Kshama Sawant got the City Council and the mayor to approve a $15 minimum wage increase. What has Morgan Beach done?

Keep in mind that as many as 70% of the workers who will benefit from that wage increase are women.

Gotta say, under socialism, gender pay equity was not a problem. Maybe a socialist revolution in Seattle - which Sawant is not actually advocating - would be the best path to gender pay equity, since the rest of City Hall is sitting on its ass doing nothing about the problem.

Finally, why is a white woman running against the only woman of color on the City Council? Why not run against Tim Burgess, who opposes every single one of the things Beach stands for?

will gender pay equity become a big issue in this election? Let's hope so

absolutely! plus reform for family and medical leave; which remains in a ridiculous non-existent state.

@1 Thank you! While she looks like she'd have a decent platform, her early words and her later impact seem like a step back from what I'll be voting for with Sawant. A fairly substantial step back the more I think about it.

@1, you "gotta say" that gender pay equity "under socialism" was what, now? Under socialism where? The Soviet Union? Wrong. Mega, mega wrong. Scandinavia? Why the past tense? Still wrong, but less so. Not really sure what you mean, to be honest.

Sawant's party is in fact explicitly dedicated to bringing about a Socialist revolution, albeit a democratically elected one (at least at first). Socialist Alternative is a Trotskyite party and a member of the Committee for a Worker's International. For me, the only really unforgivable part is their long support for the candidacy of Ralph Fuckin' Nader.

@5 Yeah Nader really used his political connections to get his friends on the Supreme Court to stop counting thousands of ballots.

It's pretty clear that red baiting is going to continue being weapon number one against Sawant.

I love that she's about bringing women's issues to the forefront but apparently that's all she's about. In other words: a one trick pony like the person she's challenging.

NEXT!!!

Not that I'm voting in the 3rd, but I'm not impressed.
When selecting candidates I try to take a big picture approach. That said, I'm swayed by candidates who claim they'll work hardest on issues facing workers, renters, transit riders, and the environment.

@1: She did that before getting elected? Oh yeah, she didn't. She got elected because of a weak incumbent. Beach will not have that advantage in her bid.

@10

Conlin was a weak incumbent? Ha ha ha!

@11
Yes Conlin was weak and tired and didn't fight for the job. If he had really cared he could have (easily, I believe) shown up Sawant as what she is: a well-meaning but clownish person who (seriously -- that is what Sawant says) wants to nationalize Starbucks, Costco, Nordstrom, etc etc.

Beach better be careful. I hear Kshama has proclaimed herself, the most dangerous women, ever!

If these are the two options, I'd vote for Beach. Sawant was an improvement over Conlin (and I voted for her), but I do think she is more interested in grandstanding than working with anybody to achieve things.

It's amazing how clueless so many of you are.

First...Sawant's larger agenda has no remote possibility of ever becoming law in this City. Never, not going to happen. So, to campaign against that is pure folly. Trying to scare people away from her is also counter productive, specifically if you actually care about the issues that this new candidate claims to care about.

This new candidate is essentially saying "I stand for the issue that Kshama stands for, but because I just like the other 8 council members, I'll be more successful at promoting those ideas." Which is pure nonsense. But you all buy it as though it were/is true.

I don't come close to agreeing with Sawant on the Socialist agenda...but I'm so glad she's there. She has had a greater impact on changing the tone and actions of the Council than any elected official in the past 20 years in Seattle.

The mainstream boring candidates and elected all think they can play nice with the status quo, and that once the business community is done asking for favors, they may get around to doing something progressive. Never has/will happen. Never.

Sawant is the perfect mix of mixing it up, creating space, to allow others to come in and appear more moderate while still pushing a slightly more progressive agenda.

I say keep her around. She's useful as a member of the body of 9.

As a resident of the Third who won't be voting for Sawant, I thank Ms. Beach for providing another choice for voters.

@15 Then Council member Sawant should be running in a Citywide seat.

@17...why? What's the difference between the role she plays on the council? Does she get an extra vote? Does she get a larger microphone? I don't see any advantage to anyone running City wide.

And with 2 centrist candidates in the campaign for the 3rd, Sawant's re-election just got easier.

Why doesn't Beach go after a male councilman, that way she could team up with Sawant and get more gender pay equity & STEM issues accomplished?

@20...because the Centrist coalition thinks Sawant has to go, so they've tried to convince everyone who might run that Sawant will be easy to defeat.

That and she probably lives in the 3rd.

But your point is spot on. Defeating Sawant on the platform that she's claimed motivates her would achieve the opposite.

Are you guys going to report on the D1 candidates anytime soon? I think I've seen D2, D3, D4, and D5 so far. Are you just working counter clockwise or something?

D1 has Capestany, Helmick, and Redmond challenging Rasmussen.

"D8" the Burgess at-large seat, also has three challengers that need coverage: Persak, Trotter and Tsimerman.

Sawant is to the Seattle City Council as Elizabeth Warren is to Congress.

@23
Not quite.

@24 all analogies are "not quite." But close enough for the thought exercise.

@25
Sorry, but it is quite the stretch. My eyes are still rolling from the comparison.

Oh FFS, Ms. Beach, give it a rest already. We tried the "pragmatism as pathology" route for decades until we woke up and realized we needed fighters in our corner, not milquetoast, chin-rubbing sycophants mumbling endlessly about "coalition building" while accomplishing exactly fuck all, which is what you would accomplish if you prevailed.
Proven fighter for equality vs. unimaginative apparatchik?
Vote Sawant.

I would like to hear more about the specific gender inequalities she's referring to... the Equal Pay Act of 1963 already made it illegal to pay women less for the same job, this was followed up with Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. I'm all for making this a cornerstone of her campaign , much like Patty Murray has done. But what specifically is she referring to?

@26...well...hope you can catch those eyes before they roll away completely.

As if gender equality and economic justice are mutually exclusive LOL...

Given that corporations are the folks who gave the bottom 50% flat or declining wages since 1970, I say beware of those who come bearing gifts of corporate "partnerships."

@15, I agree. Sawant's power comes from the fact that many people recognize that she starts important conversations in City Hall. Even if I disagree with her solutions, I am happy that she genuinely cares about the issues she is fighting for and forces City Hall to address the problems.

I completely agree with Ms. Beach's gender equity platform too, but I don't think Ms. Beach is uniquely qualified to fight for those issues or that other City Council members will sweep the issue under the rug if Ms. Beach is not elected. As a renter, I have less faith that Ms. Beach, or really any other City Council Member, will fight for rent control as hard as Sawant.

Is Portage Bay a neighborhood now? Back to the topic at hand, I can see her fitting in on the council real well, which is the problem. I just don't understand why progressives have such a hard time understanding the value of someone like Sawant, even if they don't want a revolution.

@30, betcha dollars to doughnuts that corporations have a better record on gender pay equity than small (noncorporate) businesses.

@33 Citation Needed!

And supposedly Kshama Sawant is against gender equity? She prefers that men make more money for the same jobs than women? Yeah right. This sounds like a pretty phony campaign issue.

On the other hand, Sawant could be criticized for a) requiring 2 week notice before meeting a constituent, b) spending time out of town on speaking engagements, c) not being interested in filling potholes or other mundane tasks in District 3, and d) having one of the most arrogant/conceited book titles, male or female, in the history of publishing.

The most promising new female candidate so far is Tammy Morales, who somehow doesn't get a mention in this article.

@33 - With inflation, doughnuts are now worth more than dollars, so the valuation is reversed. FWIW

@23 - not even close

any ideas about the 3rd district