“These are people like me,” she says. Both support amending the city’s single-family zoning to allow duplexes and triplexes to be built to help fix the housing plan. But while Bingle — who works as a contractor — argues that the city needs to fight against anti-sprawl restrictions to allow more housing to be built on the outskirts of Spokane County, Sherazi proposes capping rent increases. State and national realtor organizations have poured money into Bingle’s campaign, while Sherazi’s biggest donors have been labor organizations. Even her campaign workers are organized, their union contract guaranteeing them a minimum of $16 an hour. (Sherazi says the public disclosure report stating some canvassers were getting paid an illegally low $12-an-hour was a since-corrected treasurer error. Multiple current and former campaign employees, including one of the canvassers, backed up Sherazi’s account.) In the midst of a pandemic, however, the issues that defined the political divide have expanded: Bingle’s church began meeting again in person before Inslee’s restrictions on churches were lifted. While they tried meeting online, he says “it just did not feel that we were doing what God was asking us to do.” Bingle refuses to say on-the-record whether he got the vaccine — calling it “a very private and personal” decision made with his wife and their doctor. But when the Inlander argues that vaccines aren’t just a personal decision, that preventing COVID from spreading is a social responsibility, Bingle’s frustration over the last year and a half comes out: He thinks about how much damage the pandemic restrictions did to his bar trivia business, how he applied for all the aid programs, but didn’t receive any. “We’re a business that got smoked because we understood our social responsibility,” Bingle says. “We have given more than most people can understand.” But Sherazi understands the gravity of social responsibility, too. Her son, she says, is immunocompromised. He relies on others being vaccinated to stay safe. This is the sort of tension that, in other contexts, has turned into screaming matches and accusations. And yet, both candidates say that they consider each other friends. Bingle says that when his wife gave birth, Sherazi brought their family multiple homecooked dinners. “When that happens, you expect your church to step up and do that — and she did it more than anyone else in our church,” he says. After all, faith is important to Sherazi, too. “Being Muslim, the biggest thing is that you believe in humanity, and you believe in service and you believe in helping others,” she says. There’s a similarity she has with Bingle. At the beginning of the pandemic when Sherazi was worried about putting her son at risk by going to the grocery store, Sherazi says, Bingle went to pick up her groceries from WinCo. “We’re pretty wildly different, politically,” Bingle says. “But we can sit down and have coffee.” Their similarities matter at the dinner table and the apartment doorstep. But it’s on the council dais that their wild differences will come into play. n
Wilkerson herself had mixed feelings about the development. She acknowledges that it’s nice to be able to focus on other issues, but says, “in some ways, I wish I had an opponent, so we could just duke it out in the public.” But she still can, LeMasters says. Why not debate him anyway, he suggests, and have the Inlander host? — DANIEL WALTERS
Live Lounge Entertainment PJ Destiny THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21 ST NIGHTHAWK LOUNGE 8:30 PM – 12:30 AM Enjoy the musical stylings of PJ Destiny, bringing you a smooth blend of acoustic and electric music!
Jam Shack FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22 ND & SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23 RD NIGHTHAWK LOUNGE 8:30 PM – 12:30 AM Jam Shack is making their return to the Coeur d’Alene Casino. Join us at the Nighthawk Lounge as they cover your favorite tunes!
Just Plain Darin FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22 ND & SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23 RD CHINOOK LOUNGE 6 PM – 9:30 PM Spend the evening listening to the eclectic, original music from the talented, Just Plain Darin, at the Chinook Lounge.
W E LC O M E H O M E .
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OCTOBER 21, 2021 INLANDER 17