Comments

1

I'll be so glad when this stupid election season is over.

2

good endorsements, all justifiable, and all snark aside, a fine slate of candidates all around.
Seattle and King County generally has a pretty deep bench.

3

Irony: spending your whole career advocating for cutting government waste and in turn literally causing this much government waste.

4

Mark Greene? What? Holy crap that guy. Where the hell does he get his campaign funding from? Are the KC GOP really that desperate for candidates?

5

Drain the Sawant!

8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LosBEEZrSLI

9

“...Build the Benghazi! Close the hamberders! Obummer ignored the first Turkey coup in NATO! Hilury buttery males!...”

All the classics.

10

Wow, all the people I'll be voting against, in one convenient list. Thanks!

11

@10

Don't tip over the douche canoe.

12

Amazingly, the word “Showbox” does not seem to appear in any of the endorsements for the few sitting Seattle City Council Members who have bothered to stand for re-election. Given how much time and effort The Stranger has put into the Showbox, and how all of these CMs voted exactly the way The Stranger wanted them to do on that issue, this omission seems odd.

(Why, it’s almost as if The Stranger is admitting their endorsees should NOT cite their own voting records on the Council...)

14

Sorry, any endorsement tip sheet that uses an apostrophe to pluralize Mom in "Moms for Seattle" doesn't merit a second thought. Next.

I'm sure that will merit a punctuation-elitist snark from some of the more airheaded rabidities at The Stranger.

15

I wanted to read this article but its too early in the morning for reading potty-mouth drivel. Why must everything sound like gutter-filth language? I must be getting too old to read this publication any longer. The vulgarity is just too ugly. I guess I will go read the voters pamphlet and make up my own mind.

16

@15

Meanwhile, Trump's apoplectic Twitter fits are held dear to their hearts with kid gloves by the tender sentiments of the offendedable elderly. These are our lives.

17

It is especially telling when you support the likes of Lisa Rankin, who wants to flush the advanced learners of Seattle Public Schools down the public toilet for political gain, that you don't have the interests of the Seattle's most promising students and future leaders in mind. Thank you Stranger for compiling a list of whom NOT to vote for. Also, it appears that being placed on this list should be counted as a campaign contribution. So much hypocrisy, so much corruption, par for the Socialist course.

18

@17

Is that why Kakashi teamed Sasuke up with Naruto?

19

So Seattle School Board. As the resident expert on Seattle Schools (I've been writing a public education blog...for a decade) with two kids thru the system, I'll weigh in.

Liza Rankin - a good person but her opponent, Eric Blumhagen is head and shoulders more qualified than she is.

Stranger, remember when you endorsed Eden Mack (now on the Board) because she's so wonky? Eden, meet your match, Eric. Blumhagen does his homework and doesn't just spout platitudes. This district has real operational problems - nutrition services, transportation, enrollment projections - and Rankin wants to kick kids out of highly capable services. Is that even on the list of big issues to get done? Nope.

Vote Eric Blumhagen.

Chandra Hampson - Yes, she is qualified. But she is also rigid and judgmental. She'll call you out on your racial heritage or background based on nothing but maybe some spidey sense she thinks she has. Would you like to be the parent standing at the podium testifying on a cogent school issue and all the while she's judging whether you are worthy to listen to? No thanks.

Also, like Jill Geary, who is thankfully leaving, very, very talky. Have you watched a Board meeting on tv? I rest my case. Vote Rebeca Muniz.

Leslie Harris - hey! you got one right.

Melissa Westbrook
Seattle Schools Community Forum blog

21

Lisa Herbold “has raised the bar for being responsive to constituent inquiries” is about as backhanded a compliment as I’ve ever seen. The “bar“ has been lying on the ground, thanks to people like O’Brien, Harrell, Juarez and (especially) Sawant. If you want to give the Cool Grandma With a Nose Ring credit for raising it a couple of inches off the tarmac, so be it.

22

Vote against 976? Fuck off. Sounds like The Stranger thinks Sound Transit is the best thing since strawberry cheesecake. Does The Stranger really think that voting for 976 is going to impact eastern Washington cities for the worse? To vote against 976 simply enables Sound Transit to keep ripping everyone off by charging drivers the sticker price of what their vehicle was worth new (which is bizarre right there) for the lemmings that have to get to and from Seattle every day. Tell me, where is the 50 cents per gallon of gas in taxes going? If you want to live and work in a place that means you have to commute into Seattle or anywhere in the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, knock yourself out. YOU PAY FOR IT, THEN.

