I hate districts.

They reduce the power of an individual voter from voting for nine council members to three. They allow a small campaign / political machine to stay in power for a long time. They elect council members who are motivated only to help their part of the city and not embrace city-wide solutions to problems. They can be subject to gerrymandering which only entrenches incumbents further and marginalizes voters.

It's not a coincidence that these all apply to the US House of Representatives.

@105,
yes, the high rate of turnover of our current Seattle City Council shows how districts are far more vibrant.

http://www.seattle.gov/cityarchives/Fact…

Or, actually most council members from our at large system retire to run for other offices or retire amid corruption scandals.

@106

Right. Like gerrymandering the districts into
unassailable voting blocks, especially in the north end, will really help everyone, especially
in District 2, the only majority minority district. As a city on the global stage of
forward thinking and progressive values, this
is truly a step backwards.

Most ironic thing was that Charter 19 that
Faye Garneau, the Republican financial backer
and her DINO cronies had to use $250K to pay signature gatherers to get the signatures.
Normally, when supported by the unions, dems,
and minority groups, you would get volunteers
working the signature gathering, phone banks,
and other things. Obviously, these folks
saw something wrong, as should Seattle voters.

Vote NO on Charter Amendment 19. Protect
your voting rights. Do not give them away.

@107
Under what system would a minority group ever be a majority voting block ? Are we so PC that we just decide to count votes from certain minority groups as 4 votes ? If anything, if you fall to the stereotype that a voter from a minority is likely to vote for a minority candidate, wouldn't districts be more likely to ensure a minority candidate is elected ?

I just filled out my ballot and City of SEATAC Prop 1. apparently "concerns creation of a system of publicly financed council election campaigns." and says nothing about minimum wage. Is this a mistake?

I respect The Stranger's choice for Kshama Sawant to Seattle's City Council, but I wish that the cheat sheet had provided a more realistic alternative than one whose impossible to achieve agenda to "tax the very rich". That agenda is just as possible as promising free lattes every morning to every Seattle-ite. I am way way far from being rich, but regrettably we live in state that does not support income tax, thereby our infrastructure for our schools, emergency service, and public transportation is falling apart. I would support a candidate that had the nerve for an across the board state income tax and fiscally responsible in serving the people; but I might as well say I believe that there are really elves and hobbits.

hyyyyyyy

While I get that voting record is a talking point, and an easy jab at someone, I am also surprised the SECB chose to use this point alongside the experience point. It appears to me that some critical thought was shelved by SECB. There are numerous reasons that folks don’t vote in every election. When folks have initiatives and candidates they can relate to, or feel represented by, they are more likely to vote. There is also a culture around voting that varies with someone’s background and upbringing. Naomi Wilson is candid in her experience as the daughter of a Vietnam Vet father, and Korean mother. The government, and politicians, are neither representative of nor interested in representing her family, nor likely many other families. It continues today in our current King County Council with folks who are not entirely relatable or accessible. When I look at their bios I think we have an unbalanced and white-washed group of folks who are accustomed to having and wielding power. When I look at that picture of our council, I wonder why it doesn’t look like the city I live in. It’s easy to say in hindsight that everyone should vote in all elections. It’s harder to critically think through why they would have had any investment when culture is included in the mix.

As for experience – I could really do without yet another lawyer on our council. I think we already have enough legal and justice system experience represented on our council. What we don’t have on the council is someone with a dedicated background in public health and human services. When I compare the civic experience of these two candidates, Naomi Wilson’s is strongly dedicated to community, bridging differences, empowering people, and bringing a higher quality of life to a diverse number of folks. Dembowski’s just reads like another privileged and powerful white man who has traded in the law firm and court rooms for playing the same power games in politics. Our council needs to be more balanced in many ways, and one of those is with more diverse experience and knowledge. Leave it to Beaver is not doing it for me, we’ve been there and done that, and can no longer relate. I’m interested in someone with real-world experience, and someone who is relatable. It would be helpful in policy crafting to have someone who has felt disenfranchised from voting because their interests were not represented, and who will bring that to the table on our council. Naomi Wilson provides a valuable background and community dedication for our King County Council.

