The Position 8 gang
If you’re one of the roughly 55,000 registered voters in District 3 who hasn’t turned in a ballot ahead of the August 4th primary, maybe you’re still trying to decide what to do about those two at-large seats.
All Seattle voters can cast a ballot for candidates running for the citywide Position 8 and Position 9 seats on the Council. In theory, the two at large council seats were left in place so those members could vote with a full Seattle perspective and champion broad issues on the council like transit or pre-K education.
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Earlier this month, KUOW took the time to briefly interview all four Position 8 candidates and all six Position 9 candidates at Seattle locations of their choosing. The Seattle CityClub also hosted a July 15th debate that featured candidates from both races. Candidates have been making news in other ways, too.
First, a look at the piggy banks.
In Position 8, Council President Tim Burgess has a commanding lead with nearly $237,000 raised as of Tuesday. It’s the most raised in any race, though City Council member Kshama Sawant is trailing by less than $500 in District 3. Indie rocker John Roderick is coming in second with $106,592 raised, and former Tenant’s Union director Jon Grant is in third with around $40,000.
In Position 9, former mayoral legal counsel Lorena Gonzalez leads with $155,385 raised so far, followed by neighborhood activist Bill Bradburd with $70,676, and urban planner Alon Bassok with $24,520.
Earlier this month, CHS took a look at the major endorsements in both races. Gonzalez picked up both The Stranger and the Seattle Times endorsements for Position 9. In Position 8, the Times went with Burgess while The Stranger endorsed Grant.
Neither race has been especially contentious, with Burgess perhaps taking the most heat as the only incumbent in either race. Most recently, Burgess has proposed a $25 tax on gun sales and a 5 cent tax on each round of ammunition. In an editorial in The Stranger, Burgess laid out his rationale for getting tough on crime:
In 2014 alone, more than $17 million was spent on the direct medical costs for 253 victims of gun violence at Harborview Medical Center, our region’s trauma center. Taxpayers paid 70 percent of this amount.
Given his former job has director of the Tenant’s Union, it’s no surprise Grant has carried the banner of housing affordability in the race. On Wednesday, Grant rolled out a tweaked version of his housing plan that he originally put out as a response to the 60+ recommendations from the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda Committee. Bradburd signed on to the proposal along with six other candidates.
One of Roderick’s biggest election-time proposals has been to rapidly roll out a new system of neighborhood trolleys. He also took to the pages of The Stranger to oppose the Burgess gun tax.
It seems fair to say reporters haven’t been knocking on John Persak’s door for campaign updates. He did recently pick up the sole endorsement in the race from Equal Rights Washington, as well as a handful of union endorsements.
Things have been a little quieter in the Position 9 race.
Bassok teamed up with Roderick to rollout the trolley proposal and recently told the Seattle Bike Blog he would push for the city’s 20-year Bike Master Plan to be completed in 10 years.
Most well known for his slow growth activism in the Central Area, Bradburd is one of the biggest land use wonks in this year’s election. He opposes microhousing and recently applauded Mayor Ed Murray’s decision to back off a proposal that would’ve opened single family home areas to more density.
Gonzalez has barely made many headlines in recent months — which is surprising given her high profile in the race — but she has been busy racking up endorsements, campaign cash, and candidate forum appearances. Earlier this month she joined SEIU workers in their picket outside Swedish Hospital.
Longtime Central District/Africatown activist Omari Tahir-Garrett is continuing his struggle to stop “ethnic cleansing” of black families from the neighborhood. A veteran of the US Marine Corps and lifelong Capitol Hill resident, Thomas Tobin has made tackling homelessness one of his top issues in his campaign. And while he’s most known and reported about for giving Nazi salutes to the City Council, Alex Tsimerman has shown moments of clarity.
FYI
PAM “DOWNTOWN” BANKSTER IS NOT A SMALL OR BIG “D” DEMOCRAT??? SHE IS A “COLORED 5TH COLUMN” KKK REPUBLICAN FORMER DIXIECRAT??? CHECK OUT HER RICH REPUBLICAN PRIMARY VOTE COUNT??? THEN CHECK HER POLICE GUILD / DOWNTOWN / GENTRIFICATION (POOR AND ETHNIC CLEANSING) / ANTI-BLACK FINACIAL SUPPORT BASE???
THIS URBAN LEAGUE “WOLF IN SHEEPS CLOTHING” WILL GET OVER WHELMING SUPPORT AND ENDORSEMENT FROM BIG / LITTLE “R” REPUBLICAN ORGANIZATIONS AND VOTERS??? JUST “FOLLOW THE BIG MONEY” DONATIONS??? CAPITOL HILL / AFRICATOWN / CENTRAL DISTRICT VOTERS MIGHT BE CONFUSED BY THE URBAN LEAGUE’S JAMES “GUNSLINGER” KELLY (MACHINE GUN KELLY WANNABE) FEMALE CLONE……. BUT THEY ARE NOT DEATH, DUMB AND BLINDLY STUPID ABOUT MISS “BANKSTER”???
