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 Tuai 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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It’s been interesting up to the primary: so much of the analysis of the two mayoral candidates seems to rationalize that Harrell, though no visionary, with few accomplishments he can call his own, is, nevertheless, the better choice because he has been mayor and knows how to do the job. I’ve found these pieces (some right here at PA) funny and frustrating. Go Mediocrity!
I first heard of and noticed Katie Wilson when she announced, and the way she announced is what caught my attention. It was when the 1b and 1a options were put to us earlier in the year and the heavily, noisily, Bruce Harrell-backed option lost. She interpreted this, correctly I believed then, that Harrell was vulnerable, and she quickly filed. I thought then that this Katie Wilson, whoever she is, has some good political instincts.
Which leads to my point: Much is being written about the buyers’ remorse of Seattle voters, and their return to supporting the “liberal/progressive” candidates as a result. I don’t think it is that. I think that Seattle voters instead recognize mediocre public officials when they see them. (Sara Nelson and Ann Davison have been just that as electeds.)
But back to Bruce: I live in the 2nd, Bruce’s old District and consequently have observed him for a several years. I have no doubt that Bruce is a nice guy. I have no doubt that I would really enjoy having a beer and shooting the sh*t with him. But, politically, there is very little-to no, “there there” with him. He avoids taking hard positions in ways that would make LBJ blush. He’s never met a successful initiative or enactment that isn’t his or isn’t really his that he wasn’t very happy to take credit for (his campaign page contains a few of these). Bruce is an awesome ribbon cutter, and even a pretty good ambassador for Seattle. But at a time when there are a lot of visible issues that need addressing (transportation, homelessness, housing, comp plan update, general rise in incivility in the city), I think that Bruce’s expiration date has arrived. You can only carry the schtick that I describe above for so long before voters get wise. That is what I think the primary reflects.
I don’t think it’s a right-left thing. It’s a competence thing. Would Katie Wilson do better? I hope we get the chance to see. After all, she has some pretty solid actual public good accomplishments on her resume.
State her accomplishments, please.
And also, please explain exactly how the bus riders union was formed and funded, since this is her entire resume.
I’m sure Katie is a fun gal and I would enjoy a cocktail with her, but i find her politics a bit incendiary.
Without actually researching, I believe she is the reason that Sound Transit created the Orca Lift card that provides discounted fares for low income or unemployed riders, and that she instigated the rule that kids under 18 ride for free. Imo two very consequential win-win initiatives that help a significant slice of the population live tough lives a little easier. I too am interested in learning about the background of STU and her role in that org.
What do you find a bit incendiary? I’m hoping you can answer with something current, and is not about her qualified support for certain aspects of Sawant several years ago.
I have scant experience with Wilson, but it wasn’t particularly encouraging. She is very doctrinaire about policy directions, in a way that may make her a good advocate for certain things, for better or worse, but I would have chosen a more practical mayor. That said, it couldn’t be a whole lot worse than Harrell, I’m just sorry it came to this.
Hard agree with John!