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City of Seattle

The Chamber candidate hath arrived: What business candidate would take on Seattle’s most famous socialist, Councilmember Kshama Sawant? That’s what the 45 people watching Seattle’s council races have been wondering. At first, it appeared Beto Yarce might be the business candidate, but then he unexpectedly dropped out. Now it appears the business opponent to Sawant’s socialism is going to be Egan Orion, a small business owner and the guy who saved PrideFest Capitol Hill. Is he the chamber’s candidate? Well, he’s the head of the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce so I think that might be a yes!

The Stranger's Rich Smith interviewed Orion this week over a cup of coffee at Vivace on Broadway. Read about his views on homelessness policies and housing over here, or watch his Ted Talk if you want to spend 20 minutes learning how to throw a flash mob.

Do you like getting yelled at? The deadline to apply to replace Councilmember Rob Johnson on the City Council is today at 5 pm. Johnson is quitting public service early so he can go work for Seattle’s new NHL team, which means you have an opportunity to get on the City Council! As long as you are a citizen of the U.S. and a registered voter in Seattle. The council has also expressed an intent to only select someone who agrees not to run for reelection, so you should probably not be one of the ten people who are running to replace On The Job Quittin’ Johnson.

Who keeps fucking up their democracy vouchers? Not much has changed in the race for public financing since I reported last week that District 4 candidates Shaun Scott and Alex Pedersen were neck and neck in the lead for Democracy Vouchers. Scott is still winning, Pedersen is still in second, and both are more than 500 vouchers ahead (i.e. over $13,000) of the next closest candidate. But guess who has the third most vouchers in this year’s council races? No one does.

That’s because 1861 vouchers, which are worth $46,525, have been deemed “invalid.” That doesn’t mean the city is throwing away that money, but it does mean those funds will not be allocated to any candidates this year. Annie Tran, a spokesperson for the city’s Democracy Voucher program, told The Stranger the vouchers are invalidated if someone fills them out for a candidate who is not participating in the program.

“Some people assign it to a current elected or just someone who is running for office but may not be participating in the program,” Tran said. “Unfortunately, once a voucher reaches our office there are no do-overs, so once a voucher is submitted that voucher is final.”

District 2 candidate Ari Hoffman could be the cause of some of those invalidated vouchers. He has been telling his supporters to either shred their vouchers or write his name in them “so no one else can use them.”

Should candidates boycott Safe Seattle/Speak Out Seattle? Former City Council candidate and former City Council staffer Michael Maddux has a new post on his website arguing that candidates should participate in forums organized by the Speak Out Seattle group. A number of progressive candidates have announced that they wouldn’t participate in the forums because of Speak Out’s connection to a separate group called Safe Seattle. Maddux argues that despite the fact that Safe Seattle functions “eerily similar to a hate group (targeting folks experiencing homelessness with a dash of racism and pinch of misogyny)” candidates should still participate in the sister group’s forums. The post is long but also pretty good. Here’s a bit of why Maddux thinks candidates should attend these forums:

I believe it’s an opportunity for not only constructive dialogue, but for all of us to hear how candidates respond to questions posed. Back in 2015, I went to every forum to which I was invited, and spoke to every group that asked. I even appeared before the 46th District Republicans. Throughout all of it, I made the same case that I made everywhere else. I stuck to the same values, because that’s who I am.

That’s it for now: Why is this week’s council election roundup coming in so early today? Because I’m taking the rest of the day off to go combine my two favorite things: cannabis and snowboarding.

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