SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 8201
This resolution, which somehow overwhelmingly passed the state legislature, would allow Washington state to invest its long-term care fund in the stock market. I like the idea of a long-term care fund, which provides services for elderly and disabled people who can not otherwise afford long-term care. This program is currently funded by our tax dollars, which are then invested in stable, interest-earning municipal bonds, which in turn help pay for our community’s infrastructure. It’s a good use of public money for public good.

Should we instead put this public money (our tax dollars) in a volatile stock market, and gamble with grandma’s benefits? It was a bad idea when Dubya wanted to do this to social security, and it’s a bad idea for our long-term health fund.

VOTE REJECTED

PROPOSITION NO.1, MEDIC ONE—EMS LEVY
In 2024, King County’s EMS (Medic One) responded to a 9-1-1 call every two minutes. EVERY. TWO. MINUTES. What the hell are you daredevils doing out there? The price we pay for all that action is actually pretty sane—just 58 cents a day for the average homeowner.

This levy renews the one we’ve been paying for emergency medical services for the past 46 years, and since people are gonna keep pulling stupid stunts, let’s keep helping them out.

VOTE YES

EXECUTIVE
Claudia Balducci and Girmay Zahilay are both sitting King County councilmembers. Zahilay currently represents my district on the council. He’s fine and has a cool personal backstory, but frankly I don’t think he cares too much about public transit, which is a priority for me and a significant responsibility for the King County Executive. Zahilay makes no mention of buses or light rail (or bikes!) in his voter’s guide statement, and barely makes mention of public transit on his website. But you know who does? Claudia Balducci!

Balducci is a bus rider and bike commuter who wants to expand bus routes and build more cycling infrastructure. Public transit used to be a major priority in our region (have you rewatched “Singles” lately?), but seems to have taken a back seat to other issues. I’d like to have a strong voice for transit heading our county government.

VOTE CLAUDIA BALDUCCI

MAYOR
I don’t mind a mayor Bruce Harrell. Some paint him as a right wing puppet of the Northwest billionaire class and the Seattle Times Editorial Board. Nah. He’s been a decent mayor—except for that time when he trolled a crowd during his State of the City address by pulling out a basketball and implying that the Supersonics were coming back. Read the room, Bruce.

But like King County executive candidate Girmay Zahilay, Harrell has been weak in advocating for better and more public transit. So I’m voting for Katie Wilson, who co-founded the Transit Riders Union in 2011, and has spent the past 15 years advocating for transit infrastructure and general mobility improvements (like sidewalks and stuff). Traffic sucks in Seattle and it rains a lot too. We should not be cutting bus hours and tearing out bus shelters, but that’s what’s been happening under a mayor Bruce Harrell for the past four years.

Cities are for people, not cars. And we’ll need light rail to get to those Sonics games someday. Right, Bruce?

VOTE KATIE WILSON

CITY ATTORNEY
Ann Davison is terrible—ghosting judges, voting Republican. Ugh. She fluked her way into the city attorney’s office four years ago after we decided to kick Pete Holmes to the curb in the primary, pitting Davison in the general election against Nicole Thomas-Kennedy, whose “defund the cops” policies proved to be too scary for Seattle at large. Fortunately we have a quality, “non-scary” option to replace Davison.

Erika Evans is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney who left the D.O.J. earlier this year when Donald Trump and his band of neo-fascists insisted that Justice employees start narcing on each other for doing any work on “diversity” initiatives. Before that gig she was a prosecutor, a defense attorney, and a pro tem judge. Evans supports community courts and will emphasize cases involving domestic violence, wage theft, and the Trump administration’s anti-immigration policies.

She is incredibly well-qualified to be our new city attorney, and it’s pretty cool that her grandfather is Lee Evans, who won a gold medal at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics in the 4x400 relay—fighting the power (and winning) along the way!

VOTE ERIKA EVANS

CITY COUNCIL, POSITION NO. 8
This vote is a no-brainer. Rachael Savage is a bit of a right-winger who claims that in Seattle “cops are treated as criminals” and “the press and the government stifle critical thinking and diversity of opinion.” Yeah, right. Savage’s focus on addiction and recovery to help solve the homelessness problem is admirable, but her general “lock ‘em up” vibe is a little too much.

Alexis Mercedes Rinck has been on the city council since November 2024, when she beat Tanya Woo in a special election after Teresa Mosqueda’s seat became vacant. In that time, she’s been a nice counterbalance to the hardcore pro-corporate wing of the council, led by (hopefully outgoing) president Sara Nelson.

Rinck was largely responsible for Prop 2 (see below), which shifts the B&O tax burden from small businesses like restaurants to bigger corporations like Amazon, something that even centrist mayor Bruce Harrell supports. The tax system in Seattle (and Washington state) is incredibly regressive. Alexis Mercedes Rinck gets it.

