Michael Baumgartner, M.S.P.: Master of Self Promotion
JERRY LECLAIRE • Indivisible—The High Ground
This November eastern Washington voters will choose a new person to represent us in the U.S. House of Representatives from Congressional District 5 (CD5). We need to get this right. The voters of eastern Washington, once they elect a new Representative, tend to stick with that choice for decades. (Cathy McMorris Rodgers 20 years—retiring the end of this year, George Nethercutt 10 years, Tom Foley 30 years, Walt Horan 22 years.)
Carmela Conroy is a Spokane native and now retired foreign service officer with the U.S. State Department. She served our country in non-partisan posts under four different presidents of both parties for nearly 30 years, including stints in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Japan. Her opponent, Michael Baumgartner, is the current Spokane County Treasurer and a man who exhibits a terrific knack for self-promotion.
For example, in a video interview in a Spokane Valley gun store conducted shortly before the Washington State August Primary Election, Mr. Baumgartner declared [the bold is mine]:
I was a civilian with the State Department overseas, but I’m the only one in the race who has served my country overseas—not a veteran but a civilian—but I certainly have been shot at and seen islamic terrorists up close.
Of what did Baumgartner’s civilian service with the State Department overseas actually consist? Fourteen months in Iraq as an “Economics Officer” and nine months as a “US Government Contractor” in Afghanistan. As a “Contractor” in the latter position he describes what he actually did as “Negotiated agenda and wrote cables for weekly Government of Iraq Cabinet Meeting” and “Helped write several research papers.”
While Mr. Baumgartner suggests great risk to life and limb (being “shot at”) during these 23 months of employment, the nature of the desk tasks at which he was employed are cause for wonder. His ignorance of the decades of service of the most prominent of his primary opponents, Carmela Conroy, suggests a man who naively expects to ride into office on gross inflation of his experience and expertise.
Another example: For the last nearly six years (a four year term and a half) Mr. Baumgartner has held the position of Spokane County Treasurer. The Treasurer’s office is housed at the Spokane County Courthouse along with many of the other offices of county government and the Spokane County Superior Court. Mr. Baumgartner’s attention to the administrative duties of his $120,000 a year job as County Treasurer is a subject of speculation: the rare “Baumgartner sighting” is a standard joke among county staffers.
The top paragraph displayed at Mr. Baumgartner’s “About” page at his campaign website is this:
Michael Baumgartner is a former Washington State Senator and diplomat, now serving as the Treasurer of Spokane County overseeing a nearly $1.9 billion fixed-income investment fund.
That sounds impressive and demanding of great expertise, but what does “overseeing a nearly $1.9 billion fixed-income investment fund” actually amount to? Does he actively manage this immense investment? Well, no. That task is currently performed (for a considerable fee) by “Meeder Public Funds, Inc.,” a registered investment firm that publishes a monthly Investment Report of its efforts on behalf of Spokane County to securely invest that $1.9 billion of the Spokane Public Investment Fund (SPIF). (See an example of that report here. For Meeder info see last page.)
It turns out that the “oversight” of the SPIF which Mr. Baumgartner wishes to claim is actually the responsibility of the “Spokane County Finance Committee.” That committee consists of the Treasurer (Mr. Baumgartner), the County Auditor (Vicky Dalton), and the Chair of the Board of County Commissioners (Mary Kuney). From the Spokane County website:
The County Finance Committee reviews and approves the County Investment Policy and County Debt Policy. Meetings are held at least twice per year per the Spokane County Investment Policy.
Clearly, Mr. Baumgartner is neither solely responsible for the “oversight” of the $1.9 billion of the Spokane Public Investment Fund, nor does that oversight require more than a minimal commitment of time and effort. In fact these meetings have been just two per year in 2022, 2023, and 2024 and in that time have averaged about an hour for each gathering.
Not unlike the woman he seeks to succeed in office, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Mr. Baumgartner is quick to suggest that major legislative accomplishments, like the ultimate funding of the long-awaited North-South Freeway—and the establishment of at least one of the Spokane medical schools—were pivotally dependent on his efforts, when, in fact, both of those projects were the result of extensive bipartisan efforts.
This is nowhere near an exhaustive list of Mr. Baumgartner’s vacuous self promotion—but it nonetheless suggests that we, the voters, would do well to pay more attention to the lack of substance of his claims of prowess lest we send another lightweight to represent us in the U.S. Congress.