The other day, Dan Savage took a break from eating cake while covered in fake menstrual blood to walk over to my desk and tell me about a dinner party he'd been to recently. There, Dan says, he was surrounded by a group of "good Seattle liberals" who didn't know a goddamn thing about the Seattle City Council primary election that just happened. A couple of them couldn't name their city council district. One of them thought Kshama Sawant lost because she'd seen so many Pamela Banks signs. One was convinced Mike O'Brien is doomed in the general election.

"Some of them thought [John] Roderick won," Dan told me.

Deep breath.

John Roderick did not win the primary election (to Dan's disappointment). Sawant made it through the primary with the highest percentage of the vote in her race. O'Brien is almost definitely going to win. We covered those results. Kind of a bunch.

But, I get it. A lot of you have been out living your lives, enjoying the sunshine, going to dinner parties with Dan Savage, and so on. So, here—one more time, to set the table as we head toward the November general election, especially for Dan's friends—is where things stand in the nine races for the Seattle City Council. I've broken things down into the races you need to pay attention to and the ones you can go ahead and ignore.

First, let's figure out which city council district you live in. Check this map. You get to vote for one person in your district plus someone in each of the two citywide council races.

Now, the results of the August 4 primary. You'll see two people left in each council race—out of 47 candidates who were trying to get through the primary—because that's how our primary system works. The top two primary vote-getters in each contest head on to the November 3 general election.

DISTRICT 1 (West Seattle): Shannon Braddock vs. Lisa Herbold

Here, an overcrowded heap of candidates was narrowed to Lisa Herbold, legislative aide to city council member Nick Licata, and Shannon Braddock, legislative aide to county council member Joe McDermott. This race will be close and it will be expensive.

Herbold supports asking the state to lift the ban on rent control and imposing more fees on developers to pay for affordable housing. Braddock has warned about creating an "'us vs. them' mentality when it comes to housing and developers." In the primary election, the Chamber of Commerce and the Washington Restaurant Association lined up behind Braddock, dropping a lot of cash to advertise on her behalf. As Herbold ramps up her calls for restrictions on landlords and developers—as she did this week in response to our story about landlords giving breaks to employees of Amazon, Google, and other big companies—those interests will keep shelling out for Braddock.

DISTRICT 2 (southeast): Tammy Morales vs. Bruce Harrell

This one almost makes the "write it off" list because incumbent Bruce Harrell crushed his challengers with just under 62 percent of the vote. He's probably definitely going to win. But the person he'll face in the general election, food policy analyst Tammy Morales, has more substance than the other no-chance challengers.

Morales is going to criticize Harrell—current chair of the council's public safety committee—on police reform and whether he's been strong enough in holding the department accountable. With police union negotiations in the hands of the mayor and reform advocates calling for federal oversight of the Seattle Police Department to go further, the city council's role is often limited to being a squeaky wheel. Morales's critique could force Harrell, who sometimes prefers to keep his criticism behind the scenes (or off the record), to squeak louder.

DISTRICT 3 (Capitol Hill, Central District): Pamela Banks vs. Kshama Sawant

You've heard of Kshama Sawant, haven't you? The socialist one? Of course you have. This is the district where Sawant is running for reelection against Urban League President Pamela Banks. It's the race attracting the most money and attention. This race didn't have much outside special interest money in the primary, but it'll definitely show up in the general, especially from anti-$15 interests like the Washington Restaurant Association. It's going to be a noisy fight, but Sawant's chances look good.

Everyone is spinning the primary results their way. When Sawant got 52 percent of the primary election vote, her supporters saw a mandate. Her detractors claimed a local politician with such international celebrity should have done better. Sawant's supporters are die-hard, though. It's unlikely many of them (11,675 voters in all) are going to be swayed away from her between now and November. Plus, conventional wisdom says voters who sit out the primary but show up for the general are more progressive. That's good for Sawant.

Her colleague, Mike O'Brien, thinks so too. He told Erica C. Barnett recently, "You can throw $10 million at Pam Banks, but everyone knows who is going to win. Kshama [Sawant] is, like her or don’t like her."

DISTRICT 4 (northeast, including the University District): Rob Johnson vs. Michael Maddux

Whether or not you live in this district, pay attention to this race. Super-pro-density transit advocate Rob Johnson is up against also-pro-density Michael Maddux. Johnson has focused more on transportation; Maddux has focused more on housing affordability and progressive taxation. With new light rail stations and potential upzones, there's a lot at stake up there in terms of growth.

Plus, Maddux and Johnson have an adorable public-facing friendship, sometimes carpooling to campaign events together. In the primary, they each focused mostly on their own ideas and on incumbent Jean Godden. They won't be able to do that anymore and will be forced to criticize each other more openly. When their niceties inevitably fall victim to politics, you'll want to be watching.

