"Today, we vote for people who have all the right (rational) ideas: Nikkita Oliver, Joe Nguyen, Nicole Thomas-Kennedy, Lorena González, and so on."

How is one of those names unlike all the others? Lorena Gonzalez for 5 years has consistently fought AGAINST police accountability unfettered by bureaucratic & police control & rooted in community control.

Supporting Gonzalez for mayor, especially in the primary, is only possible w/profound ignorance concerning her role in undercutting police reform & accountability. This ignorance is willful given the Stranger's refusal to publish op-eds or pursue stories regarding Seattle's failures of police accountability over the last 4 years.

Gonzalez has acted disingenuously at every point in the last 5+ years to undercut police accountability: not allowing consideration of the fully civilianized police oversight model in Newark, New Jersey in 2017; undercutting the 2017 legislation to minimize community control & civilian investigation; knowingly providing disinformation concerning what arbitration meant in the 2017 SPMA police union contract (she claimed arbitration hearings would be public); allowing someone like Andrew Myerberg to head the OPA ( https://hjgale.tumblr.com/post/643859576948654080/february-2021-interviews-with-opa-dir-myerberg ); she promoted misinformation & slandered critics of the 2018 SPOG contract; she has consistently refused to admit any problems with the current system or ask critical questions of heads of OIG, CPC, or OPA; and just yesterday in the Public Safety Committee meeting she grossly confused & misinformed people about the provision for a "right of action" in proposed city legislation on restrictions on "less-lethal" weapons (see: https://twitter.com/bessarabia1/status/1415434821237559298 ).

After the SPD murder of Charleena Lyles in 2017 Gonzalez said, at a June, 27, 2017 public meeting: "I want you to hold us accountable, because we are accountable to you and only to you... we as policy makers need to get a better understanding of what those trainings are... how did deescalation training fail Charleena, how will it fail the next person... making sure we get our inspector general in place to help figure out how we're going to shake the trees around some of these systemic issues that keep happening... we can't wait any longer for these systems to be changed."

"We can't wait any longer for these systems to be changed." After Gonzalez said the above the SPD went on to kill 9 more people in under 4 years without a complaint from her. In fact at least 5 of these nine killings involved people in a severe mental health crisis with either a knife or no weapon in their possession when SPD killed them.

Fuck the Stranger for endorsing her. Double fuck the Stranger for willful ignorance. And fuck pundits who don't even know the depth of their ignorance.

A defining issue in this election, for me, has been the "compassion" (my ass) charter amendment. For the mayor's race, I only considered candidates who opposed it; if candidates didn't address it at all, they were similarly out, like those who supported it. (I also think Durkan has been a disaster ITO a productive relationship with the City Council, rather than sabotaging them every step of the way.)

For me, though, that narrowed it down to Gonzalez, Echohawk and Grant-Houston. They all had pluses and minuses - I would have reservations about any of those votes, as well as optimism. In the end, I chose Gonzalez for a number of reasons including her legal background in civil rights (but not so much the police), plus her mobilization of labor support without which we will never get past the development interests that Harrell is taking money from.

At this stage of "the game," if you don't have a certain amount of momentum you won't make it in round two either. It's pretty close between G and E - I think G is a better shot. There are a bunch of other issues I could get into with these 3 candidates, but I do vote to get at least some gains - I can't afford not to, as a voter. I think G's partnership with Jayapal and Bernie (who both endorsed) at the federal level is also important - versus the ties some of these other candidates have with Olympia, for example, instead (see Farrell). In one interview series I read, Gonzalez was also the only candidate in that group who said that people should be able to have a defense of poverty when prosecuted -- and the only one who recognized that people need more than shelters - they have a right to the dignity of closing and locking a door and having their own bathroom. A major reason, IMV, why people prefer the parks - and as I think should be their right. I think there's an aspect to her background as the daughter of migrant workers that comes through on this human level here - which I haven't seen others "getting" (they may "get it" - but she was the only one who communicated this to my satisfaction).

I voted for Kennedy, too, despite some differences I have with some of her positions. She just expressed more insight and compassion for people in poverty and crisis - and most importantly, she wants to sue the state on rent control. Seattle needs rent control and the legislature is not going to do its job. There's also the matter of Davison in the race. She's backed by some very dangerous elements in the far right - so even if you prefer the business-as-usual incumbent, I'd rather have a 2nd round with Kennedy instead - and more substantive discussion than listening endlessly to their bullshit. The incumbent, I'm betting will coast through - so it will be him against one of them.

Constantine got these hotels coupled with Housing First but he also supported the youth prison which I strongly opposed, and he's very tied into the corporate establishment at this point in his history. Nguyen brings fresh energy - and I went Nguyen for a number of reasons, including the fact that he's not taking corporate monies and he opposed the youth prison.

I think Oliver is an exciting movement builder and promising voice for the youth; she's also very important on health care and housing. I agreed with the urbanist on some of the pluses for Brianna Thomas who's been a very productive backstage player, but I think it's just her misfortune to be running with Oliver in the race, so hopefully she'll run again somewhere.

So there are some of the ways I muddled through our mess of an election system. Please vote, progressives. I know we won't always agree, but don't give up the fight. Vote. (And fuck you in the right.)

Of all of our country’s dysfunctional pathologies, the refusal of huge numbers of people to engage in the bare minimum of civic participation by voting is the most destructive.

Even at this point I’m baffled that the people who suffer the most under our racist kleptocracy are the ones least likely to employ the tools that we do have to change it.

It’s obvious now more than ever that voting matters, otherwise the Republinazis wouldn’t be attacking all-out to stop people from doing it.

@3,

The sheer amount of disinformation, brainwashing, and lies that are targeted at the most vulnerable voting groups--telling them their votes are meaningless, or all the candidates are terrible and not worth voting for, to bald faced lies about the candidates or the elections--is staggering. The billions upon billions of dollars that are funneled into beating these people down. It's a crime.

These are people who are already stressed from too much work, too many bills, too little assistance... and to get the mental onslaught of lies constantly. It's got to take a toll on them.

I don't put ALL the blame the people who don't vote. I blame the wealthy corporate donors who pump their lies into the lives of those people. And I blame the corrupt and anti-democratic politicians who make voting more difficult and tedious in order to disenfranchise the already poor and tired masses.

Citizens United is a fucking embarrassment and a stain on this country.

@9,

In the last ballot you received in the mail for whatever Seattle voted for, what were the policy platforms of each candidate? Were they listed? Or did you have to google them?

Were those platforms included in the mailed ballot? Or was it just a list of names?

When you saw the names on the ballot, what came to mind? Their official platform? Or what their enemy blamed them for?

Spare me your holier than thou attitude "Park Place."

"These are people who are already stressed from too much work."

awww, poor babies

@10 you get a voter guide about a week ahead of your actual ballot with candidate statements about their priorities and links to their websites. Doing the research is really not that hard and takes all of our hour or two of your time. Most people have 1-2 issues that are important to them so the trick is finding the candidate that mirrors your position. You aren't going to find the perfect candidate. As for corporate donors you might want to check on that again as well. The SCC banned all corporate PACs after the last election so there was no large scale investments by any corporations this year however many of the public sector unions saw fit to dump huge sums of money into the race. So we are ok with large scale influence as long as its the influence we deem best.