BTW, Moses Lake has no problem fixing it's own potholes.

23

I'm not into Eyman but I'm voting "yes" on restricting the car tabs. We can't afford to pay almost 200 a year in Seattle to maintain our old clunker which we don't even use to clog up the downtown.

I'm a big believer in sufficient public transportation funding, but this is not the way to do it. You need an income tax on the wealthy; you should take the money, too, from pot legalization revenue.

The left in Seattle, meaning the Stranger endorsement committee, included, are effectively neutered by the neo-liberal ruling class and it's knee-jerk politics of correctness. This is just the 🔥 fire under their butts they need to go get the money where they should have been going for it all along. Not from ordinary people like me. But from billionaires like Bezos and others hiding out in Washington State along with billions in revenue already there from marijuana sales. (This, btw, is totally appropriate in tax policy because you want people who are high to get into a bus, not behind the wheel of car.)

So this isn't about Eyman. It's about who is paying through the nose for what, and should or shouldn't be. Vote Yes to restrict the ridiculous car tabs and make them go get the money where they should have been getting it all along.

24

@23 P.S. Don't get the idea from "old clunker" that we're environmentally irresponsible. We've paid thousands to comply with smog requirements, and thousands more to eliminate any and all oil leaks, and our total usage leaves a far smaller carbon footprint than many electric vehicles. Our old clunker is far more responsible than many of those expensive out-of-town computer vehicles clogging up downtown, and instead of their tax-free owners using and paying for the public transportation they should be using and paying for, instead. But too bad for you, we do still need our ugly car. So enough is enough with your damn tabs. We have more than paid our dues.

And btw, additionally, this election plug for a candidate on the basis of eliminating Eyman's constitutional right to bring this measure, and in short, to be your pain in the ass, whatever your personal opinion of him, is enough to make me ask serious questions about that candidate's respect for Democratic process while running for office for a position running elections.

Newsflash: Democrats, just like the GOP, can act like fascists too, and sometimes they push through policy that works for them in the moment, but when the tables turn, it's the GOP screwing us with the Democrats' decision making. So people, IMO, really need to be taking some of these political rationales by the Stranger with a strong dose of smelling salts! In short, WTFU.

25

I see all the Stranger's reasoning here, even though the rhetoric is their usual, patented brand of zero-sum name calling. Half of that seems justified by the rough nature of city politics (to quote OutKast, it's a dirty dirty game). The other part vigorously juvenile virtue signaling.

It's going to be a telling election for sure. My guess is that the city on the whole is going to narrowly reject the woke way lefts favored here by the Stranger. The general perception that things are going to shit in our town rules the zeitgeist, and people, I think, feel that the lefter end of the left has had some time at bat and continuously whiffed. True or not, the change candidate costume has shifted onto the center/left technocrats. The far left doesn't do very well when, true or not, they're seen as the status quo. Without the "we're change" label, they don't turn out the set of less politically interested, emotionally leftist people who need to be motivated by "it's fucked up and a socialist will turn it around" to get off their bean bag chairs and vote. A lot of far left people who perceive that the city is a mess but don't see far left candidates as potentially effective are going to take a pass on voting. The ballot will sit on the kitchen counter and they'll mean to get to it, but won't, and a week after the deadline it goes in the recycling.

Meanwhile, the other side, in Seattle the centrist Dems, are feeling justified going a bit farther right than they are normally comfortable voting, will rubber-stamp the small core of more conservative voters in the hopes that we get back on (some vague, probably non-existent) track in general before piping out the ultra-progressive frosting they'd in theory like to see once the cupcake stops crumbling.

That's my predictive take anyway, for better or worse nearly all the Stranger's candidates lose narrowly this time around, probably cycle back in in 6-8 years when the perception of change candidate shift back to the far left.

26

R-88 and I-976 are Exhibits A and B as to why I hate, hate, hate, direct democracy and the initiative system. It's an utter abomination that one guy with money and a talent for stoking middle-class resentment can bring down an entire state's public transportation infrastructure while a small group of white supremacists bearded by an even smaller group of elite Chinese nationals make life even crappier for U.S. citizens of color who are already dealing with a party and a president that hates them and wants to take their civil rights away. Neither of these measures should ever be put to a direct public vote wherein people who don't pay attention to the dynamics behind these issues are tempted to indulge their basest self-interest in ways that will make all of us poorer and worse off.