Godden, the three-term council member who seemed a little too confident she was going to waltz into the general election, trailed Maddux by about 5 percentage points in the primary and Johnson by almost 13.

DISTRICT 5 (north): Sandy Brown vs. Debora Juarez

Here's the secret: Nobody knows what the fuck is going on up in District 5. Former pastor Sandy Brown, who seemed like a natural frontrunner from early on, got shown up by attorney Debora Juarez, who won about 39 percent of the vote. Another 14 percent of voters got behind young Planned Parenthood organizer Halei Watkins, showing that maybe they're done with mansplainy white* dudes for a bit.

Yet, Brown is likely to spend the next few months trying to paint Juarez as the conservative in the race and it'll be interesting to see who lines up behind whom. No current city council member lives in this newly created district and there's a lot of angst up there about basic needs, like sidewalks, being ignored. This race will be about who can best play to those needs while also getting the big issues, like housing affordability, right.

POSITION 8 (citywide): Tim Burgess vs. Jon Grant

Ohhhh man. Tim Burgess. Burgess is the current council president—one of the most powerful politicians in Seattle and a cold grandpa type—and this is the seat he's running for.

As we've discussed, John Roderick flamed out on Election Night. Instead, housing advocate Jon Grant tapped into renter anger and anti-developer sentiment and made it through. It's really hard to predict what's going to happen here. Between Roderick, Grant, longshoreman John Persak, and write-ins, a little more than 54 percent of voters picked someone who's not Tim Burgess. But some of those voters, particularly Roderick supporters, may default back to Burgess in the general. Burgess is seen as more conservative, but some urbanists may see him as the lesser of two evils on density issues. On the other hand, though, that more progressive, Sawant-following demographic that shows up in the general will favor Grant.

This will be a very fun and very ugly race to watch. And no matter where in the city you live, you get to vote in it!

INTERMISSION: Oh, you didn't click the link to that period blood video Dan was in? But why not?

By the way, are you registered to vote? If not, you have about a month left to do it. You're thinking you'll just take care of it later? Stop. Just fucking do it right now.

Now, here are the less competitive races that you can probably just start ignoring now. If you have money you might donate to a candidate, scroll back up. These races don't need you.

DISTRICT 6 (northwest, including Ballard and Fremont): Mike O'Brien vs. Catherine Weatbrook

Council incumbent Mike O'Brien, who got 59 percent of the primary vote, is sure to beat his weak challenger Catherine Weatbrook. So, I guess you can tune out on this one, but you might not want to. This will be a fun race to watch because of everything that's been happening in Ballard lately. People up there are pisssssssed about new development and homeless encampments.

Meanwhile, O'Brien, who favors himself a lefty environmentalist, has caved on some density issues. He supported changes to building rules that limit how bulky new buildings in certain parts of the city can be, somehow managing to piss off both the NIMBYs and the pro-density crowd. And he's expressed doubts about a proposal to allow more density in single family zones.

It's unclear how much of this is O'Brien reacting to his election year threat and how much is a genuine shift away from his pro-density Sierra Club roots. (If you're interested, he got into this a little on our podcast.) The good news is O'Brien's not backing down on the encampments issue. While opponents scream until they're blue in the face, O'Brien is staying firm on his support of more encampments anyway. Weatbrook has said she supports encampments in residential areas, but is now criticizing the city's process for siting one in Ballard. You know, in her back yard.

DISTRICT 7 (downtown, Queen Anne, Magnolia): Sally Bagshaw vs. Deborah Zech-Artis

Sally Bagshaw, who got almost 77 percent of the vote. Some other lady who has no chance. Zzzzzzzzzzzz.

POSITION 9 (citywide): Bill Bradburd vs. Lorena González

Plenty of people expected civil rights attorney and former legal counsel to the mayor Lorena González to do well in the primary, but I'm not sure anyone expected a non-incumbent to do quite this well. González won 65 percent of the vote, so hilariously far ahead of her slow-grow opponent Bill Bradburd's 15 percent that it's kind of unclear what this race is going to be like from here on out. It's pretty clear what the outcome will be.

One interesting thing: González, presuming she wins, will take office earlier than the other new council members because she's filling the seat vacated by Sally Clark. City rules say Clark's temporary replacement only holds that seat until the election results are certified in the election of her permanent replacement. So, while the other winners will be sworn in in January, the winner of this race will get to work in late November.

The general election is November 3. We will be harassing you about this a lot more until then. REGISTER TO VOTE.

*Correction: Sandy Brown has Latino heritage. I regret the error.