Campaign for state Senate graffitis political slogan on downtown Spokane sidewalks, Riverfront Park

Republican candidate for state Senate Jim Wilson literally made his mark on Downtown Spokane.

Volunteers from his campaign for the seat vacated by Democrat Andy Billig took to the streets Sunday night, painting the town blue with stenciled political advertisements on sidewalks downtown and in Riverfront Park.

Volunteers used “water soluble paint” that came off with soap and water to tag “Join the movement Spokane.com” repeatedly on street corners, pavement outside the mall and the orange planters on the recently reopened Post Street bridge.

They also affixed sticky notes with the same messaging around the city.

The advertised slogan leads to a Facebook page of the same name, which links to a website paid for by Wilson’s campaign against current state Rep. Marcus Riccelli, a Democrat, as well as other Democratic candidates Natasha Hill and Bob Ferguson, for governor and state representative, respectively.

In an interview Tuesday, Wilson said some young volunteers in his campaign came up with the idea to raise awareness about crime and a feeling of being unsafe downtown for relatively cheap.

“This was our creative way to bring attention to a subject that’s not being talked about in this campaign. This is being glossed over and we don’t want to gloss over it anymore,” Wilson said.

City staff and business employees spent hours Monday and Tuesday removing the graffiti using soap and water.

City spokeswoman Erin Hut called the graffiti “disappointing” and “frustrating,” pointing to resources used to remove the graffiti that could have been used elsewhere.

“It was not on the docket for our staff to do that morning and it took away from other work they were supposed to do,” Hut said.

Spokane Parks and Recreation staff were responsible for removing the slogans on the Post Street bridge and around Riverfront Park. Hut said it took eight staff from this department a collective 10 hours of their workday Monday morning to remove the graffiti, some of which still remained around the Rotary Fountain and street corners near the park on Tuesday morning. One staffer from City Hall spent over two hours scrubbing the slogans off the pavement outside City Hall, Hut said. Markings made outside of the Central Library required attention from library staff.

Wilson said removal of graffiti made with more permanent paint is already part of custodial duties of city staff.

“They wash this off of their normal course of duties,” Wilson said. “It didn’t cost this city any money.”

“I think we need to spread the message, and this is such a benign thing because you wash it off, take a hose or whatever,” Wilson said.

Per city code, property owners are responsible for the upkeep of the adjacent sidewalk outside of businesses and several of their employees power-washed sidewalks to remove the messaging.

The campaign painted stretches of pavement outside private businesses like River Park Square shopping mall, The Spokesman-Review Tower and parking garage across the street, all owned by the Cowles Company, the same parent company that owns and publishes The Spokesman-Review newspaper.

Hut said the city was looking into a possible code violation pertaining to graffiti, under which the markings qualify according to city code.

Code dictates that graffiti isn’t a violation if it’s not permanent or obstructive, but Hut pointed to the orange planters on the Post Street bridge that still have smear marks from the water used to remove the graffiti.

“Yes it came off, but there is a noticeable difference to the planter boxes on the Post Street bridge,” Hut said.

Riccelli, Wilson’s opponent in the race to replace Andy Billig in the state Senate, called the endeavor “irresponsible.”

“By condoning and encouraging graffiti vandalism, I just think it’s a poor choice of judgment,” Riccelli said Tuesday. “I hear from downtown business owners and the community about the property damage and negative effects of graffiti vandalism, and to see somebody running for office kind of participate in that.”

Wilson said the stencils he called chalk were raising awareness about crime and public safety.

“I just find it ironic that the emphasis has been on chalk and not on crime,” Wilson said. “I mean I’m flabbergasted. If my opponent would be this concerned about crime as he is about chalk, maybe we wouldn’t be in the situation we are today.”