Lol holy shit, last night was wild, gossipy, and full of surprises and celestial spectacle.
Though the state still needs to tally half the votes cast in the 2024 primary elections, we ask you: when has working with partial information ever stopped us from delivering screaming hot takes? Never. It has never stopped us, and it won’t stop us now. So let’s talk about what you should be talking about with your friends at the water cooler, or on Slack, or in the local politics group chat, which you totally have. Right? Right.
A Backlash to the Backlash Is Brewing in Seattle. Even though voters only saw one Seattle City Council seat on their ballots this cycle, last night did not bode well for the conservatives who just took office this year.
If you haven’t been reading the blog, just know that those new, conservative council members have done very little except piss off even the most mild of progressives with attacks on minimum wage laws, threats to renters’ rights, and a quest to jail as many poor people as humanly possible. If they’re the backlash council to the last council, then there just might be a backlash to the backlash brewing.
Tanya Woo, who the council appointed to the vacant citywide position earlier this year, currently trails her progressive challenger, Alexis Mercedes Rinck by five points, 41.5% to 46.5%. Rinck’s lead will likely increase as the remaining ballots trickle in, and it is pretty safe to say that the combined 8% of voters who filled in the bubbles for lefties Tariq Yusuf and Saunatina Sanchez will vote for Rinck in the general. Woo is in a bad position for an incumbent, and that means trouble for her peers on the council who endorsed her.
Several council members, including Sara Nelson, Joy Hollingsworth, and Bob Kettle, also appeared to support candidate Andrea Suarez for the State House in the 43rd Legislative District. She only secured 23% of the vote, trailing first-place Shaun Scott’s commanding 54%.
This result could be especially concerning for Council President Nelson, who is up for reelection next year. According to recent polling from Northwest Progressive Institute, only 22% of surveyed voters said they approved of Nelson’s performance on council; 32% said they disapproved, and 46% said they were not sure. She’s vulnerable, so the left ought to rally around a strong, progressive challenger next year.
The Stranger Still Reigns Supreme. Some whiny reporters at The Stranger were worried that our endorsements wouldn’t mean as much after we got bought by a normie Democrat. Maybe it’s too soon to say, since we wrote and reported our endorsement package before we met our new stepdad, but so far it looks like we have maintained our influence. With the exception of two Congressional challengers and the Commissioner of Public Lands, all of the people we endorsed won their races. Not just made it through the primary. They fucking won.
In comparison with the other major endorsing outlet in town, the Seattle Times, we whooped ass. To be fair, both The Stranger and the Seattle Times endorsed Bob Furgeson for Governor and Nick Brown for Attorney General, and several others. But when we disagreed, as we so often do, The Stranger came out on top.
Our candidates beat Seattle Times candidates in races for Public Lands Commissioner, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Insurance Commissioner, the open seat in the 43rd Legislative District, the open seat in the 5th Legislative District, and in the citywide Seattle City Council seat. So next time some crank writes on Post Alley about how washed The Stranger is as an endorsing body, remember that they know nothing and that their adult children probably don’t call them. Seattle’s Only Newspaper still has it, and we hope you continue to bestow that sacred trust upon us. We will endeavor to continue earning it.
Another Way to Look at a Few of the Times-endorsed Flunkies. Candidates who presented themselves as reasonable and pragmatic centrists didn’t do so hot, even if conservative editorial boards the world over love their type.
Take Reid Saaris, the I-don’t-like-charters-but-charters-like-me candidate running for Superintendent of Public Instruction. He was outdone on the left by Incumbent Chris Reykdal, and on the right by David Olson, the peninsula school board member who discussed “critical race theory” on conservative talk radio.
In the 43rd Legislative District, the politically unknown tech employee Daniel Carusello is dead last behind Shaun Scott, the progressive lobbyist leading the race, and Andrea Suarez of We Heart Seattle.
