Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant isn't saying she'll run for the Congressional seat being vacated by Jim McDermott. But she's not saying she won't run for it, either.

In the last year of his 14th term, McDermott announced this morning that he won't run again. Democratic State Rep. Brady Walkinshaw already announced last month that he's running.

Sawant doesn't live in the 7th Congressional District. (Here's the map; she lives in Leschi.) But, unlike local elections, you don't have to live in the Congressional district you want to represent.

"Kshama is focused on starting her second term," Sawant's campaign manager Philip Locker told me by text. "But there is a crying need for independent working class representatives in Congress. She is eager to work with the labor movement and progressives to run a strong working class candidate independent from the two big business parties."

When I asked Locker if Sawant had ruled out running herself, he replied, "The statement above is all she can say right now."