CITY OF SEATTLE 

MAYOR
No matter who is elected Seattle’s next mayor, the city will have far more competent leadership in its #1 position than it has in the past eight years under the clueless administrations of Ed Murray and Jenny Durkan. Lorena González and Bruce Harrell both have experience in, and knowledge of, running a city, having been the past two city council presidents.

During their four years together on the council, González and Harrell didn’t differ much on policy, so to paint one as a rabid commie and the other as a crazy conservative is silly, but that’s politics!

The two do differ on how the get our growing legion of billionaires to pay their fair share of taxes. Harrell wants to ask nicely, while González wants to force their hand through legislation. And then when (or if) we get that sweet coinage, how will it be used? Harrell wants to hire more cops (including unarmed ones, which is good), while González thinks SPD has enough money and would like those funds to be redirected to other programs (which is better).

Additionally, Harrell’s comments four years ago in defending Ed Murray after credible sexual assault allegations (“I don’t want to be judged for anything 33 years ago...the question is are you doing your job today right now,” Harrell said) raises a red flag on his judgment and who gets to be given a “pass” these days.

In the end, González ain’t Che Guevara, and Harrell ain’t Trump, and Seattle will be fine with either of these experienced candidates as mayor, but I’m voting for the candidate who thinks that both Bezos’ bank account and SPD’s ranks should shrink.


VOTE M. LORENA GONZALEZ

CITY ATTORNEY 
Pete Holmes is still city attorney, but I already miss him. In the August primary he was challenged from the left by Nicole Thomas-Kennedy (aka NTK), challenged from the right by Ann Davison (aka ASS), and came in third. The two candidates left standing in this “nonpartisan” race offer a stark contrast on how (and if) the city will prosecute misdemeanors (like shoplifting) and defend the city in civil cases (like when Trump tried to freeze federal funds because Seattle was an “anarchist jurisdiction”).

The US system of justice favors the wealthy. A poor person who steals food or sleeps in a storefront is treated much more harshly than a corporation who dodges their tax bill. Thomas-Kennedy wants to flip the script, decriminalize poverty, and make sure the wealthy pay what they owe.

Yes, Thomas-Kennedy sent out some mean tweets before she was running for office (I guess that happens when SPD teargases your neighborhood), but listen to her or read about her and she’s really not that scary. She’s worked within the justice system and knows how it works, having been a public defender and criminal defense attorney in hundreds of cases who has never lost a trial (a fact she attributes to "the absurdity of the types of cases prosecutors filed as much as her own legal prowess”).

Ann Davison has virtually no criminal or courtroom experience. She’s had a private law practice focusing primarily on on contracts and business transactions. There’s nothing wrong with that, but she lacks the experience needed to represent a city as big, complicated, and economically diverse as Seattle.

What’s perhaps most alarming is Davison’s switch of parties in 2020. In 2019 she ran as a Democrat for city council (and lost). In January 2020, Davison filed to run for lieutenant governor as a Republican (she lost again). The Republican party was a strange brand to tie yourself to in 2020. She essentially joined a cult, whose impeached leader was weeks away from asking us to drink bleach. Is that who you want making judgment calls daily in the city attorney’s office? Not me.


VOTE NICOLE THOMAS-KENNEDY

CITY COUNCIL POSITION NO. 8
In the August primary ten candidates ran for this at-large position, one of two on the council which represents the entire city rather than just a single district. Incumbent councilmember Teresa Mosqueda garnered nearly 60% of the vote and Kenneth Wilson came in second with 16%. The general election will not likely be much closer, and not just because Mosqueda has been a good councilmember who carries the strengths of incumbency.

Wilson is a structural engineer who is really into bridges. That’s great, but the Issues page on his campaign website is mostly just photos of the bridges his company has worked on. His campaign video doesn’t shed much more light on policy matters, for it’s basically just him standing in front of his favorite places in Ballard, including Brown Bear Car Wash, JoAnn Fabrics, Mr Gyros...and more bridges! One of his few policy stances is supporting the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild, which is a non-starter for me.

In her four years on the council the bridges Mosqueda has constructed have been more metaphoric than Wilson’s concrete and steel structures. She’s built coalitions to pass policies to fund affordable housing, workplace protections (including pandemic hazard pay), energy efficiency standards, and more. And she’s no fan of SPOG.


VOTE TERESA MOSQUEDA

CITY COUNCIL POSITION NO. 9
Sara Nelson cannot be trusted. A few years ago I stopped in at the Fremont Brewing Company (which Nelson co-owns) and noticed a TV crew surrounding a group of (mostly) white dudes. The dudes were celebrating a successful movement to keep the “Amazon” head tax off the upcoming ballot. This was a big local story at the time and I saw it as an affront to democracy—a group of anti-tax tech bros throwing their money behind a scare campaign, thereby subverting citizens’ ability to vote on it. It was a dangerous precedent and here it was being celebrated at Sara Nelson’s brewery.

