Sawant should run for Mayor, now that Madame Durkan is stepping aside. Councilperson Sawant is more proactive, public-sector oriented and capable of defunding the police and providing housing and medical care for homeless folks. The doctrinaire Durkan was inflexible and unable to deal effectively with civil disobedience like C.H.O.P and rampant police brutality, and her inept executive administrative skills led to the departure of Police Chief Best, the first African-American to hold that position in Seattle. Sawant is a provocative spokesperson for the disenfranchised, and refreshing counterpoint to the repressive, shallow capitalism of Jeff Bezos, who is always pretentiously throwing his financial weight around, thereby warping the political process and sending hairy selfies to unsuspecting little nebbishes, and represents the moral decay of capitalism. Sawant may be the Indira Gandhi of this generation, at least within the Seattle-Tacoma-Hooterville encompassing.

The Sawant campaign really knows how to whip up some drama to excite their deranged base. Shadowy billionaires are coming for Sawant, and after they are done with her they are coming to buy the mayor and council seats! Oh my goodness!

Apparently, jackkay, beatnik, 420justblazeit, 2CV, and a bunch of Seattle shitlibs who continue trolling us with this bogus recall, all agree that elections are only good for a couple months in this country. What's next? A couple days. I'm surprised they weren't at the Capitol today. Kshama was elected fair and square in 2019; she's the longest sitting council member, thrice-elected with broad support among Seattle's working class. The fact that the same caravan of fools who failed to unseat her thirteen months ago, including her disgraced opponent Egan Orion, want a redo with an April special election, says all you need to know about what they believe their chances would be in a regular high-turnout election... If they succeed, I agree with pollysexual and hope Kshama pivots the fight into a run for mayor in November. Hell, it would be a spellbinding counter-offensive no matter what. Remember, it was after the 2008 recession that Kshama and $15 Now found victory, there's no telling what victories lie on the other side of this nightmare if only we organize. I'll leave you with this: Only cowards believe power lies in elected office, the rest of us know power lies in struggle.

Also, beatnik, you should strongly consider changing your name and profile pic. I don't know what beats you've been hanging with, but they seem pretty stiff, and Señor Trotsky isn't really a good look on you.

@4 Yes, the comparison between Sawant and Trump is apt. And, no, the recall campaign is not funded or managed by "right-wing billionaires." It's primarily funded through small donations from many individuals, most of whom live in her district. These are not corporate shills or compassionless bigots. And Sawant is no victim. She has many supporters and might survive the challenge. But I'm for the challenge and respect the grassroots effort of those sponsoring the recall. Pro or con, I look forward to a good, vigorous, respectful exchange about Sawant. There's no need for ad hominem demonizing--again, just a good, vigorous, respectful exchange.

One charge in the recall is Sawant's outsourcing of her office hiring and firing decisions to her "movement."

So what does Kshama do?

She hires an out-of-state 'Socialist Alternative' apparatchik to run her "Solidarity campaign."

@6 too bad for you the recall isn't about disputing that she was even elected again, it is that she has failed to uphold the duties of her office and it appears the courts are getting ready to agree with that sentiment. But I guess shadowy billionaire cabal bought-off the courts, too?
All of this could have been avoided, she is the only one to blame for her actions.

@2: "...and her inept executive administrative skills led to the departure of Police Chief Best,"

Our City Council's inept attempts at defunding SPD motivated Chief Best to quit. In the words of BLM (Seattle/King County), "...the first Black woman to hold the position of Chief of Police of the Seattle Police Department has been forced out of her job by the Seattle City Council." (https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/racism-is-racism-black-lives-matter-seattle-king-county-issues-statement-chief-best-retirement/5EFI2ZJ5TRADFPOXV6MS72MM4Q/)

CMs Herbold and Sawant, not Mayor Durkan, were responsible for Chief Best's departure.

Now that you know what actually happened, you may want to reconsider your ideas about CM Sawant's future career moves.

I hope Socialist Alternative paid you for this puff piece. I'm not sure if its a campaign ad or just outright propaganda.

@14 I honestly don't think what you are asking for is possible in Seattle for the foreseeable future. You are asking for a city administrator and that's not a winning formula right now. Nowadays you need to be an activist politician with a cause and an enemy to energize the base. Maybe someday the voters will yearn again for someone boring who can run the city but it won't be this election cycle.

Sawant's misdeeds as enumerated by the recall campaign may be a good argument for voting her out of office when the time comes. (Yes, a court found they had merit, and they well might.) But in my estimation none of them come close to justifying a recall, a mechanism which must be reserved for truly extraordinary and dangerous circumstances of corruption or mismanagement, or else will likely become routine. Sawant and Durkan (whom I also dislike and whose recall I also didn't support) are just mediocre politicians who should find something else to do with their lives. As should the recall petitioners.

'For Koulouris, recalling Sawant seems like an attempt to "re-do" the 2019 election...'

Then The Stranger should kindly inform Koulouris that three of the four items on the recall petition refer to events which happened after the 2019 election. A fine journalistic organization like The Stranger really shouldn't allow someone to wallow publicly in avoidable ignorance like that.

For extra journalistic points, The Stranger can explain to Koulouris how the sole item from before the election had been whitewashed by the Seattle Ethics & Elections Committee chair, who wrongly claimed CM Sawant's allowing Socialist Alternative to run her office at City Hall was no big deal. For the recall petition, the judge noted it was a very big deal indeed, and so voters should have another look at it, this time with the correct background information.

@18: "But in my estimation none of them come close to justifying a recall,"

You're entitled to your opinion, but our laws have different requirements. In my opinion, using public property to allow COVID to spread, and threatening a rival politician's children in their own home, are very Trumpian acts, upon which voters in District 3 should judge their incumbent.

We received a RECALL SAWANT poster in our mailbox a couple of weeks ago, inside the free 'Madison Park Times'. Interesting.