Nikkita Oliver isn't ready for Seattle. She wasn't even aware of the recent housing levy and she wants to put a "pause" on development; she is completely unqualified to address the housing crisis.
Wait a second!
I'm leaning toward Durkan; putting up Oliver as opponent is a "Make my day!" statement.
Oliver may be a nice young woman but she has no experience and silly ideas and when you combine the two, you get an establishment landslide.
Speaking to KUOW late last year, Oliver called for a model that would eventually lead to the elimination of police entirely. “We don’t need a separate institution to keep the peace or enforce the laws,” she said. “What we need is a cultural shift that actually acknowledges the human rights dignity and sovereignty of all people and we’d see a decrease in crime.”
The Stranger's job is to pretend that this woman isn't a complete joke of a mayoral candidate. They gotta keep their readership up amongst doof-ass college kids and people who never stopped thinking like college kids somehow. They sure aren't doing it with their regular reporting.
If you keep comparing Nikkita Oliver to conventional politicians, you're going to keep getting disappointed.
The question is, who are you disappointed at?
Are you disspointed that Nikkita isn't like everyone else giving you empty promises to support the people, but in reality just being a Trojan horse for the big money establishments?
Or are you disspointed that our democracy has been broken. And had become even more apparent during the 2016 presidential election and even Murray's mayoral career.
I believe we need transformative change. That's why I'm voting for Nikkita Oliver. I need to be represented here in seattle because I can't keep fighting to stay here. We need a leader that provides for ALL of seattle with what they need. We need to be heard. Don't underestimate Oliver's knowledge around issues like the housing crisis, transportation, and other "hot button" topics. There is a reason why every council member knows her very well way before this election cycle. Reasons that go way beyond any of the protests she's shown up at. She has been engaging/executing in real transformative Change here in the city for a long time.
I wish publications would run pieces that relflect more of that.
So many bootlickers in the comments here. I'm voting for Nikkita. Luckily for Seattle, most of the commenters here can't vote in Seattle's elections anyway, being from Bellevue and Eastern WA.
In the last mayoral election we didn't have the opportunity to vote for someone who sincerely believes that housing is a human right. Developers should not be allowed to determine through a bogus winner take all (except for a few token crumbs) construct like HALA that only affluent people have the right to live in Seattle. In this election we have a clear choice, and that's why I'm voting for Nikkita.
We need ideas like the three-pronged housing affordability plan. It's a bold solution. (2nd prong is too much.) I'm afraid that her confluence of bold ideas makes her un-electable. Maybe it will shape the race for the better.
I get that we like to dump on Olympia, it's so neat to have someone to blame but the legislature put the funding mandate into it's constitution because we value education as a state. Paying for it is a challenge; dumping on the people who struggle to solve that challenge isn't productive.
I believe in the platform that Nikkita Oliver and the People’s Party have outlined, and completely trust their ability to implement their vision.
Nikkita may not have electoral experience, but she is very well equipped in ways that other candidates could never be. She’s a badass attorney, always throwing down for what’s right in the courtroom and city council chambers. She has experience as a teacher who understands the challenges of students and families navigating the school system. She understands the issues affecting youth and young adults. Plus, every elected official starts somewhere—the 2017 mayoral election is Cary Moon’s first stab at electoral politics as well. Bob Hasegawa began his electoral career by jumping into a congressional race. I don’t believe electoral experience is the only measuring stick by which to assess a candidate’s capacity or potential. I’m thrilled to see a fresh, visionary leader like Ms. Oliver who hasn’t been steeped so deeply in the toxic world of politics that her ambition and clarity of vision is dulled.
Ms. Oliver and the people guiding her campaign/The People’s Party have outrageous levels of integrity. From first-hand experience seeing how she and her staff and party leaders have participated in city politics and led successful movements, I would love to see her in a position of tremendous leadership and influence in our community.
@10 & @17 - THIS. It's amazing how brainwashed our country is, into believing that capitalism and the same, old, grey fraudsters of politicians are the only way.
She won't make it past the primaries, but her campaign is an interesting novelty. I don't know why she doesn't challenge Harrel in the south end, get a few years of actual experience under her belt and then run for mayor. I guess that's not glamorous enough.
