Nice but Durkan unquestionably has the most support from organized labor. This is dissenting opinion, but the Stranger hides that fact, and the article then pretends it's the voice of all labor.
I'll bet I can find 3 Democrats who feverishly support Trump and are prepared to project that stance as representing all Democrats. Will the Stranger run the headline Democrats Make Case For Trump? Oh no wait that particular partisan hackery would be Breitbart's domain ...
I genuinely believed Moon had the interests of working people in mind, but last week she answered a question at a debate about whether homeless people should be allowed to sleep in public parks and answered that yes, people should not be swept away. This is after the uproar created by the city council proposal that was so unpopular it never came up for vote earlier this year. This was really eye-opening: Moon cannot think of the intractable issue of homelessness and address it in all its complexity. Warehousing human beings in public parks is not the answer. I understand her official messages on homelessness are more comprehensive but when you answer on the fly and can't articulate a broader vision or think about the impact to the larger community, it's really troubling. It also shows a lack of understanding for working people in Seattle for whom parks are the last opportunity to enjoy some quality of life now that we are priced out of other options in this city. We don't all live in palatial homes with personal green spaces. We need someone who can think more deeply and balance the impact of decisions about homelessness and growth on the whole community. Lack of vision and leadership by the former mayor and city council is what got us to this place where we've turned Seattle into Amazon's campus and the townies are here only to service their most basic needs. There are definitely some issues with Durkan but when it comes to key issues like homelessness and growth, she seems to be the bigger thinker, that's why this working person is voting for her.
@2 This is hardly just 3 workers supporting Moon. The article states the endorsing unions represent over 25,000 workers in the city. That's a significant portion of organized labor in the city.
I think it's fair to say that labor is split in this mayor's race and I think this op-ed coupled with last week's lays out a fair argument for both sides.
@1 Don’t be dense! Cary Moon has demonstrated experience in creating tangible progressive societal change by (1) calling on others to do things, (2) proposing things, and (3) signing her name to things. Where else but Cary could we find leadership like this?
@4 You’re kind of making @2’s point for them. Durkan has a clear lead in both count and membership of endorsing unions, but you’re pointing to a small subset of them and arguing “Hey let’s just call it a tie.”
The status quo forces that backed Ed Murray's lack of executive experience now make it a dominant theme with two accomplished women in the race. Most people see through it. If Jenny Durkan were a leader instead of so out of touch, she wouldn't let her campaign resort to such a misplaced theme. Part of the experience question is useful, though. What kind of experience does Seattle need? Enabling corrupt FIFA? And with Eric Holder on national TV this week to promote the importance of an independent judiciary where there is no contact among U.S. Attorneys and the White House, it shows why Durkan letting her campaign rely so heavily in the mind of the local public on the false legitimacy of her largely invented (if Holder's statements are true) former White House ties shows bad leadership, bad faith, and a self-serving misunderstanding of separation of powers, where political convenience and overuse of thin relationships trump principles. That's the kind of mistake someone with the experience Seattle needs wouldn't let happen. Vote Moon.
The establishment wants Durkan. Moon is a better choice because she has stood up against those forces.
Recently the Seattle Weekly did an expose on Durkan’s past as a federal prosecutor. No charges made against crooked bankers that caused the 2008 crash, Occupy activists arrested and imprisoned in solitary confinement without charges and banning medical marijuana. Additionally, she is lying about the sweeps. They are not about health and safety. It is about evicting encampments to attempt to rid the city of people without decent shelter. These evictions are brutal and many have witnessed this. The police force people out of their shelter who have very little options and people often lose their possessions which are thrown away or stored somewhere else if one is lucky. So then folks are placed in a more desperate situation. Moon is against the sweeps and wants to provide real options and she is working with advocates.
#9: You do realize that policy concerning prosecution of bankers is the responsibility of a whole different office within the Dept. of Justice, don't you? And that a US Attorney doesn't have authority to file any ole charges she wants?
And you do realize that there have been no documented cases of "brutality" in the unauthorized encampment sweeps, which have been monitored by city Office of Civil Rights staff, don't you?
And you do realize that there are protocols for providing notice before sweeps occur, don't you?
And you do realize that very few individuals have gone to recover their possessions being stored by the city, don't you?
