We always knew the campaigns for Seattle City Council would be interesting to watch this year. After all, how can a field of far-Left—and, simply put, sometimes off-the-spectrum-Left—candidates not be interesting? Well, the primary elections are now over – with 29 of the 47 candidates being eliminated by a disinterested turnout of about 30% of Seattle’s registered voters – and the latest results offer a glimpse into which of the top two candidates in the nine Council races have a shot at being among the City of Seattle’s next “leaders”.
- Councilmember Kshama Sawant
Before Socialist Sawant can go about boasting of how much she is loved by “the people,” she will have to face off against Urban League President Pamela Banks in the Nov. 3 general. Against four opponents (including Banks), Sawant is currently at just a little over 50% of the total vote. Banks came in second with close to 35%. Presuming Banks picks up the votes that already went against Sawant, her bid for Seattle’s District 3 will give Sawant a competitive run. But, we’re not holding our breath for that, because Sawant is such a constant source of humorous material. Should Sawant prevail, she will undoubtedly continue to parade herself as God’s gift to humanity— disorderly conduct charges, insults against the Vietnamese community, provocative statements, public tantrums and all.
- Jon Grant, Executive Director of the Tenants Union WA
Against four opponents, Council President Tim Burgess took first place with just over 46% of the vote in his race to be re-elected in one of two citywide seats (since the other seven are to be elected in smaller districts this year, thanks to citizen initiative). He will face off against tenant activist Jon Grant, who received just over 30% of the vote. Given his incumbency, Burgess’ less-than-majority performance could spell trouble. Should he lose, Seattle billionaire Nick Hanauer will lose at least one member of the Seattle City Council to lambast with contemptuous-toned emails on his path to force Seattle further and further to the left. And, Seattleites could look forward to yet another former union boss representing them. Only this time, it will be a union boss obsessed with the notion of rent control.
- Rob Johnson, Executive Director of Transportation Choices
Transit activist (read: paid consultant) Rob Johnson finished first in his bid for Seattle’s District 4 seat, receiving just over 33% of the vote. Parks activist (read: Democrat Party functionary) Michael Maddux finished second with a little over 24% of the vote. Both candidates beat out the incumbent, Councilmember Jean Godden—as she received nearly 20% of the vote, and has conceded. If Johnson plays his cards right, he is the favorite to win the general. After all, he entered the race with political weight behind him, with the support of such usual suspects as King County Executive Dow Constantine, and King County council members Larry Philips and Joe McDermott. Johnson’s election would mean Seattleites would likely have many ballot measures like Proposition 1 to vote on—as he helped lead the charge on Prop 1, blatant lies and all.
- Councilmember Mike O’Brien
O’Brien, with three opponents, received nearly 60% of the vote. In all likelihood, he will continue to represent Seattle’s District 6. Of course, that means Seattleites can happily anticipate many more of O’Brien’s antics. Like the time he led the effort to stop the Port of Seattle from actually doing its job to create jobs and maximize revenue from the waterfront by temporarily leasing Terminal 5 to Foss Maritime and its client, Shell Oil. Or, the time he thought it was a good use of city time float his kayak in Elliot Bay to join protesters trying to stop Shell’s oil drilling rig from departing for Alaska.
- Councilmember Bruce Harrell
It isn’t likely Harrell will have much to worry about in his bid to represent Seattle’s District 2. Harrell, facing two opponents, received a little over 62% of the vote. That means Harrell will still be around to tackle pressing problems facing the City of Seattle—problems like whether or not Columbus Day should indeed be called Columbus Day. Harrell was one of the councilmembers (Sawant was the other) who decided to use the Council’s time to introduce a resolution to change the federally recognized Columbus Day to “National Indigenous People Day.” Of course, the resolution passed with flying colors.
Harrell was also in the news this week, figuratively wagging his finger at Amazon for making “profits” and at a specific Amazon executive for not returning his fundraising calls.
It seems amazing, but given the primary results, Seattle’s City Council is going to move even further to the Left – towards increasing irrelevancy and to the detriment of Seattle’s citizens.
It was a tough election for you guys. The most conservative member of the Seattle City Council — who had done everything possible to defeat, delay, and dilute our minimum-wage increase — couldn’t get one-fifth of the vote in a District primary. Liberal activists did well in all races, and of course your blood pressures always rise to even more dangerous levels when Council Member Sawant succeeds.
However much you suffered, it doesn’t mean you should get sloppy. The link to your earlier complaints about (King County’s) Proposition 1 does not contain any accusation of anyone lying about it, and you used “exasperate” incorrectly. Now, we can understand your first mistake: you linked to one of your own posts, so of course it had to have contained an accusation of liberals lying, right? Sadly, no!
But a writer should never confuse “exasperate” with “exacerbate.” For proper usage, please note the following examples:
“Seattle’s voters continue to exasperate advocates of poverty wages, opponents of gay rights, and critics of Kshama Sawant.”
“Republican legislators exacerbate Washington state’s transportation problems when they spend money on freeways instead of mass transit.”