Skin color is clearly an important reason to elect someone for office

White people on Twitter day the darndest things.

There's a lot going on in this tweet. But I'll just say... a majority SECB (5 members) of the SECB voted for Moon. So I wasn't the only member of the SECB who felt Oliver wasn't qualified and/or the right choice. And if Moon "stepped over" Oliver, so did Durkan. And if Oliver couldn't beat Moon, it's doubtful Oliver could've beaten Durkan. Fully expect Oliver & Co. to play the Bernie card if Moon loses: "If we'd gotten the nomination, we would've won!" Blather, rinse, repeat.

The New Left, making cringing a sport.

So much of Seattle politics seems to be white people calling each other racists.

I have to admit, now that there have been more interviews I think Cary Moon sucks a lot more than I would have expected based on The Stranger's glowing reviews during the primary. Not that Oliver is perfect but she at least has some contrast with the outward method of sucking that Durkan exemplifies. If they're both going to lose to Durkan (and they are) I'd rather Oliver's ideas had gotten the oppositional sounding board, and I think The Stranger missed a genuine opportunity by endorsing someone with personal connections to the paper.

Race is almost definitely part of it (it's a part of everything), but more importantly, The Stranger played to the tired and repeatedly refuted idea of electability.

Moon is more electable than Oliver!
Clinton is more electable than Sanders!
Kerry is more electable than Dean! (dear god remember when Dean was considered left)

The center-left thinks leftist ideas aren't feasible, then are confused when leftists don't show up for them in the election and when people on the right don't literally change their ENTIRE base of ideals to flip over to a moderate version of a thing they don't want. Sorry the goalposts have moved, but y'all aren't radical in basically any fucking conceivable way now. We're all eating ass, y'all aren't special.

What y'all ARE is bad at this. That's all. You picked a shitty candidate for no explicable reason, and promoted moderation in a primary, the exact time to NOT do that shit

Moon can't campaign. Most of her ideas are "we will get everyone to the table and discuss" which she should have ALREADY DONE PRIOR TO RUNNING FOR MAYOR TO ACTUALLY HAVE SOME IDEAS. She was better on housing when Oliver was in the race. Now she's fucked that up too, and we're left with a list of "we will get together with the people to change this" on every issue. Knowing she's already flipped on housing, why would I trust her to have my back in any of these future potential negotiations?

I would prefer Moon to win over Durkan because last I checked I wasn't dead, but Moon has done almost everything in her power to fuck this up. I didn't vote for either, because neither deserve it. I rather hope this is your last endorsement, because you have too much sway to be inconsequential and too little sway to seriously change anything.

The real tragedy of this year's SECB endorsements: Going with Moon instead of Farrell.

It's quite possible that Farrell would have lost against the Durkan machine... But at least she knows her stuff and she could have held her own in a debate. And you can't question her qualifications.

Also "And if Oliver couldn't beat Moon, it's doubtful Oliver could've beaten Durkan" is an unbelievably stupid statement, Dan.

The original field had, what, a dozen candidates? What if everyone's second choice was Oliver, then Durkan, then Moon? Just because someone didn't get 2nd in a 10-way race does't mean they wouldn't get first in a 2-person race. If Moon loses, obviously people preferred Durkan to Moon, but preferring Durkan to Moon does't mean you don't also prefer Oliver to Moon.

Honestly one of the stupider things you've ever said. Not sure how your brain didn't go "wait, that's fucking moronic" as soon you typed it.

Please. Nikkita Oliver was completely unqualified for mayor and being a WoC is NOT a qualification. Get over it.

It's a race the same way track meets are a race. People want to see the strongest runner win. Who is the strongest? And will people vote for the strongest?

Wow Dan, such clout in the city.

Seems a lot of Sloggers think someone else should pay their rents. Are your parents getting tired of helping?

@15, well Dan Savage was one of the voices on here that years ago promised everyone if we just build up lots of density that rents would go down and we'd have plenty of housing for everyone. And look how that worked out!