In the race for Washington’s Insurance Commissioner, longtime OIC project manager John Pestinger, a self-described liberal listed as a “strong Republican voter” in a Democratic voter database, fell far behind our pick, Patty Kruderer, and also Phil Fortunato, one of the most conservative Republicans in the galaxy. Does this mean our politics are more divided? Or are people sick of politicians they can’t trust to take a side on basic issues?
Dems Dominate Statewide Executive Races. In an unsurprising turn of events, Democratic candidates swept Washington’s statewide executive seats, barring one rather large exception we’ll discuss later.
Attorney General and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bob Ferguson currently leads with 45.5% of the vote to Republican gubernatorial candidate Dave Reichert, who managed to just barely finish a little less than 20 points behind Ferguson with 28% of the vote. Ferguson’s election-night tally runs 3.5 points ahead of a July poll from the Seattle Times/SurveyUSA, and runs just 1.5 points behind the number current three-term Governor Jay Inlsee put in up his 2012 primary race, all of which must make Ferguson’s team feel good.
Meanwhile, Lt. Governor Denny Heck trounced the competition with about 49% of the vote, more than double Republican challenger Dan Matthews. Incumbent Democratic Secretary of State Steve Hobbs earned 49%, a solid lead ahead of his Republican challenger, Dale Whitaker, who finished more than 10 points behind. In the race for Insurance Commissioner, Democratic state Sen. Patty Kurderer holds a comfortable lead with about 45% of the vote to Republican Phil Fortunato’s 28%. In the Attorney General’s race, Republican Pete Serrano technically leads the field with 42%, well ahead of Stranger-endorsed candidate Nick Brown, who secured 36%. But if you add Democratic state Senator Manka Dhingra’s tally to Brown’s, then the Democrats dominate that race with 58% of the vote. In a time with conservative judicial fuckery in Washington DC and a terrifying 2024 General Election looming, swimming in an ocean of blue executives soothes the soul a little. Of course, the Lands Commissioner race had to be the exception that proves the rule.
The Lorax Is Shook: We may wind up with two Republicans to choose from in the general election contest for the Commissioner of Public Lands, thanks to a crowded Democratic field that didn’t really need to be so crowded, if you ask us! The race to replace Hilary Franz featured one progressive Democrat (King County Council Member Dave Upthegrove) and four more conservative Democrats (Department of Natural Resources Tribal Liaison Patrick DePoe, state Sen Kevin Van De Wege, Allen Lebovitz, and Redmond City Council Member Jaralee Anderson) squaring off against two Republicans (a very Trumpy Sue Pederson and a former Republican Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Buetler).
Big Timber dumped a shit-ton of money into Kevin Van De Wege’s coffers, earning him a whopping 8.2% of the vote. Tribes spent a good chunk of change on the campaign for DePoe, who garnered 13% of the vote. And a couple of political neophytes–Anderson and Lebovitz–took home 15% of the vote between them, leaving the only person who actually wants to save the trees in close third with 19.9% of the vote. Upthegrove’s camp feels like they might juuuust squeak past Pederson, who currently has 20.3% of the vote, but it’s hard to say. If he doesn’t, then so much for the Evergreen State.
Washington State Supreme Court Looks Weirdly Tight. Preliminary results in the race for a seat on the highest court in the state show a close contest between civil litigation attorney Sal Mungia, who leads with about 42% of the vote, and Federal Way Municipal Court Judge Dave Larson, who earned 37%. Those numbers seem surprising considering Mungia’s endorsements from both The Stranger and the Seattle Times, but we’re just now getting word that other places in Washington exist outside of the Puget Sound region.
Mungia’s spokesperson cautioned that with plenty of ballots left to count in King County, the gap between those candidates may continue to grow. However, with conservative-coded Todd Bloom taking in about 17% of the vote, and with Larson running a campaign that at least appears right-leaning, Mungia may be in trouble depending on how Bloom supporters split. Over the phone, Mungia acknowledged feeling concerned, but he said he’s felt concerned since day one, and he just wants to keep putting out his message of fairness as he continues to campaign.