Nelson was at the event, and knowing that she considered herself a “progressive” (doesn’t everyone around here?), I asked her why she would host such an event. She at first denied knowing much about the tech bros’ cause and claimed she was just playing host. But when pressed further, it was apparent that she was very much on board with this Joe Rogan Libertarian crew. She came across as disingenuous and sketchy. And certainly not “progressive.”

In policy matters, Nelson believes in the status quo. To hear her speak, you’d think Seattle doesn’t have a housing crisis and the Seattle Police Department is doing a fine job. Nikkita Oliver disagrees. Oliver believes in smart rezoning so that more housing can be built, and not just the luxury kind. Oliver believes that a major chunk of SPD’s budget needs to be moved to other social programs so that our justice system is less punitive. And Oliver believes in investing in Seattle’s diminishing arts and culture community. Oliver is the only “progressive” in this race.


VOTE NIKKITA OLIVER

KING COUNTY

EXECUTIVE
Even though Dow Constantine has been a solid King County Executive for the past 12 years, I voted for Joe Nguyen in the August primary. As state senator, Nguyen has been good on transportation policy, and as the person who would be influential over King County Metro, he would advocate for speeding up the expansion of light rail and for affordable transit. He wants to spend less money on jails and courts, and more on fulfilling basic needs (school, transit, food). He’d also like to see Jeff Bezos pay his taxes.

But after visiting the three new Link Light Rail stations and riding the new 1 Line several times over the past two weeks I was considering throwing the Dow a bone and switching my vote in the general election. Dow has fought hard for expansion of light rail during his three terms as county exec, and was the chairman of the Sound Transit Board when ST3 (the Ballard line) passed in 2016. But imagine my “surprise” on a recent evening, riding the 1 Line, when I discovered that two of the escalators at the BRAND NEW U District Station were ALREADY out of service.

This has been an ongoing issue at other stations for several years now. It’s embarrassing that we spend billions of dollars on this incredibly efficient light rail system and can’t get something as simple as escalators correct. Sorry Dow, someone needs to pay the price (and I know you’d rather be governor in three years anyway).


VOTE JOE NGUYEN

CHARTER AMENDMENT NO. 1, PREAMBLE 
The King County Charter is the foundation of the county government. It was born in 1968 (me too!) after a series of political scandals rocked the county. The Charter is essentially the King County Constitution, and this year voters have a say in two potential amendments to this document.

Amendment 1 adds 12 words to the Charter’s preamble, essentially making in more inclusive. These 12 words are “equitable...for all...protect and enhance...promote a superior quality of life.” All good things. It also fixes a typo in the preamble because whoever wrote it didn’t know the difference between “insure” to “ensure” (me neither!).


VOTE YES

 

CHARTER AMENDMENT NO. 2, INITIATIVE, REFERENDUM AND
CHARTER AMENDMENT TIMELINES AND PROCESSES 

King County residents can file initiatives and referenda to the King County Council to either be adopted or put on a future ballot. This doesn’t happen very often as most of our local initiatives are citywide ($15 minimum wage) or statewide (chair-stealin' Tim Eyman’s bullshit), not countywide. But when it does happen, we should be sure that the rules are consistent and clear.

Currently the rules in the Charter for filing county initiatives and referenda are not consistent with what is in state code (or, even odder, county code). This amendment aligns the Charter with those other documents. Duh.


VOTE YES

WASHINGTON STATE

ADVISORY VOTES NO. 36, 37, AND 38 
Advisory votes are stupid. They are only on the ballot because professional fraudster Tim Eyman sponsored an initiative back in 2007 that required advisory votes on tax increases that were not subject to citizen referendum.

These three pieces of legislation passed by a cumulative vote of 320-116 in the state house and senate. That’s 73%, five points higher than Russell Wilson’s career winning percentage with the Seahawks. This legislation is now law. Your vote means nothing. Don’t encourage Tim Eyman.


DON’T EVEN VOTE ON THESE

PORT OF SEATTLE

COMMISSIONER POSITION NO. 1 
I’m sure Norman Sigler is a good dude. He calls SeaTac Airport “magical” AND we have seven mutual Facebook friends! But I’m not sure how his experience as the director of an executive search firm transfers to being port commissioner.

Incumbent Ryan Calkins (hey, we also have seven mutual Facebook friends!) has been an earnest and humble public servant over the past four years as port commissioner. He’s a strong advocate for decarbonizing our airport and seaport, and wants to focus on small business development on Seattle’s remodeled waterfront. Seattle needs more subways and fewer Subways.


