The Mitch and Shelly Short Story Concludes

Rich Roesler of the Spokesman-Review has really been hitting it out of the park lately, and this post on the guilty plea that Mitch Short entered into court recently is must-read for anyone who has followed the story.

I like Shelly. I think she can do a good job representing the 7th, where I live, and I look forward to visiting with her about education issues. It would be hard to argue, though, that she isn't going into the office with a cloud over her head, and she's going to have to work awfully hard to overcome that stigma. Can the House Republicans give her leadership positions? Can Rep. Joel Kretz, the new #2 in the caucus, be her rabbi and make sure she gets a fair shake? Will she get challenged in two years, the way that Kretz wasn't this year?

It's a seat to watch.

Read more here, if any.

The Mitch and Shelly Short Story Continues

That headline might be unfair, because Shelly Short hasn't been implicated in the case against her husband, but when the wife is a candidate for elected office and the husband is facing arraignment it's proper to discuss them together.

I've written about this case before; Mitch Short is accused of stealing money from the Northeast Washington Fair, about $3000, while his wife is running to replace Bob Sump as Representative for the 7th Legislative District. Mitch is looking at an arraignment on August 26th, but the story is all over the papers right now, in the weekend before the primary.

The shorts are portraying it as politics at its worst:

"I'm really tired of the one-sided nature of this," Shelly Short said. "This has, frankly, been nothing less than a public lynching, done to derail my campaign."

...but the missing piece there is why people would want to derail her campaign. This can't be partisan--all the other candidates for the office are Republicans, too. It makes you wonder.

Something else from the Spokesman article that also made me a little sad:

Turplesmith noted in charging documents that the Shorts were in debt at the time Mitch Short wrote the allegedly improper checks. Court records show Discover Bank won a $12,328 default judgment against the couple Aug. 17, 2007.

Asked about the judgment, Shelly Short said, "We are checking on those records to determine if that's actually the case.

"At no point has there been any attempt to garnish and, frankly, I was not served with any documentation on any complaint." Was she saying she didn't know about the Discover Bank lawsuit?

"I'm telling you that I had never been served," Short said. "That's the distinction."

She declined to comment further when asked whether her husband was served.

Court records show a process server delivered the complaint to Mitch Short personally on June 12, 2007, at the couple's home at 1591 Swiss Valley Road, near Addy, Wash.

Court documents also show Superior Court Judge Al Nielson issued writs of garnishment on Oct. 23, 2007, and March 6. By the time of the second writ, the couple's Discover credit card debt had grown to $13,323.

That's an awful lot of credit card debt. Was there a family emergency that caused them to fall behind? Are the Shorts just not good with money? What is the story here?

Running for office sucks. When you put yourself out there as a leader you're really putting yourself out there, warts and all. I think that Shelly would be a great Representative for the 7th, and I've got a ton of respect for the knowledge base and energy she'd bring to the job, but stories like this that get people thinking the worst--they're no good.

Read more here, if any.

Did the Spokesman-Review Just Blow the 7th LD Contest Wide Open?

The 7th legislative district is Washington State's largest, stretching from the Canadian border to the Spokane area and encompassing towns from Airway Heights to Colville and beyond. Bob Sump has been our Representative for approximately 102 years, so when he announced his retirement this session it threw open the doors.

Kind of. 5 candidates have announced to run for the seat Rep. Sump is vacating, all Republicans. Shelly Short has spent the last two years as a legislative assistant for Rep. Joel Kretz, also of the 7th, and she was one of the first to announce that she'd run for Rep. Sump's position. Rep. Sump endorsed her, which matters quite a bit to a lot of voters in the district. She's also got a pat on the back from George Nethercutt.

And then, in the August 2nd edition of the Spokesman-Review, this happens:

The husband of 7th Legislative District candidate Shelly Short may face criminal charges in the alleged theft of $3,318 from a volunteer fair organization.

Colville Police Chief Damond Meshishnek said his department is nearing completion of an investigation into financial irregularities reported June 16 by the Northeast Washington Fair Association.

Short's husband, Mitch J. Short, 46, was president of the association at the time.

The case is being investigated as a possible first-degree theft, and a report is expected to go to the Stevens County prosecutor's office soon, Meshishnek said.

There is no indication that Shelly Short, also 46, was involved in the alleged embezzlement.

Mitch Short declined to comment except to call the timing of a newspaper inquiry "a political smear job at its worst."

"Allowing this to happen to anyone in the public eye sends a chilling message to anyone considering public service," he said in e-mail statement.

Mr. Short might have a point about the timing; ballots just showed up in mailboxes, and the Spokesman-Review is scheduled to make their endorsement for the race in Sunday's paper.

It will be really, really interesting to see if this scandal changes the dynamic of the race at all, because there's no disputing that Short would have to be considered an odds-on favorite to win. She has more money than any of the other candidates ($38,750 ; Sue Lani Madsen is in 2nd place with $32,657), and she certainly seems more connected. If you had asked me last week what I expected the result of the primary to be, I would have given you Short and Madsen to the general election by a wide, wide margin.

Now? That could be a good question. My personal favorite of the five has been Kelly White, a former member of the state Fish and Wildlife Commission whose daughter is a school superintendent. He'd be able to speak knowledgeably about the recreation issues that matter so much to the northern part of the district while at the same time understanding education, which is always important. Perhaps this opens the door for him in a way that it wasn't before and he gets through to the general election.

And I thought that politics in August would be rather dry. Thanks, Spokesman!

Update (8/6): Mitch Short has his name on the ballot, too, for precinct committee officer in Addy.

Also see here for more Shelly Short discussion, including a hit piece from "RepublicanStaffer" and a mild defense from some guy named Ryan.

Read more here, if any.