You'd think ERW went out and endorsed Mike Huckabee of Ben Carson given the "shock" everyone seems to have about this.

At times I feel like Sawant is a reluctant supporter of gay rights - obviously not homophobic in the least, but in a very subtle way that appears to say gay men on Capitol Hill (especially white ones) are not a truly bullied class that deserve extra attention, or, in particular, her time. There was this weird way that she seemed to dismiss the bro-ish and/or polished gay dudes who had faced hate crimes in a way not seen with other (unprivileged) groups. When I saw the ERW endorsement, I figured they must have sensed the same thing.

Sawant was the only council candidate who wouldn't schedule time with Erica Barnett either.

Equal Rights Washington is a policy organization, not a rah-rah-rally organization. Kshama Sawant may have led a community meeting (which ERW wasn't invited to participate in, incidentally, I'm told), but that doesn't give her a pass from scheduling time to meet with ERW if she sought their endorsement. Lots of other candidates, including Pamela Banks, all of them busy people, found time in their schedules to make it work. So, one is left to understand that either Sawant felt entitled to the endorsement despite her decision to ignore or only pay minimal attention ERW's efforts to reach out, or that she didn't care if she got it or not.

In either case, I'm unimpressed

"If we can’t get adequate access to the person representing us in our district," said "Where's Bruce?" Harrell, the laziest member of the Seattle City Council.

Bruce never showed up once when SHA tenants repeatedly protested SHA's disastrous "Stepping Backwards" scheme that would have raised rents in SHA's buildings 400% in five years. Most of the tenants that would have been affected by these skyrocketing rents are immigrants, people of color and single mothers

Bruce wasn't at the recent protest IN HIS DISTRICT against notorious #Slumlord Carl Haglund who recently almost TRIPLED rents in one of his buildings that are swarming with cockroaches, rats, black mold, broken appliance and dangerous electrical wiring. His opponent, Tammy Morales, was there, along with CMs Sawant and O'Brien. CM Licata sent words of support from afar because he was stuck back at City Hall trying to get some good things done for the people of Seattle.

Three years ago Bruce also dissed, poo-pooed and ultimately refused to vote on Seattle's "Healthy Homes" rental inspection ordinance after failing to convince the other CMs to make inspections voluntary, and to occur no more frequently than every 10 years. Maybe the fact that he's landlord himself made him so indifferent to struggling tenants facing displacement from our city by rent-jacking landlords.

Bruce hasn't said a peep about scandalous revelations in the recent #McDonnell report, commissioned and then disowned by the Seattle City Auditor, which found that that all assignments of the 195 mortgages the auditors studied are void because of clouded chains of title aided and abetted by MERS, the TBTF's 65-employee front corporation that substitutes electronic registration for actual physical recording of mortgages in county courthouses nationwide. This means that foreclosures in Seattle based on these documents illegal and unenforceable, and makes the King County recording offices, where the documents are located, a massive crime scene. Bruce was also a no show standing up for people in foreclosure when a committee lead by former CM Sally Clark commissioned and similarly shelved the Hockett Report, which recommended creative solutions for Seattle's then out of control foreclosure crisis, which disproportionately affected low and middle income people in neighborhoods with high percentages of POC. Bruce is also on record as saying to members of SAFE, a housing justice organization that defends people undergoing foreclosures and evictions, "Some of my best friends are bankers. They are really nice people."

I could go on and on, but you and I don't have all day. #VoteMorales

translation: politics aside, Sawant is a mega-asshole.

Her campaign workers are assholes too.

Sawant drew a hopeless joke of an opponent this year, but against a stronger candidate her disinterest-bordering-on-contempt for basic constituent services work an accessibility are a potentially serious liability for her. ERW's core concerns aren't conducive to economic justice/eat the rich rhetoric, therefore they're of no use to her, so she can't be bothered.

@7 FTW.

A megalomaniacal, wholly unlikable candidate.

Sometimes there's bizarre compulsion that an organization "needs to" make an endorsement in every (important) race. That's just false.

You know what you do when you have a candidate who is better on your issue(s), but you can't fit into their schedule to interview them? You endorse neither candidate.

You don't endorse people who are flakes and you don't endorse candidates who aren't championing your cause. It's that simple.

@2: How is it "butt hurt" to not respond to constituents in a professional manner? The onus is on the public servant to follow-up. The excuse "never heard back", is frankly inexcusable.

Meh. We're a week out and a lot of ballots are already in. What will ERW be bringing to bear in support of their endorsement?

Are they going to hit their mailing list? Do they have canvassers? Money that can released?