Gaza Isn’t Driving Votes. We’ve marched, we’ve shut down traffic, we’ve written countless emails to our local, state, and national representatives demanding an end to US support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and we must continue doing all that work in the name of all that is right and true and good. But when it comes to the electorate, single-issue Palestine voters are not a dominant force in Washington State.
Council on American-Islamic Relations Executive Director Imraan Siddiqi will not advance through the primary, coming in with only 3% of the vote share in the 8th Congressional District. Three-term Congresswoman Kim Schrier currently leads that race against Republican banker Carmen Goers, 51.5% to 44%. Cracking 50% and running 7.5 points ahead of the Republican is a good place for Schrier to find herself, but she’ll have to keep working hard to keep that seat.
Closer to home, in the 9th Congressional District Melissa Chaudhry pulled in 18%, which might allow her to squeeze past Republican Paul Martin (who?) if the last-minute progressive votes go her way, which they will. But even so, she’d be a distant second to Congressman Adam Smith, who leads the field with an unassailable 58%. Moreover, Chaudhry is currently running about nine points behind Sarah Smith, who earned 27% of the vote share at the height of the most recent progressive movement in 2018, which doesn’t bode well for any sort of foreign-policy based campaigns in the state.
The Stranger-endorsed candidate in WA-8 got 2.79% of the vote. If that’s “reigning supreme,” then I’m the Queen of England!
‘demanding
an end to US support
for Israel’s genocide in Gaza’
but but butt
ole wormmy’s
been Educating
Seattelites that the
Genocide cannot act-
ually Be a “genocide” till
All Parties AGREE it’s what
it Obviously IS. until then it’s
merely a One-sided Slaughter
or maybe an Ongoing Massacre
to Remove Palestinians from their
Homeland, like Any good Colonizers
and fully Justified by Hamas’s Horrorshow
on 10/7 right under bibi nutnyahoo’s very nose.
so let’s hope
Kamala & Tim’ll
just say Fuck NO to
nutnyahoo’s Genocide
keep Trying
wormmy! bibi surly
Appreciates your Support!
No one other that the hard left nutters are shouting “Death to Israel”. Who could ever have guessed that?
“ we ask you: when has working with partial information ever stopped us from delivering screaming hot takes? Never. It has never stopped us, and it won’t stop us now.”
The truest words ever published by The Stranger.
ALWAYS love your commentary. Keep doing you.
Just a quick note to the copy editor: ‘Inslee’.
Let the snarky retorts to former journalism students commence.
@2: The entire point of what you quoted was to admit that ten solid months of you and the Stranger screaming “GENOCIDE!!” hasn’t changed any votes. You haven’t convinced anyone. At all. (As @3 noted, the people who hate on Israel would have done so anyway, no matter what you said.) Your failure includes not getting anyone to agree with your flagrant abuse of the word itself.
If you want to give me credit for defending the actual meaning of the word, well then, thank you. I don’t think you should give me much credit for your failure to convince anyone that your definition (whatever it might be) should take the place of the definition the entire world has used for seventy-five years, though; that abject failure of Orwellian propaganda rests entirely with you.
Better luck next time!
Hopefully this will put pressure on Nelson to push even harder get results in fixing downtown so she can run on that next year.
SCEB continues its “winning” streak in the primary – let’s see if this is the year their unique endorsements carry the general.
@7
this’s as much
as I could stomach
but it was More than enough:
“The entire point of what you quoted was to admit that ten solid months of you and the Stranger screaming ‘GENOCIDE!!’ hasn’t changed any votes.” –@wormmy
and voting
Uncommitted
was Ineffective?
where’s
Genocide Joe
now, Wormtongue?
your view of
‘reality’ is
Unreal.
@10: “where’s
Genocide Joe
now, Wormtongue?”
If by that term, you mean the hateful and mean-spirited epithet you applied to one of the best US Presidents ever, simply because of your raging frustration you couldn’t browbeat him into capitulation on Israel policy, then as we just noted, it was a failure. If you mean our current President, he’s retiring for the good of both himself and the country. Again, you had nothing to do with that, and neither did a handful of “uncommitted” delegates. (Please note how easily VP Harris has secured the Democratic nomination.)
