Elections 2023 Mar 2, 2023 at 8:00 am

They Want to Bring a Black, Queer, Nonbinary, Neurodivergent, Multi-disabled Perspective to the City Council

A rare nighttime candidate photo! Community for ChrisTiana

Comments

1

No pic?

2

That's better!

4

Nothing against anyone who is black, queer, nonbinary, neurodivergent, multi-disabled, but how is that a more of a qualification for the city council compared to a white, straight, man or woman who is not neurodivergent or multi-disabled?

Answer: It isn't.

5

@4 - they’re demographically ‘unique’

As for their platform, they’re pretty much a clone of every other candidate running on tax-the-landlords, defund-the-police, repass-legislation-the-mayor-already-vetoed, dream-big-and-it’ll-happen governing.

9

Most of the policy suggestions sound quite reasonable, although a bit naive. For example, we really don't need a study to figure out why housing is so expensive. A lot of people want to live in Seattle and we haven't built enough places for them. This has happened largely because of city policies meant to reduce or slow down the construction of new homes. This is just common sense, but existing studies have shown this: http://seattle.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=9611821&GUID=81FE334E-2E8E-4EDE-8CD1-4EB80458233E. The fact that Obeysumner doesn't mention the racial equity analysis study (even though the Seattle Times ran a big article on it (https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattles-longstanding-urban-village-strategy-for-growth-needs-reworking-new-report-says/) but says we need another study shows they may have no idea what is going on with city government.

Which brings me to another issue. What has Obeysumner actually done? You would think someone with this type of experience would tout it -- list some set of accomplishment. Maybe have a bunch of muckity-mucks touting how easy it was to work with Obeysumner in developing good, common sense policies that improved diversity within the company or organization. Nope. Nothing. Maybe this will come out in the future, but at this point, this is not a "hard opening". Does Obeysumner even have a campaign website yet? I couldn't find it.

This looks like a dream candidate for someone from the right (e. g. Gerry Pollet) to go up against in the general. When Juarez ran there were several really good candidates. Hopefully those folks run again (or people like them do).

11

What does it mean to "hard-launch" a campaign? Obeysumner is not yet a participating candidate in the democracy voucher program and has raised no money. There are several other candidates who ARE participating in the voucher program and HAVE raised some money, yet I don't see write-ups in the Stranger for them. For now, this is just free press for someone who may or may not be running for Seattle City Council

12

They are listed on the Democracy Voucher page but not yet listed in the drop down when you select a candidate for each voucher.

13

Didn't Ann Davison propose to use the Sam's Club as a community center to help our unhoused neighbors come inside? When she proposed it though TS had different words for it:

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2019/09/26/41501450/this-seattle-city-council-candidate-wants-to-force-thousands-of-homeless-people-into-abandoned-warehouses

I guess the person who suggests the idea matters as much as the idea itself.

14

@13, more than ever the identity of the person is more important than platform, policy, etc.

I am as open minded and forward thinking as they come. But to me, there is no difference between Sawant and MTG, other than which side they picked. A bunch of shouting, bullying, and zero practical substance other than to "Drain the Swamp", which means less than it ever did.

The sucky part is that people who are actually capable of running the Seattle government, and sorry, some of them are the dreaded STRAIGHT WHITE MALES, wouldn't touch the job with a ten foot pole because we keep electing people who are barely better than the wackadoos "citizens" who hijack every city council meeting across the land with their personal crusades that have no bearing on the how the real world actually works. It's all fantasyland. Enough enabling these fools. It's so fucking tired.

15

Hold up. How can you be queer and Nonbinary at the same time? Queer means that you prefer the company of the same sex, but if you choose to not identify as a traditional gender role, then...doesn't that mean...?

Never mind, I just answered my own question. It's all bullshit.

16

Reading these candidate profiles the last few weeks has been more entertaining than watching "Portlandia".

18

@13: Ah, but there’s a difference. Ann Davison was proposing sheltering homeless persons (some of whom might have been criminals) at the old Sam’s Club. This candidate proposes putting persons who definitely are criminals there. That’s why this idea is so much better!

20

@12 Here's the participating candidate page:
https://www.seattle.gov/democracyvoucher/i-am-a-seattle-resident/participating-candidates

Obeysumners is not listed. I'm not sure what a "hard-launch" is, but this doesn't seem to qualify.

22

@21: Exactly. No money raised, no campaign contact info, no voucher filing. How is this a "hard launch?"

23

@20. It's about as a hard a launch that sad old lonely former OrangeMonster President's flaccid rape tool can manage these days.

24

A tumblr bio is not a resume.

25

@20. It's about as a hard a launch that sad old lonely former OrangeMonster President's flaccid rape tool can manage these days.

26

@13 Thanks for that, good catch, The Sam's club proposal was "Hurricane Katrina style housing without the hurricane" when Davison was pushing it. Now it's apparently totally o.k. though!

28

@27: Good question. Six years ago, the Stranger told us all about The People’s Party, which seems never to have ever actually existed, so why not now tell us all about a completely fabricated candidate? (As other commenters have noted, above, there’s scant evidence this person is actually a candidate at all.)

Then again, crank candidates have long been features of American politics, and Seattle has fielded some kooky ones in open races of late. (Again, back to six years ago, when we were repeatedly exhorted to “end Seattle fascism” by “opening the Bertha Room” at City Hall. At no time before or since so I recall the Stranger deleting that many comments. Good times.)

31

@29 the answer is actually pretty simple and sad. It's not an attractive job and there are several reasons for that. First you have the activist groups who are small but loud and obnoxious. Council members have already been harassed at their homes, demonized on social media and had their motives and integrity continually called into question (sometimes for good reason) but that wears on you. Second, there is no upward mobility. Being on the SCC is a dead end job. By the time your term is up everyone hates you. Lorena went down in flames and we'll see if Mosqueda can make a mini lateral but the baggage that comes with being associated with the SCC drives away any candidate with aspirations for bigger roles. Finally the city is probably going into a period of declining revenues and will face some really tough choices. Workers are not coming back to 100% so that will inevitably put a strain on revenues as it will also impact sales and B&O taxes, public safety is still a major issue (it will take years to rebuild the damage done to SPD by this last council) along with issues with mental health and addiction. The next several years are not going to be easy which is why you see the likes of Sawant et al bailing. It's kind of a perfect post Covid storm. Seattle will survive of course, we have too much going for us not to, even if one of these in over their head candidates end up getting elected.


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