Ed Murray's mayoral campaign spent, at most, $750,000. Durkan's corporate backers have doubled that. The cost of a campaign *doubling* every election is not normal. The polls were saying Murray was well ahead of McGinn and was going to win.
'Nobody' knows, of course, but the only conclusion is that the polls are showing Durkan down at 10 points. She can't be down 20 or 25 I suppose, because they'd stop throwing money at a lost cause. All the union bosses in the world can't change the fact that the rank and file, and the rest of the voters, don't like this establishment Democrat all that much.
This is the age of Donald Effing Trump. Nobody wants a weak-ass moderate Democrat these days. Nobody wants a compromiser who will meet Trump and the horde of Trumpists halfway. These aren't normal times. And we're past the point of building more lanes for cars. Cars are doomed. We're past the point of trying to make corporations like us, or making them feel so rich they have a moment of generosity and throw the city a bone.
All this money. All these ads. All these desperate astro-turf social media attacks. Durkan is in trouble. She's down 10 points, they spend $100,000 more on ads, and she's still down 10 points. You can't close that gap with money or mud.
@3 and @13, NO ONE, certainly not Moon, has said that people should be allowed to sleep in public parks. What she and others have said is that unless unauthorized camps are in inappropriate or dangerous places, they should be left alone UNLESS the City can find a better place for the people to be. And that's "find a place", not simply tell the person to try to get a place in a shelter. The latter is what the City has been doing; the shelters are inadequate and the authorized encampments are full, and the person simply moves their tent to another unauthorized place, to be swept again.
How many workers in Seattle do you think are union members? Unions with membership above 25,000 in the city who have endorsed Moon represents a really significant portion and includes some of the biggest unions in the city.
It's not like one or two fringe labor orgs. It's a really big percentage of labor in the city. I wish unions were prevalent enough that 25,000 represented a small subset, but that's just not the case.
@14: I guess you missed the memo: "Yes, Moon answered. If people are not harming parks or surrounding communities, she argued, 'Yes, I would let them stay on parks until we have a place for them.' " http://www.seattlepi.com/local/politics/… This same position was recently highlighted on Bill Radke's show, where he used excerpts from debates to compare her position with Durkan's. I don't subscribe to organized religion but parks are my church. They are the last sacred space afforded to those of us who aren't home owners, and I suspect to many homeowners as well. Opening them up to make them homeless encampments is not good for the homeless and it's not good for the residents who want to use them as they were intended. Durkan seems to offer better solutions and she's not giving away our parks.
#11 then it seems like a huge waste of taxpayer money to investigate WaMu for three years and find nothing. First off we are based in common law so pursuing legal action is NEVER off the table, second, if she wasn't prepared to have the courage to pursue some sort of equity charge and she knew no legislated laws would apply to the bankers why waste three years investigating. Either way it's bad.
#19: You seem to have missed the point, which is that US Attorneys aren't cowboys who can do whatever they please. Their actions are taken in consultation with and by the approval of relevant DOJ divisions in D.C. So whether you agree or not, it's unfair to lay the responsibility for any action (or non-action) at the feet of Jenny Durkan.
@17 I think the exact opposite. I'll never forget watching the city council obstruct Mike McGinn for nearly four years just to ensure his defeat in 2013. Entrenched politicians who make up the "establishment" are in the game for themselves, and they have each others backs even at the expense of the people who put them in power.
McGinn did that all by himself. Among his many feats of humiliating incompetence, he insisted we have a vote against the SR-99 tunnel, which he then lost by a 3-2 margin. (One of the most basic rules of democratic politics says you don't hold an optional election unless you're sure of victory.) This lopsided vote ensured there would be no future resistance to the tunnel, which of course was the exact opposite of his intent for having the vote in the first place.
I could go on (and on, and on...) but why bother? He's gone, and we're better for it.
#21 I'll admit I'm unaware of the intricacies of power of prosecution in the DOJ but it seems to me that Jenny really dropped the ball prosecuting WAMU regardless of if her power was only to make recommendations or not. And if she really doesn't have power without DC DOJ approval then her entire record both the bad and the good she is basing her campaign on are not fully her responsibility. She has been great on civil rights but to me civil rights shouldn't be a left right issue, and nothing about her record other than her civil rights actions would suggest she is the progressive she portrays herself as and the city needs right now.
