MAYOR
Fifteen candidates are running for mayor of Seattle and any of the front-runners would be an improvement over our past two mayors (three if you include the brief term of Tim “William Henry Harrison” Burgess). Bruce Harrell is the most Durkanesque (Durkanian?) of the leading five or six candidates, but is far more competent than Mayor Jenny has proven to be. Still, Harrell would lead with the establishment style favored by Durkan (and Ed Murray before her), and (because Seattle abhors big changes) he is very likely to be one of the two candidates to make it through the primary election.

So who best to beat him in the general election?

I like Jessyn Farrell and her experience with transportation, but I don’t think she provides enough policy contrast with Harrell, so I’m voting for Lorena Gonzalez, who (among other things) will put a major emphasis on demilitarizing Seattle cops, and is a very strong candidate to face the engaging Harrell.

VOTE M LORENA GONZALEZ

CITY ATTORNEY 
Ugh, Ann Davison is back. She ran for city council in 2019 and lost. So she became a Republican and ran for lieutenant governor in 2020. And lost again. Hopefully the third time is NOT a charm and this Moms for Seattle/Safe Seattle NIMBY candidate will be dispatched in this three-person race and not make it to the general election.

It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster ride for incumbent Pete Holmes in his three terms as Seattle city attorney, but he’s navigated the ups-and-downs fairly nobly. He assumed office in 2010 as a bit of a police reformer, which has proven to be a tough task over the past decade, and he certainly hasn’t been perfect on the issue.

I’d be fine with another four years of Holmes as city attorney, but there is an intriguing candidate running on a platform of REAL police reform (is this Police Reform 4.0 now?)—Nicole Thomas-Kennedy. Kennedy has been a public defender so has seen the inequities in our criminal justice system up close. She’s seen the waste, corruption, and privilege in the system, and wants to do something about it. Between now and November, I’d like to see a healthy debate on the direction of Seattle’s justice system between two good candidates for city attorney. Feel free to vote for Pete Holmes, or...

VOTE NICOLE THOMAS-KENNEDY

CITY COUNCIL POSITION NO. 8
Ten candidates are in this race. Nine wasted their money on a filing fee.

VOTE TERESA MOSQUEDA

CITY COUNCIL POSITION NO. 9
If you do one thing this election, DO NOT VOTE FOR SARA NELSON. If she makes to through to the general election, I will tell you more. But for now...DO NOT VOTE FOR SARA NELSON!

The two best candidates in this race are Brianna Thomas and Nikkita Oliver, and hopefully they’ll face off against each other in the November general election. Personally I’m voting for Oliver because I wish she’d been our mayor the past three and a half years. But vote for her or Thomas...just DO NOT VOTE FOR SARA NELSON!

VOTE NIKKITA OLIVER

EXECUTIVE
Five candidates are running for King County Executive, including Michael “Goodspaceguy” Nelson, who isn’t even the craziest person in this race. That honor goes to Bill Hirt, who tilts at the windmills of light rail, Critical Race Theory, and EV batteries with Quixotic aplomb.

This is a two-man race now, and it will be a race between the same two men in November, as incumbent Dow Constantine tries to fend off his stiffest competition yet in his fourth run for executive: State Senator Joe Nguyen. Nguyen is running a “throw the bum out” campaign, citing Constantine’s twelve years as county executive as long enough and time to go.

As state senator, Nguyen has been good on transportation policy, and as the person who would be most influential over King County Metro, he would advocate for speeding up the expansion of light rail and for fare-free transit. He wants to spend less money on jails and courts, and more on fulfilling basic needs (school, transit, food), the lack of which often lead to criminalization. He’d also like to see Jeff Bezos pay his taxes.

Dow’s a solid dude and pretty good on these same issues, but maybe it’s time for a change....

VOTE JOE NGUYEN

PROPOSITION NO. 1, REGULAR PROPERTY TAX LEVY 
FOR CHILDREN, YOUTH, FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES 
Around $120 a year to fund child care services, newborn family services, youth programs, mental health support, and homelessness prevention. That's a year of Netflix. You can afford both.

VOTE APPROVED