In most political campaigns, candidates raise money by asking friends, family, businesses, and in the case of Democrats, extreme interest groups and powerful union lobbyists, for money. In Seattle, however, the Democrats have managed to fool the public into creating a system for taxpayers to fund their campaigns.
This public-financing scam allows liberal candidates to avoid having to ask for money so often, and actually meeting voters. They much prefer having “free” money handed to them.
The misleadingly titled “Honest Elections Seattle” initiative, passed by Seattle voters in 2015, created a property tax-funded slush fund from which residents of Seattle allocate money in four $25 chunks, in the form of democracy vouchers donated to their favorite candidate. Despite not being eligible to vote (that would be a felony, but then when did that ever bother Democrat candidates?), green card holders also get to participate and allocate their $100 to the candidate of their choice.
Even the homeless get to give taxpayer dollars to the politicians.
The Democracy Voucher initiative was supposed to get big money out of the Seattle local elections. It has had exactly the opposite effect, and as a bonus, has allowed some really wacky candidates to surface with your money.
This election season is off to a flying start, with over $2 million dollars in Democracy Voucher money already taken out of the pockets of the taxpayers and placed into the pockets of the politicians running for city council.
The top money-collecting mayoral candidate, Democrat ideologue Collen Echohawk, has amassed $400,000 so far on her platform of expanding homelessness, defunding the police (Echohawk says Seattle has over-policed communities, despite a 50% increase in homicides in the city in 2021), and, of course, climate change, with Echohawk saying Seattle has the worst air quality in the world because of those pesky wildfires in Eastern Washington (Canada, actually, but who’s tracking that).
Hanging in second place is “free money” is Democrat Andrew Grant Houston, or “ACE” as he calls himself. Houston wants to build tiny homes to solve the homeless crisis, advocates for a $23 minimum wage to practically crush any remaining small businesses in Seattle, and his top priority is to paint all of Seattle’s roads red and green. You can’t make this stuff up, and yet Houston has received over $320,000 dollars from taxpayers.
When he’s not using the vouchers to fill his campaign coffers, former Seattle Council President (and Mayor for A Day) Bruce Harrell is using the tried-and-true political action committee slush fund option to raise his cash and has drawn sharp criticism from the other loony left candidates. The other candidates are accusing Harrell of being in the pocket of big corporations, since he’s trying to raise money the old-fashioned way, by asking for it. Harrell claims he’ll bring fresh ideas to solve the divisive politics Seattle has experienced in the last few years. He obviously didn’t notice he was on the city council, and briefly in the mayor’s office, and has been a contributor to these very same divisive politics.
Compared to the top candidates, former Legislator and previous failed mayoral candidate Jessyn Farrell has raised just over $100,000 and looks positively sane compared to the rest of the mayoral candidate class of 2021. Farrell’s campaign platform includes lots of free stuff, legalized hard drugs, and working for hypocritical out-of-state billionaires.
Of course, none of the candidates appear able of raising any significant money without the free taxpayer giveaway, because when it’s your own money that you are giving to a candidate, you make sure it’s going to someone sane. Though painting the roads green sure sounds like a winning position in Seattle.
Maybe the Democracy Vouchers aren’t such a bad idea. At least we know more about who the nutty candidates truly are now.
Zithromax