For more than a decade and a half, if you asked people in King County what a “County Executive” was, they might’ve said “uh, some guy named Dow Constantine?” Dow’s dynasty (Dow-nasty?) is through and it’s time for Girmay Zahilay to take charge.
Zahilay, a charismatic County Council Member first elected in 2019, is already a political staple repping University District, Laurelhurst, Ravenna, Eastlake, Capitol Hill, the Central District, South Seattle, Allentown, and Skyway, but he’s never held such a powerful executive position. He can do it. And, damn it, we want him to. So do the “just fine” establishment dems like Governor Bob Ferguson, cool establishment dems like Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, and moronic warhawks like Congressman Adam Smith. Big tent!
He’s also led plenty. In the five-plus years he’s been on the dais, he’s risen to current council chair and prince of fiscal management (or, in boring council speak, chair of the county’s budget and fiscal management committee. Yawn). He introduced the $1 billion Regional Workforce Housing Initiative and led the effort for a $1.2 billion property tax levy to fund mental health treatment centers. He sponsored a $2 million community-based gun violence program. He passed a five-part gun violence prevention program and supports a year-round gun buyback program. He reached these heights by knocking the legendary (read: old, respectfully) civil rights legend Larry Gossett off his perch—a big upset for an unknown lawyer from the South End who ran a nonprofit mentoring middle schoolers and came to this country as a refugee when he was 3.
In our endorsement meeting, he even seemed genuinely nervous. He clearly expected our question about the child jail. In his first campaign, he made closing the detention center a huge part of his platform. But in a vote last year, he walked it back.
During our endorsement meeting, Zahilay didn’t give a satisfying explanation for why he changed his mind. He says he believed the jail could be transformed with activities and community-based services. When we asked for an example of similar successes, he pointed to close-to-home facilities and “bringing the home to them through the integration of community services.”
And it was a bullshit answer when there’s probably a more straightforward version: The county had nothing to replace kid jail, so the council didn’t close kid jail. This is the infrastructure we have, so Zahilay wanted to make it better. We’re not convinced that sour lemon will ever make lemonade, but Zahilay’s only real challenger in this race, County Council Member Claudia Balducci, didn’t vote any differently, and her background directing King County’s Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention is way, way more carceral.
That said, these two are pretty politically aligned and did a good job at least pretending they loved each other.
We like Balducci, just not as much as Zahilay. She’s a Transit Maven with political experience who is good at getting those Eastside misers to pay for things. And if we have any hope of addressing homelessness and building thousands of units of housing, someone is going to have to convince (or force) those misers to buy the biggest goose in the window (pay taxes) for Tiny Tim (us).
Aside from Zahilay’s progressive zeal and résumé, we need someone in the executive’s chair who, instead of facing east toward the suburbs à la Balducci, will continue to face South toward the people and places this county has long neglected. At a time the federal government is literally rounding up immigrants and refugees and saying they don’t belong, electing Zahilay is one way we can show all King County residents know they belong and they matter. And we trust he’ll do right by us all. Vote Zahilay.
This race is a tough call for me between Zahilay and Balducci and, respectfully, this article did not at all explain why I should prefer Zahilay. Because he “faces South” not East? What does that even mean?
I find this to be one of the more interesting races (quite frankly anyone will be a breathe of fresh air after Dow). And I agree with @1 – maybe so more details on why Girmay (seems like the endorsement is based on vibes).
Zahilay doesn’t understand that our city needs housing supply of all types to end the housing shortage. Anyone that cares about housing should vote for Balducci.
@1/2 it’s almost as if TS endorsements are more concerned with ideological check boxes rather then sound policy positions.
A permanent gun buyback program is pure stupidity. They end up buying back a bunch of broken and antiquated firearms that pose no danger to anybody.
Meanwhile the gun enthusiasts offer to purchase anything good for a couple bucks over the County buyback price.
The guns that actually kill people remain in circulation while King County pats themselves on the back for wasting taxpayer dollars to achieve nothing.
Also, we’ll need Kid Jail for as long as humans roam the earth. It’s as much a reality as gravity or thermodynamics.
I’m another undecided. East Vs South doesn’t make much sense to me, either. And if Balducci is a transit queen and extending public transit into that area, that actually sounds very good, not bad. Plus, if she knows how to get the money … how is that a minus when it comes to housing?
Immigration, they’d both be sympathetic, I’m guessing. They don’t want ICE arresting people. He may have more personal insight into those issues, but in terms of policy, I’m guessing they’re about the same?
Kid jail, they sound about the same, since he revised a vote? They don’t like kid jail, but my guess is that they also know you have to maintain humane conditions, while you have to develop alternatives like community group homes for minors who aren’t dangerous vs kid jails for minors who have (tragically, but true) murdered or raped people. Most kids in these places need group homes (more family-like settings) instead of jails. That’s the key point in that dispute, I think. There’s only a small number that need actual incarceration. But “for some reason” (probably someone’s pocketbook and/or investments in incarceration) they can only produce these massive jails when they don’t need such a huge place for children.
Meanwhile … what about more job opportunities for college graduates, lower rents, public transit, and healthcare healthcare healthcare healthcare at the local level (and I’m not talking about drug addiction, but normal, everyday guaranteed healthcare like other 21st C developed nations)? Excuse me for addressing the needs of the average person, but I’m getting fed up watching those issues ignored by the so-called Left.
@6 Also… among the concerns of the ordinary citizen that get totally ignored … and I don’t know if this position has any influence …. how about the utterly fascistic and Kafkaesque jury duty system in Seattle? Jury duty should be solely voluntary, IMO. With the growing pool of independent contractors and gig workers, most people can’t afford to serve, don’t have the benefits, and can actually be put out in the street as a result of being “called to service” and losing one’s job.
It’s become nothing more than harassment by the State, and I’m disgusted that it’s going on in so-called “enlightened” Seattle whereby packed rooms of people are literally begging on their hands and knees to supposedly liberal judges who act completely oblivious to the economic realities, not to mention health issues, people being subpoenaed are faced with.
But of course, the so-called “left” doesn’t have this on their radar at all, and maybe because a lot of them have the job benefits to go along with it. They all have jobs with the State or in full-time tenured teaching positions? (The “right” doesn’t care about this either, but that’s to be expected, they make no pretense that they don’t care about anything.)
But, the point being, besides the fact we hear very little about average people’s issues in these elections … which positions in elected office could actually do something about this, and so that people aren’t faced with the decision of maybe having to remove their names from voter registration lists, since that’s what voting really gets you, at the end of the day. Possibly losing your job and your housing, or becoming ill in a room packed with hundreds of similarly desparate people all breathing the same air down at the courtrooms?
Excuse me, just more everyday persons’ problems that never get aired in these elections.
Make Jury Duty entirely voluntary.
@7 Or people have to schedule the only paltry vacation time they have to go down to their shit-hole of a packed court system to help them lock people up?
Utterly disgusted, and of course the so-called “left” is completely out-to-lunch on doing anything about these very real problems for average people.
Then they wonder why so many Americans don’t vote. Because the only way to protect yourself is to not be registered to vote?
Make jury duty entirely voluntary — or don’t pretend you know anything about the issues in real people’s lives.