One of the more disturbing trends of the 2019 elections is the spread of the divisive Seattle politics into its neighboring cities. Former FUSE board member Jeremy Barksdale’s campaign has raised some attention as he hopes to export the liberal Seattle policies that have brought rampant homelessness, open drug use, crime, congestion and a housing shortage across Lake Washington to Bellevue.
Yet as liberal as Barksdale’s policies are, they take a backseat to the extreme socialist and anti-Semitic beliefs of Redmond City Council candidate Varisha Khan. One only needs to scroll through Khan’s Twitter feed to see how out of touch she is with the concerns and needs of Redmond residents and her extreme world views.
Khan retweets and likes posts that promote national Socialists Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She publicizes the views of Seattle Socialist candidate Shaun Scott and Councilwoman Kshama Sawant (never mind that Sawant is so extreme that she is in danger of losing her seat in the most liberal district in Seattle).
The Redmond voters who have recently crossed the bridges have seen for themselves how destructive the extreme policies that these politicians promote can be to a once beautiful city.
It is bad enough that Khan supports extreme positions, but it is frightening that she also admires those who advocate hateful anti-Semitic viewpoints and rhetoric. In this post she calls Linda Sarsour “my personal hero” and as someone who has “given me hope.” Linda Sarsour has recently obtained headlines for being kicked off the leadership team of the Women’s March due to her anti-Semitic comments and her support of Hamas terroristic activities. This came after the liberal Southern Poverty Law Center and the Democrat National Committee pulled their support of the March due to the anti-Semitic comments of its leaders and its ties to Louis Farrakhan.
(Worth noting that in the same tweet that Khan mentions Sarsour, she also praised Democrat Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota who has been involved in numerous controversies over her anti-Semitic comments.)
All reasonable people will agree that someone who names their hero as someone who spews and supports hate and terrorist acts deserves no place on the Redmond city council. These are dangerous viewpoints to support.
Yet Khan has a chance of winning due to a strategy she likely picked up from Seattle councilwoman Sawant – she raises a bunch of money from outside her district from those who support her radical views.
Khan’s Public Disclosure report shows she has raised approximately $36,100 for her campaign. She has donated $3,000 herself and attributes $1,250 to “anonymous” and “small” donations. Of the remaining $31,850, contributions outside of Redmond account for $22,100 (69.4%). Nearly 70% of Khan’s detailed donations come from people who do not reside in Redmond!
$5,400 (17.0%) of Khan’s donations come from out of state, $8,450 (26.5%) come from Seattle, $8,250 (25.9%) come from Washington residents who live outside of Redmond or Seattle.
Varisha Khan’s campaign represents the expansion of Seattle politics and the support of hate-filled, anti-Semitic views and rhetoric – mostly financed by out of district money. These are things that even moderate Democrats have called too extreme. They do not represent Redmond’s values and hopefully they will not be part of Redmond’s future.
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