There are a lot of wannabe politicians this year: Next week is candidate filing week, the official four-day registration window for everyone running in a King County election this year. City Council races have attracted 55 people, according to preliminary filings with the city, but the county’s election office, which runs elections for cities and towns across the county, expects over 700 people will file paperwork to run for office this year. That’s well above 2017’s record-breaking 634 candidates, and considerably more than the 557 that ran ten years ago, according to data King County Elections sent me. Here’s a graph:
Socialist Alternative to meet with Emily Myers and Shaun Scott: Socialist Alternative (SA) is hosting a candidate forum tonight at downtown’s Labor Temple. You have probably heard of this nationwide socialist organization because Councilmember Kshama Sawant is a member. The two District 4 candidates will take part in the forum at 6 p.m. tonight.
Scott’s involvement with a socialist organization should come as no surprise, as he is a member of the Democratic Socialist of America and is running as a socialist in this year’s election. But Myers attendance is a bit more of a surprise—she told the local education union UAW4121 that she was specifically not running as a socialist. Myers is an executive board member of the UAW4121 union and has been endorsed by the Martin Luther King Labor Council, a central body for the county’s labor unions. Erika Harris, a spokesperson for Myers’ campaign, told me in an e-mail that SA knew she was not running as a socialist when they invited her to participate.
“She is not running as a socialist and Socialist Alternative knew this when they invited her to participate in the event. SA reached out to her because their membership is interested in her platform and her progressive, movement-building approach to this race,” Harris said.
Speaking of Socialists: The Democratic Socialists of America’s national organization, which claims to have over 50,000 members (including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, two new members of Congress) endorsed Shaun Scott today.
DSA is proud to nationally endorse @ElectScott2019 for Seattle City Council District 4!!
Vote for Shaun on Tuesday, Aug 6th!
Donate to and volunteer for Shaun at https://t.co/r0JvMB4FIc
Shaun Scott is a renter, a labor organizer, and an advocacy journalist who is [1/x] pic.twitter.com/rblJfGXJ7Y
— DSA 🌹 (@DemSocialists) May 10, 2019
Crosscut publishes its own ‘Seattle Is Dying’: John Carlson, Crosscut’s conservative-in-residence, published his own take on the now infamous “Seattle Is Dying” KOMO segment, claiming that because “cops often don’t make arrests” voter frustration will drive the City Council to the right. Does Carlson have any evidence to back up this claim? Any polling or interviews or campaign activity that shows this shift to the right? Nope! The conservative simply begins with mansplaining to Mayor Jenny Durkan that she shouldn’t talk about statistics before meandering through a bizarre argument that includes references to May Day protests and praise for KOMO’s “Seattle Is Dying” segment. His lack of reasoning might make some outlets reject this column, but Crosscut has always had a strong commitment to bothsidesism.
Gillibrand wants to turn Seattle’s Democracy Vouchers into a national policy: Kirsten Gillibrand, a senator from New York and a Democratic presidential hopeful, announced last week that she wants to make a national “Democracy Dollar” program where voters get allocated $200 in campaign donation vouchers they can give to presidential candidates. Sound familiar? It should, the New York senator’s plan is modeled off of Seattle’s groundbreaking Democracy Vouchers. It’s not clear how likely the proposal is to get traction, no other major presidential candidates have announced support for Gillibrand’s proposal.
Speaking of Democracy Vouchers: Shaun Scott is still at the top of the pack of Democracy Vouchers, according to data released today by the city. Scott is now over $101,650 followed by his District 4 opponent Alex Pedersen with $89,550. Here’s who’s in the top 10 positions:
Juarez appointed to Sound Transit Board: Councilmember Debora Juarez was appointed to the Sound Transit Board yesterday. Juarez replaced former Councilmember Rob Johnson, who had a position on the powerful regional transit agency’s board until he quit the City Council this year so he can take a job with Seattle’s new NHL team. Juarez is currently running for reelection in District 5.