That probably is a reasonable strategy - get name familiarity this summer, get a council seat in a couple years. She might be a good council member. It's hard to tell - sure hard to tell from this article. When it was her & Murray, it was a "no brainer" - no way would I vote for Murray - but now we have 21 options, and it's going to take time and a lot of work for all of us to sort that out. The media could help with some substance, looking forward to that.
I don't know why she doesn't challenge Harrel in the south end, get a few years of actual experience under her belt and then run for mayor.
That would be work, dear.
I guess that's not glamorous enough.
Doing the grunt work as one of many on the City Council -- where Sawant gets all the glory anyway -- has little appeal compared to the allure of being the one & only Mayor. (The current occupant loves being Mayor, although we who voted for him would be hard-pressed to describe what he actually does all day there.)
I'm voting for whoever stands up to developers and Amazon and actually makes them pay their fair share for the impact on the rest of us (infrastructure/inconvenience of the perpetual construction state) and whoever stops coddling the yuppie bike elitists who aren't representative of anything other than middle-aged, rich white guys that can afford to live close to their jobs.
There really is no reason to read further.
I'm leaning toward Durkan; putting up Oliver as opponent is a "Make my day!" statement.
Oliver may be a nice young woman but she has no experience and silly ideas and when you combine the two, you get an establishment landslide.
-- crosscut
Is The Stranger willing to ask Oliver some difficult but very obvious questions about this, or do we just leave that to The Seattle Times?
The question is, who are you disappointed at?
Are you disspointed that Nikkita isn't like everyone else giving you empty promises to support the people, but in reality just being a Trojan horse for the big money establishments?
Or are you disspointed that our democracy has been broken. And had become even more apparent during the 2016 presidential election and even Murray's mayoral career.
I believe we need transformative change. That's why I'm voting for Nikkita Oliver. I need to be represented here in seattle because I can't keep fighting to stay here. We need a leader that provides for ALL of seattle with what they need. We need to be heard. Don't underestimate Oliver's knowledge around issues like the housing crisis, transportation, and other "hot button" topics. There is a reason why every council member knows her very well way before this election cycle. Reasons that go way beyond any of the protests she's shown up at. She has been engaging/executing in real transformative Change here in the city for a long time.
I wish publications would run pieces that relflect more of that.
I see Nikkita Oliver's paid shills finally found the comment section....
Also, why the fascination with the platitude "transformative change"? This literally means "change change"...
You think all change creates transformation? We can argue semantics but if Seattle is what you want it to be right now, then lucky for you.
We need ideas like the three-pronged housing affordability plan. It's a bold solution. (2nd prong is too much.) I'm afraid that her confluence of bold ideas makes her un-electable. Maybe it will shape the race for the better.
I get that we like to dump on Olympia, it's so neat to have someone to blame but the legislature put the funding mandate into it's constitution because we value education as a state. Paying for it is a challenge; dumping on the people who struggle to solve that challenge isn't productive.
Nikkita may not have electoral experience, but she is very well equipped in ways that other candidates could never be. She’s a badass attorney, always throwing down for what’s right in the courtroom and city council chambers. She has experience as a teacher who understands the challenges of students and families navigating the school system. She understands the issues affecting youth and young adults. Plus, every elected official starts somewhere—the 2017 mayoral election is Cary Moon’s first stab at electoral politics as well. Bob Hasegawa began his electoral career by jumping into a congressional race. I don’t believe electoral experience is the only measuring stick by which to assess a candidate’s capacity or potential. I’m thrilled to see a fresh, visionary leader like Ms. Oliver who hasn’t been steeped so deeply in the toxic world of politics that her ambition and clarity of vision is dulled.
Ms. Oliver and the people guiding her campaign/The People’s Party have outrageous levels of integrity. From first-hand experience seeing how she and her staff and party leaders have participated in city politics and led successful movements, I would love to see her in a position of tremendous leadership and influence in our community.
That would be work, dear.
I guess that's not glamorous enough.
Doing the grunt work as one of many on the City Council -- where Sawant gets all the glory anyway -- has little appeal compared to the allure of being the one & only Mayor. (The current occupant loves being Mayor, although we who voted for him would be hard-pressed to describe what he actually does all day there.)
Yes, Seattle would be so much better without thousands of high-paying jobs right in the city center, and if we would just stop building bicycle lanes.
Go away.
But the fact that it's going to take the People's Party 10 years to run people for the school board tells me a lot.
https://youtu.be/SE9gM5Vwsow