Look, I understand: you want to salvage something from your ten solid months of calling anyone who dares to disagree with you, “Pro-Genocide,” or any of the other silly names you’ve called us. But there’s no there there. Voters have spoken, and either they don’t care what you think, or there aren’t enough of them (e.g. fewer than 3%) to matter.
It’s over. You lost. Get over it.
@8 the problem is not how hard she pushes but that her methods are outdated and ineffective. A Council that ran on responsible governance is pushing wasteful new jail contracts and reinstatement of a harmful loitering law. It’s amateur hour and the electorate is taking notice.
“[…] then so much for the Evergreen State.”
While Washington State has a Sore Loser Law, it’s not like a well-known and -funded Dem couldn’t stage a significant, perhaps even successful, write-in campaign.
Tensorna, why are you so fixated with demanding unquestioning support for Netanyahu? None of what he’s doing to Gaza can ever be called “self-defense” again, none of it is necessary to defend his country, a country whose survival is a certainty no matter what- and it’s pointless to demand that anybody go back to the discredited, failed, doomed approach of screaming “recognize Israel!” at the Arab countries while, at the same time, refusing to accept that Palestinians MUST get a state for the conflict to and the conflict can’t end with anybody agreeing to “surrender”?
Why are you so in love with a brutal, senseless hopeless status quo in the Middle East, tensorna? We all know anything pro-LGBTQ+ in Israel will inevitably be repealed within a few more years of the right-wing coalition governments that will always rule the place, and we all know that nobody’s liberation can be bound up in preserving anybody else’s oppression.
“Actually Existing Zionism”- the idea of running Israel on the assumption that it must treat all Palestinians and Arabs as barbarians, that no change in the current way of doing things is ever possible, that the Israeli government’s toxic habit of screaming “admit you’re wrong, admit it’s all YOUR fault, admit that nothing you say or do is ever valid or justifiable, admit that you just have to give up and blindly obey us” doesn’t work and never work, that that approach can NEVER end the conflict and get to anything remotely like normalized relations with Israel’s neighbors and with the Palestinians. For the two communities involved, something else is needed- and for a start “pro-Israel” people and the Israeli government itself have GOT to stop treating all Palestinians and all Arabs as if they are pathologically incapable of conducting themselves as civilized human beings or running anything remotely like a decent society. The Arab Spring proved Palestinians and Arabs are just as capable of seeking something better as anybody else and can do so on their own terms.
You also need to admit that nothing progressive or positive can come of filling up Seattle’s jails with the poor, that nothing the police can do can ever make the city better, that no progressive ends can ever come of repressive means, but that’s for another day.
We are very alive and will not tolerate genocide ever. Murdering rather slaughtering brutally imprisoned people by the deranged zionist state is failing now. There is a near civil war raging in the occupied areas miscalled israel right now. Despite stealing our taxes to commit horrific war crimes this federal government has not succeeded in actually keeping the israhell afloat. But has gotten this government isolated and despised on the world stage.
Anyone that supports the horrors inflicted on the Palestinian people is supporting war crimes and is labeling themselves criminal fascists. That they are ok with the targeting of little children by death squads by bombs speaks volumes about their demented world view and who they are.
Also, putting more poor people in jails belongs to a backward ignorant understanding of what is a city is. A comparison is Vienna, Austria which is noted as the most livable city in the world because of social housing and its humane support systems. We could do the same if the powers in this city were not corrupt and gave a damn about the people living here instead of their support of their individual fiefdoms.
Power to the People!!
@12 not sure you have any evidence that the jail contract is wasteful. You don’t have a suggestion on where else to house criminals…they have to go somewhere and I’m sure your front yard isn’t an option. My front yard is very tired of them. And “loitering law” is harmful to whom? You may enjoy crime, death and defecation in your front yard. I assure you that I’ve had more than enough of it in mine.