Thank you...this is rad. Informative, entertaining and kept me LOLing :)

Naubert for Port of Seattle:any socialist is better than the SStatuSS KKKwo!;D (and to response #105:You hate districts?Well,guess what,you fucking world-class political philosopher,an at-large districk,like SSicKKKattle's,IS a fucking district,you fool!AND . . . so are legislative,county,and CONgrossional districks,hate those also?Troll. . . .---- http://www.fairvote.org ,http://www.proportional-representation.o…

Naubert for Port of Seattle:any socialist is better than the SStatuSS KKKwo!;D (and to response #105:You hate districts?Well,guess what,you fucking world-class political philosopher,an at-large districk,like SSicKKKattle's,IS a fucking district,you fool!AND . . . so are legislative,county,and CONgrossional districks,hate those also?---- http://www.fairvote.org ,http://www.proportional-representation.o…

REPOSTED FROM COMMENT UNDER SLOG:
"Does a Bad Voting Record Make It Harder to Take a Candidate Seriously?"

I find it curious that the Stranger Editorial Board had time to investigate and comment on Naomi Wilson's voting record, but gives Rod Dembowski, who it calls the "charming, in a Leave it to Beaver kind of way" candidate, a free pass.

It's documented that Dembowski, who has political connections, was appointed to the Redistricting Committee and while on the Committee advocated for boundary line changes that placed his house within King County District No. 1 (making him eligible to be appointed to the seat vacated by Bob Ferguson, whom Dembowski knows and supports).
http://www.seattlemet.com/news-and-profi…

It's also documented that he references his work as a Special Deputy Prosecutor as one of his qualifications for running for King County Council District No. 1 on his website. He trumpets his work as as Special Deputy Prosecutor, with the full knowledge that the Supreme Court in this civil "special deputy prosecutor" case specifically calls out his law firm, Foster Pepper (he was one of the attorneys involved in the case) for abusive prosecution and a conflict of interest (Foster Pepper would gain politically and financially from harrassing the initiative campaign).
http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?c…]

Now one of the commenters states Dembowski attended a Reagan Dunn fundraiser. While Dembowski is free to attend any fundraiser and support any elected official he wants, regardless of party, the point @6 makes is that Dembowski sought out a large number of Democratic endorsements and instead of supporting the Democratic candidate in the other King County Council race, gave his support to the Republican candidate (a candidate that voted for Dembowski's appointment). And this support for Dunn was given AFTER Dembowski wrapped up all of the Democratic endorsements.

The Stranger makes no comment or analysis of these documented facts, but takes Naomi Wilson to task for having a spotty voting record. I think self-dealing, misrepresentation, and opportunism are more important issues for the voters than a spotty voting record. Because we live in a representative government, we depend on our representative's character and judgment. If you look at these actions in their totality, you will have a clear picture of who Dembowski is and how he will act as an elected representative.

Good, on 522 Endorsement; not being a Birkenstocker, I couldn't account for the hippie-sounding supporter calls received. I heard an East-Indian woman, Vandana Shiva, at Town Hall. According to her comments, there are 'watchers' 'round the world hoping for a Yes-vote here.

Their main concern? Prevention of ownership: 'no one' (including those "people/corporations") should have so much power over what we eat.
I like that! I like that v e r y much.

Don't know about Hippie-supporters; but an East Indian expert, Vandana Shiva (at Town Hall recently) seemed to think the world's watching 522 results ... not just because it's important, knowing what we eat, but because of O W N E R S H I P and self-determination issues.

I don't think I want the Big Boy Agriculturists deciding anything for me. My relatives had small, private farms in the Midwest and got paid not to plant! Hmmm, what could that have been about, I wonder! ...

Glad you are endorsing 522, Stranger.

@ 123

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ch…

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/…

These plans are cancelled because they sucks and people can get a cheaper one thats better.

Man the GOP is dumb.

Well these two evil illegal breeders just voted pretty much inline with this. Other than the districting.

About CA 19: Would carving the city into districts lead to greater diversity in our representation? Or would gerrymandering simply restore power to the same well-resourced folks? With districts in place, would the Council get more done...or less? I am voting against CA19. I want Councilmembers who are accountable and responsible to the entire city.

@129--What gerrymandering? How is the current map gerrymandered? What part of the redistricting section of Charter Amendment 19 allows gerrymandering?

"accountable and responsible to the entire city" -- Are you serious? The current council is mostly accountable to the district of money (1/4 of contributions come from outside the city), and responsible to no one. They have no constituency other than each other.