Ain't no sore loser like a Nikita Oliver supporter sore loser.

WELP.

The decline in quality and radical nature of your newspaper is at least reflected in the comments of its readers.

Y'all deserve each other, just too bad you all had to happen to Seattle.

#15: Not everyone is a rich cunt.

#20: oh yeah, that's Internet-brand feminism for ya. 90 percent is women tearing other women apart, passive-aggressively or aggressively.

@18 Get thee to the Greasemonkey script plug-in for your browser! You can hide specific user comments on just about any website and toggle it on or off.

I recently blocked Roger Twat (joining his other sock puppet manifestations) and added him to the growing list of trolls in Greasemonkey.

It leaves SLOG pretty sparse since it's inundated with trolls now, but you can at least get to the few comments that are not completely moronic.

It is always a long shot to win political office the first time running. Barack Obama lost his first campaign. Locally, Kshama Sawant lost her first campaign. Nikita Oliver lost the primary because her housing plan was still TBD in the middle of a housing crisis. She will be a stronger candidate the next time around. I only hope that her supporters don't doom her next campaign before it begins by doing everything in their power to ensure it only appeals to a small subset of infrequent voters.

I absolutely agree that we need more women and people of color in office but that doesn't mean that will be the sole qualification I will consider. Nope. Nor will an additional trait (a gay man of color). Nope.

And I'm not talking about degrees earned but real qualifications like knowing what you are talking about and having real solutions. Just as someone who knows public education, Oliver had - far and away - the most in-depth thoughts and solutions for Seattle public education. And, unlike Durkan, neither Moon or Oliver had any interest in taking over the Seattle School Board.

This meme of people getting mad because other people want to run for the same office is maddening.

@22 Rich cunt?

No, I just worked hard, saved and developed a career that ultimately paid very well. When it didn’t pay well, I had a roommate.

Also, I used condoms.

I believe the kids mistakenly call this “white privilege” nowadays.

I read that tweet like "Dude what, lol"? WoC in Seattle dont support Durkan for one HUGE reason: She thinks the SPD reforms are working. Sure, they are working in lowering hostile responses to white women and white protesters (sans Trump rallies), but racial profiling is still up, and excessive force aimed at blacks is still high. People of Color in the city havent forgotten Che Taylor and Charleena lyles, even if the hipster centrist "some-of-my-best-friends-are___" have.

@24: Also great for keeping comments within your preferred echo chamber.

"havent forgotten Che Taylor"

The convicted rapist? The one who testified he spat on his victim after he raped her and got 20 years?

"Charleena lyles"

The lady who made a false police report to the police and while they were quietly and politely listening to her bullshit story pulled a knife on them in a small apartment?

You know who's sad about Che? His brother Andre, convicted sex trafficker:

"Lawyer: Warning sent to pimps
Kim Smith
Tuesday, Sept. 7, 1999 | 11:07 a.m.
Las Vegas pimps need to take note of what happened in U.S. District Court Friday, Assistant United States Attorney Tom O'Connell said.

One pimp was convicted of seven prostitution-related charges and another got almost three years in prison after admitting he brought one underage prostitute across state lines.

After seven hours of deliberations, a federal district jury rejected Andre Taylor's claims that he had retired from the pimp business and convicted him of forcing women and underage girls to travel across state lines to commit sex acts.

Taylor could face up to 10 years in federal prison when sentenced by U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben on Jan. 18."

The Taylor family sure sound like fine assets to the city Seattle.

Nikita Oliver seemed like an interesting woman who needed a little bit of experience. I would've liked to have seen her challenge Harrell for his seat on the council.

Now she just seems like an entitled bore.

"Now she just seems like an entitled bore."

That's "working class, queer person of color and spoken word poet" mate. Show some respect.

....that's practically royalty in Seattle.

Apparently wielding knife was something she did before. It's a shame she chose to not get the free mental health care all residents of Solid Ground facilities can easily obtain.

