What I am running on.

No handouts for Big Tech. Protect our water, land, and power.

While the public was learning that an unnamed corporation had approached Avista seeking up to 500 megawatts of power, local officials had already been meeting privately for more than a year with Apricus Energy Partners, a company proposing to build a massive AI data center on 514 acres on the West Plains. That facility could eventually use up to 1,000 megawatts, nearly Avista's entire regional generating capacity. The documents revealing the West Plains location were uncovered not by a reporter, but by a Spokane County resident who filed a public records request.

The West Plains is a community already dealing with PFAS contamination in 57% of its private wells. The county has no specific regulations covering data centers. A moratorium was blocked, and other candidates have said nothing publicly.

As County Commissioner, Rachelle will push for a moratorium to allow proper community input, demand full transparency on any developer discussions, and use every available tool including zoning, permitting, and tax abatements to make sure Spokane County residents have a voice before these decisions are made.

Wildfire protection for Spokane County.

Spokane County is grieving. When the time is right, this page will be updated with Rachelle's full position on wildfire preparedness, emergency response, and what the county commission can do to protect our community going forward.

Affordable housing.

Spokane County families are struggling to find housing they can afford. The commissioner controls zoning and oversees housing funds in unincorporated Spokane County. Rachelle will make sure those tools are working for residents and that decisions about land use are made transparently and in the public interest.

An overcrowded jail and an underfunded public defense system.

Spokane County's jail is overcrowded and outdated. The public defense system for people who cannot afford an attorney is underfunded through no fault of the county alone. The state funds only 4% of public defense costs and keeps adding caseload mandates with no money attached. New court-ordered standards will cost Spokane County $15 million more a year. That burden lands on local taxpayers while Olympia walks away.

Rachelle knows how institutions dodge accountability and how to make them answer for it. She will push for honest accounting of what the county owes its residents in basic justice infrastructure and will fight the state to fund the mandates it creates.

The opioid crisis and homelessness.

Spokane County has invested opioid settlement dollars into programs that are showing results. The Regional Stabilization Center has served nearly 7,000 people. Co-responder models are keeping people out of jails and emergency rooms. The P.A.T.H. Center, a $21 million crisis and recovery facility, is under construction. These programs work when they are funded. The problem is the funding is fragile. Federal dollars are uncertain. State support is inconsistent. The commissioner's job is to protect what is working, fight for stable funding, and make sure dollars reach people rather than getting absorbed by administration and process.

Fiscal accountability. Making every dollar work for Spokane County residents.

Spokane County is facing a nearly $30 million deficit. Not because residents are not paying enough. Because the state keeps adding expensive mandates while capping the county's ability to raise revenue. Property tax growth is limited by law to 1% annually. The state funds only 4% of indigent defense costs and then hands the rest to counties. New court-ordered public defense standards will cost Spokane County an additional $15 million a year, with no new state funding attached.

Spokane County residents are already stretched thin. Affordability is a crisis. The answer is not more taxes on families who are already struggling. The answer is accountability. Making sure every dollar already coming in goes where it is supposed to go. Fighting Olympia when it dumps unfunded mandates on county taxpayers. Being honest with residents about what is broken and why.

As Commissioner, Rachelle will push back on state mandates that cost counties millions with no funding attached. She will direct special revenue dollars, opioid settlement funds, mental health sales tax revenue, and housing trust funds, to programs that actually reach people. She will demand honest accounting of where county money goes and whether it is working.