The lowdown on a low turnout midsummer primary election: The political left in Seattle and King County is revived but recast.
The state has a new star in King County Executive frontrunner Girmay Zahilay, running well ahead of County Council colleague Claudia Balducci. Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell and two other incumbents — city Council member Sara Nelson and City Attorney Anne Davison — trailed their challengers. Harrell mailings went negative on opponent Katie Wilson. It didn’t work.
But front runners last night are not cut from the same cloth as a Lorena Gonzalez, Tammy Morales or Kshama Sawant. Sloganeering Sawant supporters boorishly disrupted an Adam Smith town hall yesterday.
Girmay (everyone calls him by first name) is crisp and eloquent — no cliche promises to “make those tough decisions’ — and committed to getting stuff done. “Girmay brings hope and results: We need both right now,” said Suzi LeVine, former U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland, who has been raising bucks for Girmay. Others aggressively in his camp: Gov. Bob Ferguson, AG Nick Brown and U.S. Pramila Jayapal. For once, Jayapal did not bring Sen. Bernie Sanders. Balducci endorsers are the Seattle Times and local officialdom.
We’ve overlooked the Exec’s job during the long tenure of Dow Constantine. It has 18,000 employees, a $10 billion budget and oversees Metro, Harborview and a perpetually troubled homeless authority. Two former incumbents — Democrat Gary Locke and Republican John Spellman — have gone on to be Governor.
The pattern is repeated in the City Attorney race. Challenger Erika Evans is an impressive veteran of the Civil Rights division of the U.S. Justice Department, before Trump made it into a front for “religious liberty.” She’s quite a contrast from the potty mouthed police baiter on the ballot four years ago. And as of this morning she’s running well ahead of incumbent Ann Davison.
The Seattle mayor’s race is likewise upside down for the incumbent. The Harrell campaign mailers, familiar consultant written hit pieces, have attacked challenger Katie Wilson as a defund-the-police advocate and Sawant endorser, but also that she has never run anything besides being the lone paid employee of the Transit Riders Union. But she has projected competence.
On the campaign trail, Harrell has disgorged statistics about falling crime rates, new businesses people living and going back to work downtown — growth for all to see in a new Seattle skyline. But TV news is filled with shootings, fires, drug dealers and demonizing of the homeless. Right wing media, with a coordination worthy of Dr. Goebbels, has depicted Seattle as a crime-ridden hellhole.
As in the Wes Uhlman-Liem Tusi race half-a-century ago, Seattle voters may punish the incumbent in the primary only to reelect him in the general election. But as veteran political aide Paul Elliott noted: “These results are only likely to get more lefty as more votes are counted. Does Seattle really want to look back to undisputed homeless encampments? Heaven help us.
Donald Trump and Stephen Miller would not like Girmay Zahilay. He is an immigrant, born in a refugee camp in Sudan. While the Trump Administration demonized immigrants, Girmay has lived the American dream. He grew up in public housing, matriculated at Franklin High School, went on to Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania Law School and did a stint in the Obama White House.
A long ago Seattle Council member, Myrtle (Mrs. Harland) Edward’s ran on the slogan: “Always Sound, Always Progressive.” The Seattle left has skipped the “sound”” part. The City Council cut police budgets, ran messy expensive programs, and indulged in endless identity politics. Council members joined Capitol Hill occupiers in harassing and demonizing the cops.
Recall a long afternoon that the Council spent denouncing Christopher Columbus. The new talent seems more sensible.
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