"Charleena Lyles’ alleged threat to kill boy wasn’t reported to police
Mike Carter
Updated October 25, 2017 at 10:27 am
Employees of the apartment where Charleena Lyles lived learned she had allegedly threatened to kill a 10-year-old boy with a knife sometime in May, according to investigative records. Lyles was fatally shot by two Seattle officers June 18 in her apartment.

Weeks before Seattle police fatally shot Charleena Lyles, employees of the low-income apartment complex where Lyles lived learned she had allegedly threatened to kill a 10-year-old boy with a knife, according to a source familiar with the matter and investigative records made public Tuesday.

But the employees from Solid Ground didn’t report the incident to Seattle police, according to records obtained from the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office under a public-disclosure request filed by The Seattle Times."

Since when is winning an election "stepping over someone?" Was it just "her turn" or something? Affirmative action has its place but an election is not one of them.

The problem with going all in on identity politics, is that it forces you to create a hierarchy of worth based on things like skin color, disabled status, gender. etc. Which most people do not actually agree with on a philosophical level.

After all, what do we do if someone with slightly darker skin than Oliver wants the job?

@11--I'm not sure you were provided sufficient information. Oliver amassed people . . . citizens. Not endorsements. Not big donors. Oliver's qualification for mayor--for bringing people together and leading people--was her demonstrated ability to bring people together and lead them.

@ 3 Dan that was a very smart thing to say

@8

I don't know any better than you do whether a far-left candidate would outperform a centrist at the polls, though I suspect position on the political spectrum is pretty far down the list of reasons for votes received.

What I have noticed, though, is that the people who get angriest at the notion of "electability" seem to be the most sanguine about the idea of achieving power by other means.

@38

The ability to summon an angry mob might not be as compelling to some citizens as you seem to think it is.

But hey, different strokes and all that. Vote your conscience, I say.

" Oliver amassed people . . . citizens"

Yes, third place citizens apparently.

@35, but at least her family (who was MIA while she was dealing with her own demons and raising several kids with another on the way) immediately decided to look for a payday while her corpse wasn't even cold yet.

This election has been instructive on why Seattle politics is so cluster-fucked.
Circular firing squad on the left? ✔
Social justice warrior suicide patrol? ✔
Inept policy wonks out of their depth? ✔
NIMBY's screeching from the bleachers? ✔

So now Seattle, one of the most liberal cities in the nation, may well get a pro-corporate, center-right attorney who prosecuted marijuana offenses from Issaquah for its mayor.

Dan, I'm holding you personally responsible for all of this.

@38 if she had the votes, why did she finish 3rd in the primary? If her attention was in the wrong spot (grass roots activism), that's just as damning as people not liking her policies. Can't have a mayor who wastes time on loser policy agendas.

I travel around a lot which is different than living in a city, so my perception of Seattle might be bullshit. But IMO, at least compared to other cities where I spend a lot of time (LA, Chicago, Houston, Austin, Phoenix, SF), the liberals in Seattle are much more centrist than liberals in other cities, but they don't realize this about themselves. Likewise, the leftists in Seattle are much more to the far left than leftists in other cities, and they do seem to realize this about themselves. And, just like most other states in the country, there are LOADS of conservatives and Republicans in WA state (the state is mostly red outside Seattle) and yet both liberals and leftists don't seem to realize this and think they're different than the rest of the country. The end result is that you have three political groups in the area: GOP, liberals, leftists- with an even more significant gap between the liberals and the left than in most places. IMO, I'm blaming the liberals more than the leftists as the liberals actually seem pretty centrist compared to liberals in other cities - it's the disparity between the perception of themselves and the reality that is interesting. My guess is it's because Seattle is sort of a bubble and so it would be easy to start to feel complacent if you were a liberal with money there. The leftists tend to be more poor. BTW, I'd say all of this applies to the Bay Area too, and it's got a lot to do with tech, but otherwise, that's in comparison to the other cities where I spend a lot of time. This could just be bullshit, but those are my impressions and this is the internet so I'm sharing them.