboa, of boxing film fame. When speaking about preserving historic downtown structures and rehabilitating them for housing, Lichty said she appreciated the buildings’ materials.

“I’m the daughter of a mason. I love brick,” she said, echoing Rocky’s words when he bought his first home at the end of Rocky II.

Much like Rocky in that sequel, Lichty plans to win.