If I-976 passes, it will be time for the blue counties of Washington to seriously consider forming our own state. We'll never get the sustainable infrastructure we need as long as this infernal, ill-conceived system makes it easy for any rando rich malcontent (whether it's Eyman or whoever will replace him when he finally goes to prison) to undo years of hard work in a single election. Yes, I know, direct democracy occasionally results in some good reforms (e.g., pot quasi-legalization and marriage equality, both of which we would have eventually won anyway), but its historical balance sheet is terrible and I'm afraid this election is going to make it even worse. Time to let E/SW Washington fend for itself.

27

@23 @24 After posting at length, I finally received my voter booklet, and I'm seeing that I-976 has an exception for "voter approved charges."

Since most of my grossly unfair auto registration tax burden is through the Seattle voter approved public transportation measure, does that mean I still be charged? Where can we go plug in the data and find out exactly what our auto registration bill would be, should the initiative pass?

To those wanting to get rid of voter initiatives, big big mistake. We have enough problems getting government to do the will of the People. No, pot legalization would NOT have gone through, including other states influenced by events in Washington. Gay marriage, yes, though, because of the Supreme Court (pot wouldn't through the courts or state legislature). Also we need the initiative system for universal health care, which will also be heading for the voters again (vs our corrupt politicians in bed with insurance and pharmaceuticals). If it means not voting for a county election person who's bent on getting rid of it just because they hate Eyman, be careful. You're being manipulated by ad hominems vs issue based facts.

And just for the record, I support affirmative action. I have no motivation based on discrimination except my own pocketbook vs the billionaires no one wants to take on and tax, whether they're Republicans or Democrats or Eyman, for that matter.

28

'Pedersen told us he didn't even identify any policy positions in the primary. He just told constituents that he was the "accountable" candidate and tapped into their homelessness anxiety and ire against the current council.'

Actually, a promise not to wander around looking for things to f--- up is a pretty bold promise in the current Council's election season. (Check your ENDORSEMENT of CM Juarez to see just how bold a promise of accountability is, too.) Also, I'll do The Stranger the extraordinary kindness of telling you our current Council's policy to end homelessness has failed, and failed completely, on its' own terms. (You're welcome! Just being a good liberal and helping the less-fortunate, which in this case is a group of persons with a severe and chronic case of being utterly reality-challenged on politics.) Any plan to change it will almost, by definition, result in a much much better policy than any our current Council ever managed to enact.

"As a council member, Juarez voted for the Mandatory Housing Affordability up-zones,"

Which included up-zoning the Showbox parcel. She voted for that illegal spot re-zone just one year after the aforementioned up-zones, and it was THE SECOND TIME our Council had voted to up-zone the Showbox parcel. She has NO excuse for voting with the tyrannical majority on our Council. She also voted for the EHT before she voted to repeal it, which she now says was a mistake -- but she takes no responsibility for any of that. (And that's from your ENDORSEMENT of her. WTF?!?) If she actually believes the EHT would have passed a city-wide vote, then she should have demonstrated the courage of that conviction by voting against repeal. "No Tax On Jobs!" had far more than enough signatures to put the EHT on our ballots; if she's not flatly lying, then she should have refused to vote for a repeal, and then campaigned for passage of the EHT las Autumn.

But she has no political courage of any kind. Trying to throw blame upon then-Mayor Murray, who is no longer in public life to defend himself, was an especially good indicator for her total lack of political courage. Only an abject coward attacks someone who cannot fight back.

29

I'm a prude for finding Lisa Herbold's nose ring inappropriate for someone in a career in public service. Nevertheless, that's how I feel.

30

Sawant is a nitwit and Morales is a fool, but that probably means they'll be elected. I really regret that Seattle went to districts for council members, and I'm embarrassed that I voted for it.

Eyeman's fine tradition of suckering the more simple-minded of the population will probably succeed as well, and the adults in the room will have to find a way to circumvent this latest measure. It's sad that even in a relatively well-educated part of the country, we have hayseeds that succumb to his nonsense.