VOTE ALEXIS MERCEDES RINCK

CITY COUNCIL, POSITION NO. 9
Sara Nelson likes to complain about the city government’s slow pace in building new, more-affordable housing. Sara Nelson has been on the city council for the past four years, and has been president of the council for nearly the past two. We have hundreds of millions of dollars committed to building housing in the city coffers. What’s the hold up Sara?

The fact is Nelson is an ineffective city council member who seems more concerned with personal grievances than in building coalitions and getting good stuff done. She truly is the poster child and mouthpiece for Libertarian Tech Bro Seattle—it's their way or the highway. How about no way?! It’s time for you to go back to being a mean boss at Fremont Brewing (or so I’ve been told), Sara.

Dionne Foster has experience working on city policy as an analyst, and has solid, progressive stances on issues of public safety and affordability that suit Seattle better than Sara Nelson’s “the cops and Amazon are always right” approach. Also, Foster cares about improving public transit and supporting a vibrant arts and culture scene, things that Nelson barely mentions, and knows little of.

VOTE DIONNE FOSTER

PROPOSITION NO. 1,
FAMILIES, EDUCATION, PRESCHOOL, AND PROMISE LEVY
It’s déjà vu all over again! Seattle Prop 1 is a renewal of an education levy that we voted on in 2018...and 2014...and 2011...and 2004...and 1997...and 1990. It has passed every time, and will likely pass again. One big difference between the 2018 levy and the 2025 levy is this one is much bigger. The tax in 2018 was 36.5 cents per $1,000 assessed value of your property. This time it’s 72 cents per $1,000. And with property values rising 20% or so over the past seven years, it is a significant increase.

The naysayers of this levy argue that we’ve been spending money on education and the results have not been great for kids in Seattle, who ain’t reading, writing and arithmeticking as good as they used to. Maybe spending more money on their education will help them catch up. Because that usually works, right? Right? .

VOTE YES

PROPOSITION NO. 2,
CHANGES TO THE BUSINESS AND OCCUPATION TAX
Prop 2 shifts a large portion of the business and occupation tax burden from small businesses to much larger ones. Essentially it eliminates all B&O taxes on the first two million dollars of gross receipts, so 75% of small businesses (like that sock store up the street or the gelato place on the corner) will no longer have to pay several hundreds or thousands of dollars in B&O taxes to the city.

This drop in revenue will shift the tax burden to bigger businesses, who will still enjoy a $2,000,000 standard deduction on their gross receipts (up from the current $100,000) but will then pay a higher rate on the rest of their earnings. This shift will benefit 90% of all small businesses in Seattle. And probably piss off Bezos. So shop local and...

VOTE YES

DISTRICT NO. 1, DIRECTOR DISTRICT NO. 2
Both these candidates seem fine. Kathleen Smith is a math nerd who is super-focused on data (maybe a little too focused on data?) and Sarah Clark is the incumbent, having been appointed to this seat by the Seattle School Board in April 2024, after it became vacant. They don’t seem to differ on policies (Split school lunch times? No. Cops in schools? Also no.), so I don’t see a great reason to kick the person who has just started this job out of this job.

VOTE SARAH CLARK

DISTRICT NO. 1, DIRECTOR DISTRICT NO. 4
Just like me, Laura Marie Rivera has a Bachelor of Arts degree from UCLA, so she should be a shoe-in for my endorsement, right? Not so fast. Her opponent, Joe Mizrahi (like Sarah Clark), was appointed to this position just 18 months ago and seems to have done a fine job thus far (he also has some epic hair). Without much difference in policies between these two candidates, I don’t see any good reason to hire a new person for the job right now, even if they are a fellow Bruin.

VOTE JOE MIZRAHI

DISTRICT NO. 1, DIRECTOR DISTRICT NO. 5
Vivian Song is ambitious! She was elected to the Seattle School Board for District 4 in 2021, but when she moved out of that district (from Ballard to Capitol Hill) a few years later, she stepped down from the position. She then applied to, and became a finalist for, a vacant Seattle City Council seat in 2024. She didn’t get that gig, and is now running for school board in her new district. Ambitious!

Song is also experienced, having served on the board for those three years. And that is about the only thing that separates Song from her opponent, Janis White, as they align pretty much across the board on policy. So why not vote for experience (and ambition)?

VOTE VIVIAN SONG

DISTRICT NO. 1, DIRECTOR DISTRICT NO. 7
When the Seattle Times asked all eight of the candidates running for school board if there should be armed, uniformed police in Seattle schools, seven of them replied, “No.” Carol Rava refused to answer the question.

VOTE JEN LaVALLEE