In a way, LARRY HASKELL got lucky.
In this August's primary, the current Spokane County prosecutor drew challenges from two highly experienced Republicans and one relatively inexperienced nonpartisan candidate.
Stephanie Olsen and Stefanie Collins, Republicans with a combined four decades of legal experience, both decried Haskell's leadership.
Local pastor DEB CONKLIN entered the race as a nonpartisan who hadn't practiced law since 1987, when she worked for the prosecutor's office in Clallam County on the tip of the Olympic Peninsula.
With Conklin wielding the advantage of being the only non-Republican on the ticket, the Republican vote split three ways, and Conklin ended up snagging second place in the top-two primary behind Haskell.
"Is four years of experience as a deputy prosecutor when Ronald Reagan was the president the answer?" Haskell asked rhetorically during one recent debate, pointing out that even then, courts found Conklin had mismanaged a key case.
Conklin disagrees. Leadership skills, she argues, are more important than legal experience.
"The elected prosecutor doesn't have to be able to walk into court to try a serious murder trial the first day," Conklin says. "You'll have to supervise the staff of 150 people."
It's easy to distinguish between the two ideologically.
"Law and Order Larry," a moniker he's embraced, has been slammed by "smart justice" advocates who say he rejects evidence-backed reforms in favor of charging policies that have clogged the court system.
Conklin portrays herself as a more progressive prosecutor.
"We need someone in the office who is going to prioritize safety over locking people up," Conklin says.
But the contrast in their management records is messier.
During the primary, Collins, a deputy prosecutor under Haskell, called the massive backlog in domestic violence cases that had blown up during Haskell's leadership "unforgivable." She said the office had struggled to recruit talent. And, most surprisingly, she said that despite working for Haskell for over seven years, she'd "never had a conversation with him."
Haskell dismisses these complaints. He says the office has managed to significantly whittle down the size of the domestic violence backlog and that most of the staffing shortage is because of non-attorney staff who haven't been able to get a new union contract. As for inaccessibility, he denies it.
"It's certainly not difficult to find Larry Haskell," says Haskell.
Conklin, meanwhile, touts her experience as chair of the city of Spokane's Office of the Police Ombudsman Commission, the body that hired and oversees Police Ombudsman Bart Logue, who provides independent oversight of the Spokane Police Department.
However, in 2017 the City Council declined to reappoint Conklin. Logue had complained that Conklin had created a "hostile work environment, which I will no longer tolerate."
A fellow ombudsman commissioner, Ladd Smith, told council members that Conklin had become "more of a liability than an asset" and that her "ongoing disdain for Mr. Logue" was hindering the commission's important work.
Conklin says the conflict was over the scope of the commission's role. She points to her record as a pastor to show she can get along with people with major political differences.
There's another issue that's looming over Haskell.
In January, the Inlander reported that Haskell's wife was a self-proclaimed "white nationalist" who'd written a long slew of racist and antisemitic social media posts — including using an inflammatory slur against a Black woman.
Haskell condemned his wife's comments as racist, but said he didn't think his wife was racist. Yet Haskell has also acknowledged that the controversy followed him to the office.
"My employees aren't sure what's going to happen," Haskell said at a press conference back in February. "The pain that is in the office is immeasurable."
In the months since, a number of criminal prosecutors — including Rachel Sterett, Kelly Fitzgerald, Stephen Garvin, and Anastasiya Krotoff — have left the prosecutor's office.
In November, voters will decide whether Haskell himself needs to do the same. ♦
