Clearly Citizens United needs a tune up. How's a body supposed to buy an election fair and square with this kind of result?

You all can stop with the Heidi Wills bashing.

Heidi wanted the PAC money OUT of Ballard. We had Danny all handled until the PACs made themselves the issue with that $1.5 million moneybomb. We had people who just voted against Heidi to protest the PACs and the nuisance; not the awesome pro-transit, pro-business, pro-environment and pro-family candidate.

Also why does Heidi Wells get an underexposed picture that needs to go up + 0.5 and maybe 1.0 in EV and a bit of denoise to counter; but Councilwoman Lorena Gonzalez gets a properly exposed and in focus picture?

Bias much Lester?

@10: You're focusing on the wrong things. Actually, I think it's a lovely picture given the lighting and captures the grace and charm of Katie Wells.

I recall Heidi Wills having some sort of putting greens for kids thing.

Also worth noting none of the Heidi Wells campaign nor staff nor volunteers saw a penny of the PAC money.

Also worth noting that Heidi might have won if she hadn’t had an inconvenient record of selling her vote to a mobster.

@14 Is that not the entire reason PACs exist? If businesses and the wealthy people who own them could legally shovel all that money directly into campaigns, they would. But the law says they can't, so instead they go through these fig-leaf legal shells when they want to use their money to influence elections. Right?

@16 And every single incumbent running for city council won. Looks to me like the clear message of the "referendum" in your framing is that the people like the direction and responsibility of their elected officials, and want to keep them when given the opportunity. Your narrative is dead and buried. Maybe it's time to find a new one, instead of trying to dig up the corpse?

Sawant spent $25, and Orion spent $50.

Socialism is more efficient than capitalism.
QED.

@17 Yeah, it's not a good look on the PACs. Especially when the candidate goes on KOMO and says she wants the outside money gone. She can't just call them up and tell 'em to knock it off. Plus the sheer volume and frequency of voter contact - especially uncoordinated with the campaigns - really did a lot of sustained damage to all the Chamber candidates.

Let me be clear: Heidi Wills is awesome. PACs suck.

@15 Uh excuse me but Heidi Wills didn't get mob money. That's a lie.

@20 Excuse me but she got booted off the council by the electorate the first time around because she took donations from people she knew were associates and family members of a mobster (unbeknown to Wills all the money actually came from the mobster himself) and then voted to change zoning around the mobsters strip club to allow a bigger parking lot.

Does it matter? Either way, Heidi Wills is a gangster’s moll.

Wsdw-Wills did not get booted off the council and actually she and the other three officials were found to have done no wrong. She ran for re election and did not win. Truth does matter.

@22 That is just pathetic. If Wills was with gangsters, not to make threats why are certain people still breathing? Logic.

Time to stop with the blatant lying lies.

@23. Read what I wrote -"booted off the council by the electorate" - she lost the election because of Strippergate.

You are correct that she did not break the law because there was no evidence that she knew Colacurcio Sr. had avoided contribution limits by funneling contributions through his family and associates.

Nevertheless that facts are
1. Wills accepted donations from people she knew were family members and associates of a mobster
2. Wills then voted in favor of the mobster's request to expand a parking lot around
3. Wills was found to have violated the city's ethics code
4. Wills has been incredibly evasive ever since about her actions and has never given a complete explanation. For example, read https://www.seattleweekly.com/news/is-strippergate-over/

@25 I'd give Wills a full, complete and unconditional pardon for that. No big crime.

The bigger crime: 976 and Bobblehead Danny not speaking up about it. Enjoy a meek if not weak man for D6 when Ballard deserves better. Ballard, home of the most pro-transit folks in the entire state and yes, Heidi Wills.

Thank G*d for Heidi Wills warning everyone Timmy was coming just a month ago. We owe Heidi a lot for that moxie.