VOTE RYAN CALKINS

COMMISSIONER POSITION NO. 3 
Two-term incumbent Port Commissioner Stephanie Bowman is facing off against Hamdi Mohamed in this race. I’m actually kind of surprised that Bowman survived her last election, for with all her talk about “environmental stewardship,” when Shell Oil decided to park their huge Arctic oil drilling rig in Elliott Bay in 2015, Bowman didn’t do a damn thing to try and stop them. That is unacceptable.

Hamdi Mohamed lives in SeaTac, and if elected she would be the first port commissioner to live in South King County, which is kind of remarkable considering that the port’s biggest source of revenue is SeaTac Airport, and so many airport employees live in the area, one of whom is Mohamed's husband (her mom also used to work there).

Mohamed supports high speed rail and off-shore wind energy projects, and with her experience as U.S Representative (and future Speaker of the House) Pramila Jayapal’s deputy district director, she knows some people in D.C. to help get those things paid for.


VOTE HAMDI MOHAMED

COMMISSIONER POSITION NO. 4 
Peter Steinbrueck’s political résumé is longer than a SeaTac TSA line the Friday before Christmas. Steinbrueck served three terms on the Seattle City Council, lost a race for mayor, and then won a race for port commissioner four years ago. And he’s a Seattle legacy—the son of Victor Steinbrueck, who helped save both Pioneer Square and Pike Place Market from development 50 years ago.

I voted for Steinbrueck in 2017 because I liked his proposal to look into creating another regional airport in the Puget Sound area, like the Bay Area and Los Angeles have. Then Everett’s Paine Field opened in 2018, which was awesome...until COVID shut it down until further notice.

The times they have a-changed.

Toshiko Grace Hasegawa is also a legacy—the daughter of Bob Hasegawa, a former Teamster’s head who I shared a picket line with back in the year 2000 (he is now a state senator). In 2018, she was appointed to Jay Inslee’s cabinet as Executive Director of the Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs, and was quickly tasked with navigating the pandemic and its effects on small businesses, both financially and socially (as in anti-Asian prejudice and misinformation).

As a candidate for port commissioner Hasegawa supports investing in off-shore wind projects, more solar power for the port, and investing in high speed rail. And as the daughter of a bad ass Teamster, she probably knows how to get things moving.


VOTE TOSHIKO GRACE HASEGAWA

SEATTLE SCHOOL BOARD

SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1, DIRECTOR DISTRICT NO. 4
This race seems to have two good candidates. Vivian Song Maritz (BA, Harvard) is a former public school teacher who wants to see a focus on mental health in education, which seems especially important during and after the COVID pandemic. Laura Marie Rivera (BA, UCLA) is also a former public school educator (and also apparently a former “Broadway performer”), who thinks arts should be a big part of a kid’s education.

They both have four kids going to (or about to go to) Seattle public schools, but only one of the candidates went to a public university (suck it Harvard).


VOTE LAURA MARIE RIVERA

SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1, DIRECTOR DISTRICT NO. 5
Dan Harder is a Fox News poster boy. His campaign website is basically a tirade against Critical Race Theory, which (need you be reminded) is not taught in Seattle public schools. In 2018, Harder ran for Seattle city council, claiming that the greatest threat to civil rights at the time was “the attempted silencing of the College Republicans by the UW administration.” Poor, poor Dan. So oppressed.

Michelle Sarju does not have ton of experience in the field of education, but she is the mother of a public school student. Sarju's platform focuses extensively on a post-COVID school re-entry plan, as well as eliminating the opportunity gap in education. Most importantly, she’s not Dan Harder.


VOTE MICHELLE SARJU

SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1, DIRECTOR DISTRICT NO. 7
Incumbent board member Brandon Hersey was appointed to this position in 2019 after the resignation of Betty Patu. He’s running against Genesis Williamson who submitted no official statement to the King County voter’s pamphlet and has almost no online presence.

Googling “Genesis Williamson” tells me little more than that she is a student at Seattle U, and also that a Harry Williamson composed music for a movie called “Tarka the Otter” with Genesis guitarist Anthony Phillips in 1976.

Hersey is a second grade teacher at Rainier Valley Elementary school, the son of an AP Government teacher, and the brother of a high school vice principal. He knows first hand what the past 18 months of virtual/semi-virtual learning has looked like in Seattle public schools, the mental health toll it’s had on kids, and the opportunity gap that has widened during that time, especially for poorer kids and kids of color. His is a good voice to have on the school board right now.


VOTE BRANDON K. HERSEY