@16 “not sure you have any evidence that the jail contract is wasteful”
Cops will have to waste time driving to Des Moines, and SMC will have to waste time and money on logistics getting defendants to their court dates. This isn’t a secret it’s been discussed, try to keep up.
“You don’t have a suggestion on where else to house criminals”
King County jail. As the Executive’s letter made clear they are willing to work with the City, if the City is willing (or able) to make the effort.
“You may enjoy … defecation in your front yard. I assure you that I’ve had more than enough of it in mine.”
Sounds like a personal problem.
“Gaza Isn’t Driving Votes.”
No fucking shit!
The Stranger has been ranting – and enabling others to rant – “genocide” for months, and the SECB didn’t even have the integrity to give just as much weight to this non-issue in considering their endorsements.
The Stranger is so proud of their ability to pick electoral winners…. virtually none of whom share their hyperbolic support of Gaza, because none of them are idiots. They recognize that blocking traffic, interrupting meetings, and engaging in other grandstanding obnoxiousness just alienates people and turns them off. The so-called Squad is learning this the hard way, and while I’m sure they’ll promote themselves as martyrs-for-the-cause (see ‘grandstanding obnoxiousness’ above), in less than a year no one will remember their names.
Go ahead: brag about your endorsement wins. Just remember how many of the ‘lived experience’ candidates you endorsed in 2020 who got elected… and then quit the Legislature after just one term because actual governing is sooooo haaaaard and couldn’t hack the rough-and-tumble of Olympia.
speaking of “Uncommitted”
& Wormtongue’s relentless and
insidious Schmear Campaign against it*
nyt:
In Detroit,
Harris Confronts Divisions
Roiling Democrats Over Gaza War
The vice president spoke briefly with leaders of a group that mobilized a protest vote against U.S. support for Israel, and was interrupted by pro-Palestinian activists at a rally.
Before Vice President Kamala Harris confronted pro-Palestinian and anti-Gaza-war protesters on Wednesday at a campaign rally in Detroit, she faced demands from the leaders of a group that has mobilized voters to protest the U.S. government’s support for Israel.
The founders of the Uncommitted National Movement, the group that mobilized more than 100,000 people to withhold their votes from President Biden in this year’s Michigan primary over his support for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, were among those invited to welcome Ms. Harris and her new running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, to Michigan in a photo line.
There, the founders, Abbas Alawieh and Layla Elabed, said they asked Ms. Harris for a meeting to discuss an arms embargo on Israel. After 10 months of war, Gazan health officials say nearly 40,000 people, many of them women and children, have been killed.
In a statement, a Harris campaign spokesman said only that “in this brief engagement,” the vice president “reaffirmed that her campaign will continue to engage with those communities.”
Ms. Harris has emerged as a more empathetic voice in the administration, elevating the plight of innocent Palestinians who have been killed, starved and displaced in Israel’s war against Hamas.
And while she has reiterated the United States’ support for Israel’s right to defend itself, she has issued the most forceful condemnation of some of Israel’s tactics.
But crucial Democratic voting blocs who oppose the war — including Arab Americans in battleground states — have demanded more action, particularly for the United States to stop supplying Israel with weapons that have been used to kill scores of civilians.
In addition to an arms embargo on Israel, the Uncommitted leaders have asked for convention speaking roles for a representative of their group and a Palestinian pediatrician.
“I appreciate her leadership, and I know the Uncommitted voters want to support her, uncommitted delegates want to support her,” Mr. Alawieh said, “but our voters need to see her turn a new page on Gaza policy.”
Mr. Alawieh said that he “felt an openness from V.P. Harris, as well as a listening ear from Governor Walz” about their concerns.
Ms. Elabed said she broke into tears as she introduced herself to Ms. Harris.
“I told her that I meet with my community members who are losing tens and hundreds of family members every day,” Ms. Elabed said, “and we need something from her that can guarantee that we can save their families’ lives.”
