Well now I know exactly who NOT to vote for.

Didn't she also endorse Jill Stein for President?

That Erica C. Barnett interview with Oliver reveals that Oliver is a shallow thinker with nothing but sound bites. Seriously, this woman is qualified to run the city?

ECB: Did you support the housing levy?

NO: Which levy?

ECB: The one that passed last year, that will bring in $290 million to build affordable housing.

NO: Honestly I don’t remember.

@1 is totally incorrect

There are a lot of sensible voters and they will not vote for these left-wing Louise. Get out and look at the real world, stranger and Slog people.

So when most people release a statement on Facebook or Twitter, Sawant needs to hold a press conference?

@7: You are correct, Sir.

@8, yes, anything to keep her face in front of the cameras. It's the Kshama Sawant Show if you haven't noticed. All Kshama, All The Time.

Why in world is anyone confused about this? Ms Sawant is a politician doing what politicians do best - getting themselves talked about. I don't know if anyone remembers the name of the judge here in WA that, although she was completely unqualified for the job, kept putting her name on the ballot election cycle after election cycle. After enough elections passed, people started to remember her name and, eventually, she won the election, still unqualified. This is because voters are, by and large, stupid and politicians know this; they know that often to stay in office one thing that helps tremendously is that their name gets out. The good ones (in terms of political success not necessarily in value) know how to manipulate the media and its consumers. Looks like Sawant succeeded.

Love her or hate her, one thing you have to give Sawant is she wouldn't go into an interview as a candidate so embarrassingly unprepared as Oliver was. That was just embarrassing. Sawant got into politics to win, and did what takes. Oliver got into the race when Murray looked invincible, in the service of a statement campaign. Problem is now there's a real campaign. She isn't a serious candidate at all.

Love her or hate her, one thing you have to give Sawant is she wouldn't go into an interview as a candidate so embarrassingly unprepared as Oliver was. Doesn't matter, IF you can understand what she's saying, none of it makes any sense anyway.

Idiots like Grant make socialists look bad. Just consider this statement:

... We have seen time and again that the market is good for consumer products. It’s good for better, faster cell phones. It’s not so great for basic needs—housing, healthcare.”

Obviously food is a basic need -- arguably more so than healthcare or housing. So what exactly does he have in mind in terms of government control of the food supply? Nixon era price controls or something more like the Great Leap Forward? I honestly can't think of any major government regulation of farming that has ever helped lower the price of food. Preserve the soil, sure, but not lower the price of food.

By all means, the food supply should be regulated to ensure basic health and safety for consumers and workers, just as housing construction is regulated. We should also supply subsidies for those who need it (and we do for housing, Ms. Oliver). But food is relatively cheap because it is largely unregulated from a land use perspective. I can grow food in my back yard if I want to. Housing, on the other hand, is the opposite. I can't even convert my house to an apartment.

Meanwhile, the biggest weakness with the food supply (other than the aforementioned lack of regulation with regards to pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers) is the dominance of a handful of companies. These can be thought of a trust -- manipulating the market, and making it very difficult for small growers to compete. The same sort of trust exists in housing. Home owners control most of the available housing land in this city (roughly 2/3) and regulations catered to their desires make it impossible for new development to compete. It is as if 2/3 of the farmers basically said you can't grow kale, even if prices are going up.

Housing more resembles farming than it does health care. Health care is more like the fire department. You can go most of your life without needing it, but when you do, it is essential. It used to be completely private, but eventually we evolved and realized it made sense to provide it for everyone. The inability to see the difference between these necessities suggests that Grant is a pinhead and demagogue.

only idiots would assume she was going to run for mayor with 15 other candidates.

the fact that this article exists and there are a dozen people bitching shows Kshama is doing a great job at rustling your jimmies.

Yeah, well, you don't have a copyright on independent politics, you self-serving twit. There's nothing original about you. You're only getting away with it because you live on planet capital hill.

Why isn't Sawant endorsing the ONLY Socialist running for mayess? ( see the gender-conscious neoligism I created? ;D) .Hey! Comrade Sawant! Haven't you heard of united frontism? --- http://www.broadleft.org & https://socialistworker.org/2013/08/13/u… & http://www.themilitant.com/2017/8112/811… .

What the hell is a "power femme"? Is that anything like a Violent Femme? Or more like a Power Ranger?

@7. Jon GrGrant is the big money candidate in the Pos. 8 race. He has raised $150,000 , and over 95% of it is in Democracy Vouchers, a game-changer. Jon worked for Solid Ground with low-income housing clients, headed the Tenants Union and was an organizer for the $15/hr. wage. He is every bit a man dedicated to improving and empowering the lives of working families and poor people.

"Socialists" propose taxing wage labor instead of rent-seeking by property owners. Huh.

@17 Sawant does not play well with others. She doesn't care who suffers in pursuit of her goals. After a lifetime of allegiance to the kind of politics Grant says he supports, I'm not going to vote for any more frickin' "socialists" unless I hear them call out Sawant and Socialist Alternative for their part in Trump's election, and for how evilly hypocritical Sawant and SA are for capitalizing on the bad effects of Trump's actions on things like ICE enforcement actions, when during the election they selfishly campaigned for the idea that it wouldn't matter how the election turned out.

I hope there are others who think this way too. But in any case, when Sawant runs for reelection, I'm going to hit the streets doing door to door for whoever opposes her.