Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart wants to be mayor.
On Friday he announced his intention to run in 2019, when current Mayor David Condon leaves office due to term limits.
Stuckart had planned last year to file for Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ Fifth District Congressional seat, but dropped out for family health reasons. Now he has another office on his mind.
Stuckart lists housing and public safety as his top two priorities as mayor.
He says the city has a housing shortage, particularly for low-income and working class people.
“We’ve got 400 people who have housing vouchers but can’t find permanent housing. A lot of them are living on the streets. We have people who are spending more than 50% of their income on rent," Stuckart said. "With the pressure and not enough housing, the market works and there’s a supply problem like that, rents are raised and then those people can’t afford to live anymore in housing.”
Stuckart says the city needs to hire more officers to work in neighborhoods and on property crimes.
In his campaign, he says he’ll tout the city’s growth in sales tax receipts and higher medium incomes. He says he’s also proud of how neighborhoods such as East Sprague are drawing more private investments, in part because of the city project that improved streets and sidewalks.
Stuckart enters a race that already has three other candidates who have filed with the Washington Public Disclosure Commission: Shawn Poole, Christopher Schroll and John Lemus.