All they're doing here is pointing out that their organization is still adrift after R74.

People seeking to dismiss the gravity of this endorsement are missing the point. Sawant already has a bit of an image problem when it comes to being out of touch with her constituents. And believe it or not, there are still plenty of gays on the hill. She should've taken the time to listen to their largest political action committee.

Minimum wage is awesome - well done there. But that's a citywide thing that was settled before she was elected the first time around. What about transit issues and the trolley? What about nightlife related crime issues? Rent control is awesome, but that's a macro issue that impacts the entire city. Likewise with municipal broadband. She just can't be bothered when it comes to local issues that don't dovetail perfectly with the image she's seeking to craft.

Realistically, she should be running for an at large position because that's the level her issues are at. But she opportunistically runs for the hill because she knows we're the only place where she has a shot at getting elected. This is pretty shitty of her.

Wake up district 3 Sawant isn't representing you. How many of her speeches and protests are about district three issues? Sawants campaign quotes are not about your district. She isn't working to better your streets. Sawants speeches in In her most recent campaign, Sawant called for large Seattle companies such as Starbucks and Amazon to be unionized.[35] In previous campaigns, she has advocated the nationalization of large Washington State corporations such as Boeing, Microsoft, and Amazon.com[36][51] and expressed a desire to see privately owned housing in "Millonaire's Row" in the Capitol Hill neighborhood turned into publically owned shared housing saying, "When things are exquisitely beautiful and rare, they shouldn't be privately owned."

@6 What the fuck does this have to do with CM Harrell? And I could rebut your dumb ass acusations, but I dont have all day.

#voteharrell and #fuckyou

Lots of Democratic Party operatives posting here.

ERW is a bought-off, inside the beltway player. Gay, Inc. Players who have co-opted the struggles of gay marriage and Stonewall to get fat, cushy jobs and access to powerful people.

Sawant HAS made LGBT youth housing a priority. Dan Savage endorsed her for that very reason.

The comment are a deliberate attempt to smear a candidate who has done some wonderful work and who has shown the Democratic party elite to be corrupt and worthless. many of the people posting, the ones who are not angry right-wingers, are probably paid by some dem (or GOP as Republicans have set up a PAC to get Banks elected) outfit. Her effectiveness is why they want her gone.

Sawant isn't representing you. How many of her speeches and protests are about district three issues? Sawants campaign quotes are not about your district. She isn't working to better your streets. Sawants speeches in In her most recent campaign, Sawant called for large Seattle companies such as Starbucks and Amazon to be unionized.[35] In previous campaigns, she has advocated the nationalization of large Washington State corporations such as Boeing, Microsoft, and Amazon.com[36][51] and expressed a desire to see privately owned housing in "Millonaire's Row" in the Capitol Hill neighborhood turned into publically owned shared housing saying, "When things are exquisitely beautiful and rare, they shouldn't be privately owned."

I would say she is repping them just fine.

From Dan Savage:

"I have no idea who is on the board at ERW these days or who sits on their endorsement committee—and since their website is nothing but a plea for donations (and has been for months and months), and since there's no info at ERW's Twitter account or on their Wiki page, there's no easy way to find out. But I do know that this endorsement of Banks is complete and total bullshit.

Since taking office in 2013, Kshama Sawant has done great work on LGBT issues. She convened a town hall meeting to address a spike in hate crimes on Capitol Hill, she fought successfully to raise Seattle's minimum wage to $15 (the minimum wage matters to young queer people who flee to cities like Seattle), she pushed to increase funding to address homelessness among LGBTQ youth, and she has aggressively fought skyrocketing rents in Seattle—an issue that has disproportionately impacted residents of Capitol Hill, which has been the city's queer neighborhood for the last few decades."

"Setting aside Sawant's record on LGBT issues, and the emphasis she places on them, the mere fact that Banks calls trans people "transistors" and compares trans men and women to drug addicts should disqualify her from getting an endorsement from an LGBT civil rights group."

Congrats ERW and the hacks commenting here. You are endorsing a transphobe.

http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/20…

Isn't former 3rd district candidate Rod Hearne on the board of ERW?

"I get results for people because I listen and I'm a fighter." What the hell does that even mean? What achievements are Pamela Banks proud of? I had hardly even heard of her before this campaign and I've lived here over 25 years, so what are all her achievements? The only achievements I am aware of is her personal charm, great hair, and a devotion to great sounding talking points. That ain't enough, not even with Bruce Harrell's influence.

@18 I agree. She calls out bullshit and corruption, and she's effective, and that's why they want her gone.