Riccelli faces surprise opponent on November ballot for central Spokane Senate seat

Democrat Marcus Riccelli was running unopposed to fill the Senate seat vacated by the retirement of Andy Billig on the August primary ballot, but a last-minute successful write-in campaign means he will now face Republican Jim Wilson in November.

Riccelli represented the Democrat-leaning 3rd Legislative District covering central Spokane in the House of Representatives for six terms after first being elected in 2012. Wilson, a Realtor, started serving as a Republican precinct committee officer two years ago but has no other political experience.

Riccelli was involved in politics long before he ran for office, working as the Eastern Washington director for U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell for three years and then serving for two years as a senior policy adviser to then-state Sen. Lisa Brown, who is now Spokane’s mayor.

Riccelli said he traces his interest in politics to his days at Gonzaga University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration. His original intention was to work in business and make a lot of money, Riccelli said.

“They really instilled in me service to others,” he said. “It really transformed my interests.”

He said he was interested in running for the senate seat because he believes his experience in the House will fit in well.

“There’s a real need for someone to hit the ground running,” he said. “I thought it would be a challenging time for someone new.”

Riccelli also points to his willingness to work with politicians in both political parties as another asset.

“I work really strongly across the aisle,” he said. “I’ve always put my community first above partisan politics. I pride myself on delivering for my constituents.”

Wilson said he never aspired to hold public office, but when he was filling out his primary ballot, he noticed that Riccelli was running unopposed.

“It made me angry, because I don’t think that’s what America is about,” he said. “You need to have a public discourse. There’s two sides to issues. When I was filling out my ballot, I put my name in because I was mad.”

He told his wife what he had done, and she also wrote in his name. Wilson said he texted about 10 family members and friends about it as well.

“It took on a life of its own,” he said.

Shortly after that, he got a phone call from the chair of the Spokane County Republican Party asking him to consider running an official campaign for the seat.

“There was a little voice that said, ‘Do it,’ so I said yes,” he said.

He filed the paperwork to be an official write-in candidate about two weeks before the primary ballots were due. In the end, Wilson received just over the 1% of total votes cast required to appear on the November ballot.

Wilson said he was mad because he believes politicians in Olympia are governing from the extremes, not the middle ground. He said he has no problem with Riccelli, but believes he’s been a lawmaker too long.

“It’s not about him personally,” he said. “Things won’t change if we keep electing career politicians.”

Riccelli said he wants to focus on helping people get the opportunity to have jobs that pay a living wage and access to education and health care. He favors getting people more access to telehealth options and expanding the number of providers. Public safety is also an issue, particularly crime and the drug epidemic, he said.

“These concerns are real,” he said. “People not only need to be safe, but to feel safe.”

Concerns about crime and homelessness in downtown Spokane have grown in the last few years, and Riccelli said he’s prepared to help however he can.

“I’ve heard the concerns,” he said. “I’m committed to working with Mayor Brown and the council and other elected officials.”

He counts increasing student access to free meals as one of his greatest accomplishments while serving in the House of Representatives and said he would like to continue the effort in the Senate. He sponsored three bills to gradually expand access to free meals at schools, with the schools being reimbursed by the state and the federal government. Currently, many schools in the state offer free meals to all regardless of family income, including Spokane Public Schools. “We now have over two-thirds of our students getting free meals,” he said. “I’d like to close that gap. That’s what I’m really passionate about.”

Food is important because children have difficulty learning if they’re hungry, Riccelli said.

“It’s not only the right thing to do for students, it ends lunch shaming and it ends debt collection for lunch bills,” he said.

Wilson said he’s concerned about inflation, as well as the high gas tax in Washington. It impacts the people on the lower end of the economic scale the most, he said. He believes this is happening in part because the government is unresponsive to people’s needs and has “an insatiable appetite for our money.”

Wilson notes that the state budget has risen from $31 billion to $70 billion in the last 12 years.

“Things are not better,” he said. “I don’t know what they’re spending the money on, but it’s not anything that benefits people walking down the street. Whatever we’re spending it on is not working.”

He said the state Legislature has created laws that hamper the ability of police officers to do their jobs properly and a lack of arrests of people accused of committing minor thefts creates an incentive to steal.

“There’s shoplifting all over the place,” he said. “Part of it is the Legislature and part of it is because people are trying to survive.”

Wilson said legislators need to be able to come together to address issues rather than yelling at each other.

“Crime is not a partisan issue,” he said. “Energy is not a partisan issue. I think we have to turn back to realistic government and not far-out, extreme positions.”

Voters don’t need career politicians, just people with common sense, Wilson said.

“There’s a difference between someone who wants to be voted in because it’s their job and someone who wants to do it as a public service,” he said. “This will be the beginning of change. I know so many great people around who would make great legislators. If I can go in and displace the establishment, maybe they’ll go in.”

Riccelli said he’s someone people can trust to get the job done, and he plans to bring a common-sense voice to the table.

“I’m ready to take on the challenge,” he said. “I’ve got the background. I’ve got the relationships on the other side of the aisle and in both chambers.”