HARRIET TUBMAN AND DR. KING I KNOW THESE “CAREERIST CIVIL RIGHTSTERS” HAVE LOST THEIR WAY FOLLOWING THEIR “POLICE GUILD GUIDES”??? BUT, DON’T WORRY IT IS STILL TRUE THAT WHEN THE LIGHTS ARE TURNED ON “ROACHES SCATTER” AND RUN FOR COVER??? Omari Tahir-Garrett, VIETNAM VETERAN, WORLD TRAVELER, HISTORY / ANTI-COLONIAL SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHER AND CANDIDATE FOR SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL (2018)
WEBSITE: OmariForCityCouncil
WEBSITE: AFRICATOWN / CHINATOWN NEWS DIGEST
WEBSITE: prison2president
Repl
Reply ↓
OmariTahir-Garrett on Saturday, September 26, 2015 – 2:31 am said:
AS THE FOUNDER, ORIGINAL INCORPORATOR OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE MUSEUM AND CULTURAL CENTER AT THE FORMER COLMAN SCHOOL SITE, I WAS NOT NOTIFIED OR AWARE THAT THE HEAD US GOVERNMENT / FBI AGENT LORETTA LYNCH WOULD APPEAR AT AND DISCRACE OUR ON GOING EFFORT TO DEVELOPE A WORLD CLASS AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE MUSEUM AND CULTURAL CENTER AT THE FORMER COLMAN SCHOOL SITE HERE IN SEATTLE???
J. EDGAR HOOVER FBI AGENT CARVER GAYTON (GOOGLE CARVER GAYTON JFK ASSASSINATION) WAS APPOINTED EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE FAKE NORTHWEST AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE MUSEUM (NAAM IS A SCAM) TO LEAD THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON / FBI TAKE OVER OF OUR GRASSROOTS EFFORT TO DEVELOPE AN EL CENTRAL DE LA RAZA TYPE AFRICAN CULTURAL INSTITUTION HERE IN AFRICATOWN / CENTRAL DISTRICT???
THEN SEATTLE URBAN LEAGUE NEGRO MAYOR NORM RICE (NOW CHAIRMAN OF THE FAKE NORTHWEST AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE MUSEUM) BLOCKED OUR EFFORT TO DEVELOPE A CULTURAL INSTITUTION TO DEAL WITH INCREASING FBI / CRACK COCAINE VIOLENCE (SEE SAN JOSE MERCURY SERIES “DARK ALLIANCE” ON US GOVERNMENT / COL. OLIVER NORTH’S CREATION OF THE CRACK COCAINE TERRORISM EPEDEMIC IN EVERY BLACK COMMUNITY IN AMERICA).
IN 1985 OUR FIRST BLOCK GRANT APPLICATION WRITTEN BY ME WAS ENTITLED, “YOUTH ANTI-VIOLENCE FULL EMPLOYMENT PROJECT”. THEN SEATTLE CITY COUNCILMAN NORM RICE AND ANDREW LOFTON (CURRENT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF SEATTLE HOUSING AUTHORITY) PLACED CITY LETTER HEADHEAD OVER OUR BLOCK GRANT PROPOSAL AND RECEIVED $25,000 TO BEGIN UNCONSITUTIONAL SEATTLE GOVERNMENT / URBAN LEAGUE TAKE OVER OF OUR YOUTH ANTI-CRIME CULTURAL PRIDE, SELF-RESPECT AND AFRICATOWN / CENTRAL DISTRICT COMMUNITY SELF-DEVEOPMENT INSTITUTION???
HEAD GOVERNMENT / FBI AGENT LYNCH’S APPEARANCE AT THE NAAM SCAM VENUE ALONG WITH URBAN LEAGUE ORGANIZED CRIME RICO-RACKETEERING CEO PAM “DOWNTOWN” BANKSTER (CURRENT CANDIDATE FOR SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL) IS DISCRACEFUL, INSULTING AND MORE “LIBERAL SEATTLE DIRTY POLITICS???
ADDING CLEAN POLICE TO SEATTLE’S US GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHED DIRTY POLICE DEPARTMENT IS LIKE ADDING CLEAN WATER TO A GLASS OF DIRTY POISON WATER??? LYNCH HAS BEEN USED KNOWINGLY OR UNKNOWING TO PERPETUATE SEATTLE’S ETHNIC CLEANSING OF BLACK PEOPLE OUT OF SEATTLE’S HISTORIC AFRICATOWN / CENTRAL DISTRICT???
YES, “THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY REMAIN THE SAME”??? OmariTahir-Garrett, VIETNAM VETERAN (1967), WORLD TRAVELER, HISTORY / ANTI COLONIAL SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHER (FRANKLIN HIGH, GARFIELD HIGH AND IMMACULATE ALL GIRLS CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL), CO-CHAIR OF THE BLACK ALLIANCE FOR EDUCATION (1970 TO PRESENT) AND CANDIDATE FOR SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL (2016 AND 2018)
WEBSITE: OmariForCityCouncil
WEBSITE: AFRICATOWN / CHINATOWN NEWS DIGEST
WEBSITE: prison2president