Vote, ya dingus! Your ballot is in the mail, meaning it’s finally time to narrow the shitshow of 55 candidates down to just 14. If you don’t receive your ballot by Monday, July 22, give King County Elections a call at 206-296-VOTE (8683). Not registered to vote yet? Not to worry! My colleague Nathalie Graham breaks down how you can still register in person.

Noam Chomsky endorses Kshama Sawant: Seattle’s most famous socialist just got the support of one of the world’s most famous living philosophers. MIT’s Noam Chomsky said Sawant’s “accomplishments and plans are a model for what the country badly needs,” according to a post to Sawant’s Facebook page.

The floodgates of independent money are open: Independent expenditure committees are starting to dump hundreds of thousands of dollars into this year's campaigns now that primary ballots are in the mail. Andrew Lewis in District 7 is getting the support of a hotel workers union that has spent $148,299. Egan Orion in District 3 has the Chamer of Commerce’s support to the tune of $108,409. Phillip Tavel in District 1 has $83,047 of chamber money supporting him, and Mark Solomon in Distirct 2 has $78,613. The Times has a new story out today showing where this money is coming from and where it’s going.

These groups can raise fanastic amounts of money quickly because they have no contribution limits. They just have to agree to be completely unaffiliated with any campaign, whereas donations to individual campaigns are capped at $500, or $250 if the candidate is participating in the Democracy Voucher program. We have that terrible Citizens United Supreme Court decision to thank for this fucked up situation, which is currently being exploited by political groups across so-called “progressive” Seattle.

Rich Moms For Seattle loves MichaelGeorgeMichael: There’s a new independent expenditure committee making moves in the City Council race, and they’re calling themselves “Moms For Seattle.” They’ve quickly raised over $150,000 in the last month from wealthy donors such as Bellevue’s charter-school-lover, Katherine Binder, who coughed up a $25,000 donation. The IE is now dolling out the cash to their favorite conservative candidates, spending $12,000 in (illegal) Facebook ads supporting Pat Murakami (District 3), Alex Pedersen (District 4), Heidi Wills (District 6), and Michael George (District 7).

Speaking of Facebook ads: If you’re a student of Eli Sanders's reporting at The Stranger, then you’re probably wondering why anyone in Seattle is buying political ads on Facebook. After Eli’s groundbreaking reporting showed that Facebook and Google were failing to follow Washington’s campaign laws, Facebook said they would stop selling political ads in the state. But it appears Facebook is bad at following its own directive, and many of Seattle’s candidates don’t seem to care. Tallman Trask of the Alliance for Gun Responsibility has a megathread about it.

Alrighty, Seattle City Council candidates, let's have a talk about transparency, because a lot of you don't quite seem to get it (even some of you who I like a lot!). But first, a really quick history lesson . . .
— Tallman Trask (@TallmanIV) July 19, 2019

Seattle’s only endorsements: The Stranger Election Control Board rolled out its endorsements this week. Read the whole damn thing and vote accordingly. I’ve updated the roundup’s election endorsement sheet:

UPDATE July 22: An employee of Nick Hanauer's Civic Ventures told The Stranger Monday that their CAPE PAC has not made any endorsements this year, despite the fact that they produced quantitative ratings for candidates and then used those ratings to rank candidates in each council race from highest to lowest. I've updated the spreadsheet accordingly.

But what about the bike candidates? If you want to make sure your primary votes align with your pro-bike values (yes, I am assuming you have pro-bike values because that’s the way it should be) then check out my latest story from earlier this week. I interviewed all 55 candidates to see where they stand on the cycling.

A refresher on District 4 and District 5: Daniel Beekman ventures to North Seattle this week to write a quick primer on the District 4 and District 5 races, exploring whether Council Member Debora Juarez will be able to defend her District 5 seat and how the heated 10-person race in District 5 will shake up. Beekman wagers a prediction for the U-District-centered District 4 race: “[Alex] Pedersen is likely to advance, along with either [Emily] Myers or [Shaun] Scott, who are both endorsed by the King County Democrats.”

We smoked weed with 4.5 council candidates: Much to the indignation of several people who used to work at The Stranger, Katie Herzog and I invited all 55 of this year’s council candidates to smoke weed with us. Five candidates showed up: Logan Bowers (District 3), Kara Ceriello (District 6), Joey Massa (District 6), Jim Pugel (District 7), and Cathy Tuttle (District 4). Tuttle arrived hour late and said, “Who ever heard of a weed party that started on time?” We had an enlightening conversation about why these candidates use cannabis—two of them to relieve pain associated with cancer treatments. And of course we discussed a few amazing if half-baked ideas for the city. Not everyone approved, however. Erica C. Barnett accused us of holding the forum in an effort to be “edgy.” Yes, because grampas rubbing CBD gel on their knees is nothing if not edgy.