Comments

1

“And, most importantly, is this Amazon’s town or is it the People’s motherfucking town!?”

Shush, Kshama.

2

Love me some Hughey Luis and The News

3

Hey look, it's Tammy Morales' rich doctor husband who makes all her "community activism " possible. Glad to see district 2, the poorest district in Seattle, will be represented by a carpet bagger millionaire.

4

Oh kids, it’s Huey Lewis and the News. Sigh.

5

“SAWANT WON” seems like an over-optimistic interpretation of the incumbent candidate receiving 33%* of the vote in a primary.

Likely under 40% after all the ballots are counted.

6

Sawant is toast.

7

@3: But she has a great headshot and lived in public housing for a hot minute as a kid! Also she might be a DSA member, unless you don’t like that, in which case she is concerned about whatever it is you’re concerned about. As long as that isn’t that you don’t want to be represented by an entitled millionaire.

8

Good coverage of the on the ground take on the primary election. Re the 19 year old Tavel voter, I believe that many people have fallen for the conservative line that they are the agents of change, but the conservative doesn't really clue their lemming followers into the fact that their change means going back to the past rather than working with the realities of the present and pushing forward the changes needed to adapt to the present as well as the future. Herbold will have to drive that larger point home that she can best embrace the realities of growth in West Seattle and push forward the policies needed to help the peninsula adapt to growth, i.e., light rail even if it comes without a tunnel, and frame Tavel for the mealy mouthed closet reactionary that he is.

9

Not surprising that the only Mothers Against Seattle candidates to do well are both seasoned campaigners who have been active in Seattle Democratic politics. Glad Sawant won too.

10

Wait!!! Did I miss something or did SAWANT not even show to her OWN party?? Sigh... classic SAWANT move.... Sorry, not sorry. That stinks. And bummer you didn't post that she she never even showed.

11

“If Sawant is indeed "toast," like some Slog commenters have suggested, it's because big business and old money have finally taken over the Hil”

No, it’s because 65% of voters in her district are sick and tired of her shtick.

12

"we all waited for Sawant to show" ..... I stand corrected, show showed at 9:25 PM....... so even though my initial comment was wrong, I am sort of not sure what is worse? The famous Sawant, finally showing up to grace her supporters, at almost 10PM..... actions speak loader, and I imagine that it didn't go unnoticed....

13

@10, 12: I’m no Sawant fan, but I’d like to offer you a nice big glass of water. I encourage you to post more in the morning after you have sobered up.

14

@12 Probably busy at a Party meeting planning the next purges.

16

@15 Kommie Kshama is toast in November dude, 65% want her out. Enjoy my salty testicles.

17

Well, the Strauss thing is nice (tonight), but you're going to have to learn to say Councilmember Alex Pedersen and ex-Councilmember Kshama Sawant!

18

"The Socialists Are Still Here, Motherfuckers!" Do people deserve to be called "motherfuckers" for no other reason than they do not vote for socialist candidates? No one--right, left, or center--merits such gratuitous contempt and hatred. Shame on The Stranger for purporting to support compassion and caring while reveling in crude, dehumanizing insults. Compassion is for those who disagree with us, too. But compassion takes work and patience and empathetic conversation... so I don't expect to see real compassion from The Stranger any time soon. But cheap sanctimony and crudely dismissive insults--ah, plenty of that.

19

Seattle is tired of far-left politicians, but every socialist candidate won a spot on the ballot.

Seattle is voting the bums out this time, but every incumbant made it to the general.

I just can't tell whose narrative is crumbling anymore!

20

"Socialists don’t believe in air conditioning!" --Staff

And Capitalists believe in shitting in the biosphere
calling it "Externalities" and letting the fucking Socialists*
clean it up.

*Guess who?!

21

@20: Ever heard of Lake Baikal? Taken a deep breath in Beijing on a smoggy morning?

22

Whose narrative is dying? Hard to say! Depends on how you look at it!

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/the-backlash-fizzles-voters-dont-seem-to-believe-seattle-is-dying-after-all/

23

@19, @22:

Declaring victory before all the votes are counted might be a bit of a risky proposition, methinks.

(Also, if you’re down to celebrating how every “incumbant” won pluralities, you’re kind of shoring up the other narrative...)

24

@23 Sooner or later, you're going to have to face it, tensor. Your narrative died last night. The people have spoken. You can mourn, that's only human, but your narrative is not going to come back to life.

25

@21 -- Bingo. Capitalists will not rest until
the whole fucking Planet smells like Beijing.

"I LOVE the smell of Profiteering, in the morning.
It smells like . . . Victory!"

26

@23 "Candidates that favored the controversial “head tax” on Amazon and other big businesses were leading in most of the districts. This doesn’t mean they will win in November. But support for what was believed to be a radioactive idea didn’t turn out to actually be radioactive."

your discourse about a massive popular backlash against the Amazon tax has been exposed for the corporate propaganda it is.

27

"If Sawant is indeed "toast," like some Slog commenters have suggested, it's because big business and old money have finally taken over the Hill."

This is just flat-out fake news. Whoever wrote this pulled it out of their ass.

Total expenditures for Orion's campaign, plus CASE spending on his behalf = $117,532.06.

