- Courtesy of John Persak
- Will a challenge from this guy push Tim Burgess to the left?
Until yesterday, Seattle City Council President Tim Burgessā two opponents for a citywide city council seat were a guy whose LinkedIn profile lists him as a psychic and a guy who regularly shows up to city council meetings to call council members Nazis. Tuesday, he got a third challengerāJohn Persak, a 44-year-old longshoreman who lives in Georgetownāthough itās still not a big-name threat. (Like, oh, I donāt know, Kshama-effing-Sawant, who for a second looked like she might take on Sally Clark for citywide position 9.)
Persak will have a significantly harder time beating Burgess in a citywide race than if he took on someone at the district level. With fewer doors to knock and voters to convince, those are the races that are drawing more new blood into these races.
But Persak said in an e-mail announcing his campaign (heāll file later this week) that running was an āobvious choiceā because āall nine seats should be held by progressives, not just the smaller, districted seats. And we can use a stronger, progressive voice in this at-large position.ā
Persak was involved in āthe activist left of Seattleās political scene on through the WTO protests in 1999ā and has served on a regional union council for ILWU local 19 and Seattleās Freight Mobility Plan Advisory Board. And he manages Livable, Workable Georgetown, āa Department of Neighborhoods funded neighborhood self-assessment,ā according to his announcement. He's also been outspoken about his opposition to building a new basketball stadium in Sodo.
Among his campaign issues: Figuring out how to protect the city from tunnel cost overruns, improving local transportation planning as neighborhoods get denser (Persak talks a lot about traffic) and expanding community policing at the Seattle Police Department.
āBurgess represents the most conservative wing of our city council,ā Persak told me yesterday, āand I think his values are way out of step with where most people in this city are at.ā
Burgess himself doesnāt seem too threatened, saying he feels āpretty comfortable with my track record on the city council and what Iāve accomplished.ā (Itāll also help that heās great at fundraising.)
āMy record and the support Iāve had in my years on the city council has come from Democrats and progressives, liberals in the city,ā said Burgess, whoāll hang a big part of his campaign pitch on his work getting universal preschool passed. Responding specifically to Persak's charge that he represents the most conservative wing of the council, Burgess said: āHow do you answer something like that? I donāt know.ā