31

@29 You’re not alone in thinking that. Plus, it’s not exactly drawing attention to anything she wants attention drawn to.

33

Get rid of every incumbent. Dump them all.

34

@26 I personally signed the referendum to put R88/I-1000 on the ballot, at the Big Top Gun Show in Everett. The people who were collecting signatures were both Asian, so you can fuck off with your "bearded" garbage. If you don't understand that Asian-Americans have been discriminated against by affirmative action for decades in favor of other minorities and might have a legitimate grievance against it, I'm not sure what to tell you. With luck, I-1000 will be stopped cold at the ballot. I haven't seen a single ad or sign supporting it where I live, suggesting it's support is limited to capitol hill and the stranger office and that it will get absolutely destroyed outside seattle.

35

The choices in the upcoming Seattle Council elections couldn't be starker. If you want to:

-Abolish Police, with no alternative offered;

-Abolish youth jail even for most serious offenders, again no alternative offered;

-Decriminalize almost all crime except most serious (murder and aggracated assault) which Will be charged as misdemeanor without meaningful prison time;

-Enjoy sex offenders, drug dealers and criminals from all over the US to descend on our city and roam free;

-Enjoy RVs, tents, encampments, garbage, human waste, used needles etc on every sidewalk, park, stream, public property or right of way;

-Give up all property rights, whether it's investment property, home, car or personal belongings that are there for the taking -- at the whom of any politician or anyone who needs or wants it;

-Enjoy property taxes that double every few years, same with transportation levies, gas taxes, sugar taxes, vehicle licensing, use taxes, special levies;

-Top off the taxes with new and improved income taxes, job taxes, restaurant taxes, and other new taxes that can be imagined by any union or interest group -- the possibilities are limitless;

-Despite exploding revenues from the avalanche of taxes, enjoy a city sliding into public health crises and third world conditions with rainbow sidewalks, road diets and intentional gridlock in place of new infrastructure or maintenance of existing;

Then look no further than The Stranger endorsements for your list of candidates. Enjoy the anarchy and mayhem!!

36

@23/24
You paid thousands to update your clunker but "can't afford $200 car tabs?" Considering my car is from 2013 and I pay$250 I am calling BS on your

37

@23 If you get the low car tabs you want, all that means is we will have to start charging tolls on all our highways to fund the mass transit we need.

38

People are generally stupid, so they will see that saving money on car tabs is a thing to vote for. Then, as more tolls and taxes make up the difference, they will suffer and wonder why.

39

I am a "survivor" of the only Eyeman $30 tabs initiative that past nearly a decade ago. It was not only a huge setback that pushed our transit into bankruptcy and unable to expand to accomodate a growing population, which led to the traffic crises we are in now. It also means ALL transit ended up stopping all services until King County bought Metro and rolled it into a country service, which was still greatly reduced due to the lack of funding. We are just now getting the other transit services, like CT and the others back to somewhat normal (if a bus every 3 hours is normal, if even on weekdays.) Right after this last bill was passed, we had 3 bridges collapse, one from a truck hitting the TOP of the covered birdge. So drivers who voted for those $30 tabs ended up dying. Shortly after, we all figured out what kind of monstor Eyeman is, and NONE of us will ever support ANYTHING he puts on our ballots, its just a waste of time. (Also, all the new fees and taxes on the tabs now WERE PASSED BY VOTERS to help REDUCE congestion and fix our roads, which are in desperate need of it. Nearly all bridges in this state do not meet eathquake safety standards, take that into consideration.)

40

Also, my clunker here only had $75 in tabs.. with transit, but it cost me $250 in SC WITHOUT transit.

41

Since a shockingly high number of voters are rubes, I give 976 at least a 50% chance of passing. Thankfully, like most of the bullshit Eyman writes, it's in blatant violation of the State Constitution's single-subject clause, meaning it will end up being eviscerated in court.

42

Re the stupid advisory votes (and for many other reasons)
I keep hoping that TE will be dressed in a Mariners uniform, and be traded off to some unsuspecting National League team as a late inning relief pitcher (Miami Marlins? Anyone?)

43

I would so love to get some money through income tax, but the one that should be traded in is the state sales tax, not the car tabs. And if you aren't (painfully) aware that any reduction in car tabs now will result in a pain in the ass (and even more regressive) milage tax to make sure EV owners pay their share (they arguably do now through tabs) then you haven't been paying attention. In the mean time, the state will cut services that keep our roads relatively clear (laugh all you want, but having been on the east coast Seattle could be a ton worse) and delay possibly life saving projects.