Total expenditures for Sawant's campaign = $237,318.73

Sawant outspent everyone else in the race by a huge margin. She spent MORE THAN TWICE AS MUCH as anyone else running for District 3.

Moreover, much of Orion's funding came from democracy vouchers, with 64% of his contributions coming from inside District 3.

Sawant, on the other hand, got the vast majority of her funding from outside of city limits with an amazing 47% coming from outside of Seattle. Just 25% of Sawant's contributions came from within District 3.

28

And yet, hbb, it's Legal for others to spend on campaigns of their choice (PACS) -- outspending individual candidates by what, 20-1, 30-1? Big Business is vastly more powerful than any Seattle Socialists. And they're pretty used to Getting Their Way.

29

@28 Read @27 again. PACs did not outspend Sawant, Sawant, using money from outside Seattle, outspent the PACs.

30

@26: Declaring victory before all the votes are counted might be a bit of a risky proposition, methinks.

31

@29 Which data source are you using?

According to the Public Disclosure Commission of WA, Orion has $142,005.54 in Independent expeditures alone, in addition to $52,511.20 in campaign expenditures. That's $194,516.74, not $117,532.06. Still not as much as Sawant, of course, but quite a bit more than half of what she's spent so far.

And if we account for the $12,464.91 that third parties have spent AGAINST Sawant, that would bring Orion and Sawant's spending to within 10% of each other, pretty much a wash even before looking at cash on hand.

https://www.pdc.wa.gov/browse/campaign-explorer/candidate?filer_id=SAWAK%20%20102&election_year=2019

https://www.pdc.wa.gov/browse/campaign-explorer/candidate?filer_id=ORIOE%20%20122&election_year=2019

32

@30 That's a risk you were more than willing to take as recently as 48 hours ago. Are you offering this new advice to past-tensor, as a sort of lesson learned?

33

@30 I didn't declare victory. Can't you read? You seem to have run out of talking points. I said that the massive popular backlash against the Amazon tax, which you have been ranting about for months now didn't materialize (you already claimed O'Brien scalp even though many things likely factored into his not running for reelection). It didn't materialize because the purpose of your propaganda is to claim that you already won and the opposition will divide and fold, like city council did when confronted by weeks of attacks from corporate media, business and establishment elites that instrumentalized homelessness in order to mobilize the NIMBY vote.

34

@27 Some twisted presentation of facts as shown by RS @31. Also, according to your own numbers, respectively 25% and 64% of contributions raised in D3, Sawant raised more than Orion in D3 (~$10k more), which is opposite the inference you are making. That's many errors in a row , don't you think? Why no mention of the number of contributors and/or average contribution?

35

@24: As of last night, we knew four of seven districts (that’s a majority of districts, BTW) will have new Council Members next year. It was still possible all seven may. (That’s a super-majority of all Council seats, BTW.)

As of today, we know four of seven districts (that’s a majority of districts, BTW) will have new Council Members next year. It remains possible all seven may. (That’s a super-majority of all Council seats, BTW.)

What part of which narrative changed — let alone “died” — last night?

@32: Wow, you wrote that exactly as if you’d actually quoted something I wrote “as recently as 48 hours ago.“ But, um, you didn’t. So I offer your current self the same advice I offered your past self: assertions made without evidence will be dismissed without evidence.

36

@31 & 34, I inadvertently used only the CASE spending on behalf of Orion, omitting the other IE spending. Sorry about that.

That being said, what evidence is there to support the Stranger's theory that the District 3 race was shaped by "big business and old money?" As you both acknowledge, Sawant raised a ton of money from donors outside of the district (and outside of Seattle), and which put her on equal footing--indeed, better footing--with any other candidate in the race.

37

@33: "I said that the massive popular backlash against the Amazon tax, which you have been ranting about for months now didn't materialize."

Well, not all of the ballots have been counted, but CM Herbold and CM Juarez have pluralities in their districts. They both voted to repeal the EHT, so it's hard to see how their examples support your claim.

And, as discussed above, the candidate who was the biggest supporter of the EHT spent a lot of money, and has yet to receive even one-third of the vote. It's also hard to see how that's a huge endorsement of your claim.

38

@37 All 3 incumbents lead the race. It is a direct denial of your propaganda. There is no groundswell of popular discontent over the Amazon tax. The Amazon candidate spent almost as much as Sawant, got tons of free publicity from establishment media and obtained 30% fewer votes. How is that a win?

39

Melissa Westbrook full of it 24/7

40

@38: “All 3 incumbents lead the race. It is a direct denial of your propaganda.”

Do you even know what the word “plurality” means? That’s a pretty important question right now.

CM Sawant has name recognition, out-spent her opponents, and got just over one-third of the vote (so far). If you want to claim that’s a huge victory for whatever, go right ahead. The rest of us see an incumbent who very well might lose if we send some of our Democracy Vouchers to her upcoming opponent — assuming she even makes it to the general election.

The two CMs who voted to repeal the EHT won larger — wait for it! — pluralities than did the CM who voted for the EHT. Your claims aren’t exactly doing well right now.

(Maybe you could spend some time finding quotes of me saying a massive popular backlash whatever.)


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