–by Erica L. Green Kellen Browning and Jonathan Weisman; Aug. 8, 2024
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/07/us/politics/harris-israel-gaza-war-protests.html
*“And while she has reiterated the United States’ support for Israel’s right to defend itself, she has issued the most forceful condemnation of some of Israel’s tactics.”
uh-oh wormmy:
she’s gotta be
PRO-Hamas!
nope.
it’s just your
Blinde HATRED
of all things Peaceful.
you Really oughtta
get that Checked
Out BEfore it’s
here’s a little free advice
for you little buddy:
It’s over.
You lost.
Get over it.
but how can it
NOT be Genocide?
nyt:
The E.U. and U.K.
condemn comments by a
far-right Israeli minister, and other news.
Britain and the European Union have condemned Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right Israeli finance minister, for reportedly saying that it “might be justified” to starve two million civilians in Gaza until hostages held there are returned.
Mr. Smotrich has a strong influence over policy as the leader of a party that helps keep Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government in power.
“Deliberate starvation of civilians is a war crime: Minister Smotrich advocating for it is beyond ignominious,” the E.U.’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell Fontelles, said in a post on social media on Wednesday in reaction to his comments.
The British foreign secretary, David Lammy, called on the Israeli government to “retract and condemn” the remarks.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/08/08/world/israel-iran-hamas-gaza-war#the-eu-condemns-comments-by-a-far-right-israeli-minister-and-other-news
feel free
to condemn
this call for yet
more war crimes
any time now wormmy
we Know
you can
do it!
END the fucking
Genocide
before
the Middle
East is turned
into Glass, nukularly
The only genocide I see desired in the Middle East is by the Muslims against the Jews. Muslims acting on their beliefs reignited this war on Oct 7.
Those actions are supported by a majority of gazans, and Hamas approval rating rose after the attacks. Hamas was elected. Frankly I do not care about the lives of such people. I do not care about the lives of people who support killing for religion. They can all die, and maybe we rebuild Gaza with the minority who belong in the 21st century.
@20: That was a lot of words to say, “the Uncommitted complainers lost, they asked VP Harris for some crumbs, and she gave them nothing but words. Oh, and they either flat-out lied about the casualty figures in their community, or their community has lots and lots of relatives in Hamas.”
Words of wisdom from the Stranger: “Gaza Isn’t Driving Votes.” Learn it. Know it. Live it!
Toodles!
@23: No amount of yelling “genocide” at Israel makes it so, and no amount of ignoring rape and slaughter by Hamas makes that terrorist organization any less genocidal. Even after ten months of not moving those needles, some folks here still don’t get it.
“The only
genocide I see
desired in the Middle East
is by the Muslims against the Jews.”
so it’s just
“Genocide Lite” not-
crazydem which Israel
Commits every fucking Day?
or merely an
Ongoing Massacre?
how bout a
damn fine
Slaughter?
does that work
for You?
“Hamas was elected.”
Yes!
in 2007
and haven’t
had an Election since
@22: That’s just the flip side of the praise you gave Students for Justice in Palestine last spring. SJP holds a violently eliminationist position against Israel (and, apparently, the US and Canada as well), and you fell all over yourself, slobbering them with praise, describing their hateful rhetoric and campus-invasion stunts as a “movement”.
The difference is the Israeli minister would have the goal of hostage rescue as an excuse; SJP simply wants Israel wiped from the map, and praised Hamas for starting that work on 10/7. (SUPER UW parroted SJP on those points.) So, you’re actually morally inferior to him.
“hostage rescue”
Wormtongue?
bibi’s fascist’s
government
DGAF about
the hostages
hell
they
Shot
them
whist
the latter
were ‘surrendering’
and waving White Flags
and bomb them
to Smithereens
on the Daily
your Lies are
like eltrumpster’s:
cheap and too
numerous to
quantify
19: So you’d prefer activists restrict themselves solely to bland, safe, inoffensive tactics…in other words, the pathetically useless methods that NEVER make any meaningful difference, like writing your congressmember.