If only to avoid a potentially unpleasant phone call later, the SECB would like to say up front that we did not decide to endorse Shukri Olow just because her opponent, eight-year incumbent Dave Upthegrove, is a white guy.
We decided to endorse Olow because Upthegrove essentially accused other organizations of endorsing her just because he was a white guy, and then, more troublingly, threatened to withhold his support in two instances, which we found needlessly petty to say the least!
Upthegrove, who was the first out gay politician outside Seattle in Washington’s history, claimed he doesn’t believe in reverse racism, said he never threatened to withhold support from any org, added that he will continue to support the goals of the orgs that called him out, and that basically he was just venting. Okay. Regardless, we’d prefer the person representing Kent on the county council to not waste time bullying political directors over the phone.