In response to @44/@39
You cited 2 utter misses (not even 'research' per se) and 2 flawed bits of research.

*The wheat report by CSIRO was dead wrong. They assumed that eating wheat containing certain proteins would shut off gene expression in your cells because of a DNA sequence match. Rebuttal: 'GMO Wheat and shouting “fire” in a crowded theater' (The Biofortified Blog) - bit technical, but clearly explains the flaws--they found only a very short sequence match... it's like trawling through random numbers until you find pi to 3 digits, since you couldn't find it to 100 digits...

*Seralini study you point to is incredibly flawed. They provided no information on the amount of food the rats received, when rats are known to get more cancer with age and unrestricted diet. They also used less than half the recommended sample size for this type of experiment. Control groups diet wasn't specified...you just can't leave details like this out! Terrible science.
There's a Forbes article about this ('Scientists smell a rat...'), and the Wikipedia article 'Seralini affair' section 'Scientific evaluation' shows how broadly criticized the study has been in the scientific community.
Naturally they orchestrated media control in such a way as to maximize sensationalism.

*'The nutritionally dead, highly toxic' thing is not even about nutrition, it's based on false advertising and soil samples. Check out 'The physics police' blog article, 'don't eat dirt'. Another case of alarmism run amok.

That's enough for me tonight. At a glance, the "Goodman affair" thing sounds like more Monsanto conspiracy talk. One of several editors on a journal with expertise in testing GMs for toxicology is a Monsanto guy? It's not like they took over several journals, or even one journal.

I see Vandana Shiva mentioned above. She's been peddling the message that Monsanto's policies have led to thousands of suicides in India by farmers.

While this is a lamentable situation, there's one problem: the high rate of suicide was noted years before Monsanto started doing business there!

DESTROY THE BIKE LANES!!!

Vote for Ed Murray for Mayor!!!

thank you.

Stranger, I love you so much for your voter guide! You are Seattle's only real newspaper!

Stranger, I love your voting guide so much, and would be lost without it! Thank you for telling it like it is, and for being Seattle's only real newspaper!

I hate the bike lanes in the instances where they, coupled with the bus lanes, stall traffic forEVER. However, I do want bikers to be safe, and believe motorists who harass them should be executed. McGinn is trying. With our ancient streets, we really DO have to share the road. Here's a big thank you to The Stranger (is that a noun or an adjective?) for sifting thru the BS for me. So sick of these pols that I'm severely tempted not to vote at all. Thus leaving the choices to THEM. Uh uh, won't do THAT!

OK, when I said McGinn was TRYING, I meant he is trying his best on the issue of traffic safety, although, I'm sure many would say he is trying their mortal souls.....

What I wish: I wish this guy would get a clean shave, even if it means a little lipo on his chin. He really does look like a throwback to the Birkenstock era, and we need someone more hip, and dare I say, better-looking, in City Hall. Mike, it's late in the day for me to tell you this, but win or lose, it will help your future endeavors. Trust me. You do not want to look OLD. Until you really are.

Well for what it's worth here are 6 of the 8 major candidates discussing fraudulent foreclosure, eminent domain, the Merkley Mortgage, the First Amendment Right to protest and more at last week's candidate forum in honor of Phyllis Walsh, who reportedly committed suicide on the eve of foreclosure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ALaG6sGo…

Dear Stranger, you are not so strange - really you are the only fucking clear voice of reason in a 50 mile radius. Beyond that, I am not sure what's out there. Again, thank you for your insight and tears of laughter...:)

I always feel smug after I read your endorsements (eg I KNEW that dude was a pandering greasy palmed db.). Hoping to afford living in Seattle 'til the next election and that the Stranger doesn't evolve into a 1980's "Classic Rock"/" Rhythmic Hot AC" rag. Please don't do that. Thanks.

Thank you, again...

Now that the incredibly and stupidly long ballot is done, fuck you Tim Eyman for your usual fuckery. Please someone sign a petition forcing Eyman to become an organic chicken farmer under the oversight of a specially appointed committee from the Seattle City Council hand-picked by Stranger staff. That way if his stupid measure is passed, we will be the first to benefit from it.

sorry to be a bit Stalinist but, to me, it seems unlikely that any alternative means of transit will compete with cars for users' preference. reducing the convenience and efficacy of car transport is as important as improving the alternatives (and these factors seem mutually dependent)

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