Sure, Sound Transit needs a plexiglass stomach to justify their fare policy, but if you think this law will save you long term money or stick it to ST in a productive way, then you need a lesson on which end of the weapon goes in your hand.

44

@19 As someone who saw the debacle with the Science Curriculum Adoption first hand, I couldn't disagree with you more on appearance verses actual effect. Geary is a treasure. Eden Mack's wonkyness, on the other hand, mostly plays as self aggrandizing stall tactics and cover for some truly rediculous "can't see the forest for the trees" policy.

Wonks have a place in the staff at SPS, but the board is a place for people with vision and determination, who don't get bogged down so much by the details that they can't make it through a decision without cross examination over every possible aspect and a few unrelated ones.

45

You couldn't be bothered to update your Port of Seattle endorsements from the primary?

46

Hahahaha, Sawant. Yeah, right.

47

The problem isn't that Sawant is a socialist. It's that she's a divisive ass who hasn't accomplished jack shit since landing office. Her voters are doddering old school socialists and people who just wanna yell at capitalism, however ineffectively.

She is useless. And as somebody who'd love to see an invigorated socialist presence in our politics, her abject failure in this is regard is painful to watch.

48

It's going to be so funny if you guys fail -- again -- to take Sawant down. I think you're going to suffer a sweep this time around. All that money wasted, all that vitriol spewed. Bezos isn't going to give you jack shit. He doesn't do gratitude, especially when you fail. He'll be down schmoozing with the candidates you couldn't beat. Again.

Maybe this will be your year. It shouldn't be that hard, right? You'd have to be really, really incompetent, not to mention unpopular, if you can't win against someone with no party who pisses people off for a living.

If this isn't your year (again), consider a new hobby. Most of you don't even live in Seattle, let alone District 3. If you turn your back on Seattle's problems those problems aren't going to follow you to the golf course or your American Legion hall or wherever you fuck off to.

49

Funny, but if you change one or two nouns in 48, you've got the generic MAGA response to everything that's looking bad for Trump.

She isn't running a nasty campaign because things are looking good for her.

50

"Nasty"? Nasty like when a woman talks back to Donald Trump?

I think photoshopped tents on playgrounds is nasty. Campaign flyers hiding your far-right ties behind the damn fire department are nasty. Sawant is not nasty. She is just not what cranky old boomers expect from women of color. Old men who've had it easy their whole lives are used to women from south Asia being demure and deferential. It freaks you guys the fuck out when one of them isn't. Amazon's money is nasty.

She campaigned exactly the same the last two times. She severed in office exactly the same. You aren't seeing a new side here, and it reveals nothing about how things are looking.

What I see is the same old tired failures that Sawant defeated before. The challenge is to rise above, not sink into the gutter, but her opposition always goes low. That's why she wins.

51

Sawant and her cronies also want to take away home ownership; you will rent from the city. With more and more homeless coming into the area they will be quartered in your homes. A retired couple will be forced from their 3 bedroom home to a 1 bedroom apartment maybe miles away from their original home.

52

Some very interesting discourse going on here, good to see. But it simply reinforces in my mind what the real problem in Seattle and Western Washington is: too many hamsters in the shoe box.

A 9.5 earthquake on the faultline under downtown Seattle would be just the thing. Tip over a few skyscrapers and bust I-5 up in about a dozen places. The antiquated utilities grid would buckle, mayhem would run rampant, and survival of the fittest would become a mandatory acceptance of anyone thinking of moving here, kinda like it was a hundred years ago.

Not to mention the Mariners would move to somewhere else. Now, THERE's a real benefit.

56

@48 & @50:

Welcome back! How went rehab?

Also, you can tell us again how CM O’Brien will “sail” to re-election, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

Then, back into rehab!

57

Vote for Alex Pederson for the 4th District. He's much more in tune with the needs of the community than his inept opponent.

58

I just listened to Jeanne Kohl-Welles and Abigail Doerr on The Record (from yesterday), and wow, Kohl-Welles was really on the defensive. Are the polls not looking good for her? But Doerr sounded pretty unqualified and, frankly, not very smart.


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