...but the only conclusion is that the polls are showing Durkan down at 10 points.
Yes, the only conclusion to be drawn from Durkan having more (and more generous) donors than Moon is that Moon is winning by double digits. Since even The Stranger believes Moon is not winning, there are indeed other conclusions available.
Let me guess-- if Durkan wins by single digits, you'll say it was the money alone which made her victory. If she wins by double digits, you'll chide her for wasting money. (If there's another purpose for your "spending more money means you're losing" pseudo-argument besides preparing yourself for a post-facto rationalization of a possible Durkan victory, I'd like to know what it is.)
I'll bet I can find 3 Democrats who feverishly support Trump and are prepared to project that stance as representing all Democrats. Will the Stranger run the headline Democrats Make Case For Trump? Oh no wait that particular partisan hackery would be Breitbart's domain ...
I think it's fair to say that labor is split in this mayor's race and I think this op-ed coupled with last week's lays out a fair argument for both sides.
Recently the Seattle Weekly did an expose on Durkan’s past as a federal prosecutor. No charges made against crooked bankers that caused the 2008 crash, Occupy activists arrested and imprisoned in solitary confinement without charges and banning medical marijuana. Additionally, she is lying about the sweeps. They are not about health and safety. It is about evicting encampments to attempt to rid the city of people without decent shelter. These evictions are brutal and many have witnessed this. The police force people out of their shelter who have very little options and people often lose their possessions which are thrown away or stored somewhere else if one is lucky. So then folks are placed in a more desperate situation. Moon is against the sweeps and wants to provide real options and she is working with advocates.
And you do realize that there have been no documented cases of "brutality" in the unauthorized encampment sweeps, which have been monitored by city Office of Civil Rights staff, don't you?
And you do realize that there are protocols for providing notice before sweeps occur, don't you?
And you do realize that very few individuals have gone to recover their possessions being stored by the city, don't you?
'Nobody' knows, of course, but the only conclusion is that the polls are showing Durkan down at 10 points. She can't be down 20 or 25 I suppose, because they'd stop throwing money at a lost cause. All the union bosses in the world can't change the fact that the rank and file, and the rest of the voters, don't like this establishment Democrat all that much.
This is the age of Donald Effing Trump. Nobody wants a weak-ass moderate Democrat these days. Nobody wants a compromiser who will meet Trump and the horde of Trumpists halfway. These aren't normal times. And we're past the point of building more lanes for cars. Cars are doomed. We're past the point of trying to make corporations like us, or making them feel so rich they have a moment of generosity and throw the city a bone.
All this money. All these ads. All these desperate astro-turf social media attacks. Durkan is in trouble. She's down 10 points, they spend $100,000 more on ads, and she's still down 10 points. You can't close that gap with money or mud.
How many workers in Seattle do you think are union members? Unions with membership above 25,000 in the city who have endorsed Moon represents a really significant portion and includes some of the biggest unions in the city.
It's not like one or two fringe labor orgs. It's a really big percentage of labor in the city. I wish unions were prevalent enough that 25,000 represented a small subset, but that's just not the case.
"Giving a shit" does not mean what you think it means, person who is reading articles and posting comments about the mayor's race.
McGinn did that all by himself. Among his many feats of humiliating incompetence, he insisted we have a vote against the SR-99 tunnel, which he then lost by a 3-2 margin. (One of the most basic rules of democratic politics says you don't hold an optional election unless you're sure of victory.) This lopsided vote ensured there would be no future resistance to the tunnel, which of course was the exact opposite of his intent for having the vote in the first place.
I could go on (and on, and on...) but why bother? He's gone, and we're better for it.
Yes, the only conclusion to be drawn from Durkan having more (and more generous) donors than Moon is that Moon is winning by double digits. Since even The Stranger believes Moon is not winning, there are indeed other conclusions available.
Let me guess-- if Durkan wins by single digits, you'll say it was the money alone which made her victory. If she wins by double digits, you'll chide her for wasting money. (If there's another purpose for your "spending more money means you're losing" pseudo-argument besides preparing yourself for a post-facto rationalization of a possible Durkan victory, I'd like to know what it is.)