Post navigation

Prev: (04/02/19) | Next: (04/02/19)

Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce head Egan Orion challenging Sawant for City Council seat — UPDATE

(Image courtesy Egan Orion)

The field challenging Kshama Sawant for the District 3 Seattle City Council continues to grow as newly-hired Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce head Egan Orion joined the race this week.

Orion, who is also the administrator of the Broadway Business Improvement Area, has long been a fixture in Capitol Hill before taking on a role at the chamber. He began working with Seattle PrideFest, where he is now the executive director, in 2007 and has been organizing what he says is the largest volunteer-driven event in the district with PrideFest Capitol Hill since 2017.

When a sudden accident led the city to revoke a Capitol Hill festival’s license in 2017, Orion and his team quickly stepped in with less than two weeks to set up five blocks worth of programming, a seemingly insurmountable goal.

“I also come to things with the belief that nothing is impossible,” said Orion, who hopes to use this confidence in stemming the city’s growing concerns surrounding homelessness and behavioral health. “It just is a matter of having the right vision, the right people, and a reasonable set of expectations about what’s the worst that could happen or what’s the best that could happen and be comfortable with all that.”

Orion has been a regular in the area since the 1990s and he’s lived in the Central District for 18 years.

Orion, who studied political science at Central Washington University, was originally happy to support Beto Yarce, an early entrant into the race to challenge Sawant, but when he dropped out in February, the longtime event organizer organizer felt the need to step in.

“My history is about, like, not necessarily waiting for someone else to do it,” he said. “Hey, if no one’s doing it, then, like, why not to do it. Let’s see what this is all about.”

With a packed field already running and a current seatholder in Sawant who has tremendous name identification and a passionate following, it’s expected to be hard for any challenger to break through, but Orion thinks his work behind the scenes in the district over the past couple decades could set him apart.

Orion thinks there is fatigue among residents with both Sawant and the Seattle City Council as a whole over inaction related to the homelessness crisis, a subject which is front and center for the new candidate who has been working to return homeless outreach workers to Broadway, First Hill, and the Chinatown/International District. He also believes the district deserves a more engaged representative, instead of Sawant who he thinks can be focused on other parts of the city and is ineffective.

“There’s a difference between talk and legislation and building coalitions and getting real change done,” Orion said. He added later: “She seems to be a little more focused on rallies over results.”

On the outreach worker issue, Orion says he tried to set up a meeting with Sawant but got no response.

His priorities begin with the homelessness crisis, which he sees as a three-pronged problem comprised of the lack of shelter beds, the lack of behavioral health resources, and the lack of affordable housing options. He also hopes to help small businesses, especially those led by people of color, get rooted in their local neighborhoods in the hope of building community.

(Image: Egan Orion campaign)

Orion plans to raise money for his campaign through the Democracy Voucher program and thinks he could qualify with the prerequisite contributions and signatures — 150 total contributions of at least $10, with half coming from within the district — in the coming days.

Orion also might have another strength hidden behind the scenes. He has organized about 150 flash mobs, some of which have taken place on Capitol Hill, since 2009. He thinks if he can train 5,000 dancers, he could organize supporters for his bid for the council. “There’s a loyal following that I have that’s not really public and not really showy, but it’s there,” Orion said.

In addition to Sawant, Beacon Hill business owner, neighborhood activist, and past council candidate Pat Murakami is also in the race as well as Ami Nguyen, a public defender who announced she was joining the field in March. Meanwhile, housing-first candidate Logan Bowers, another challenger, has traded early punches over ethics with the current seat holder. Two complaints, one of which was filed by Bowers, were dismissed by the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission last week.

Bowers is the only District 3 candidate to complete the democracy voucher qualification process.

District 3 is comprised of the Central District, Capitol Hill, Yesler Terrace, where Nguyen resides, Madrona, Leschi, Madison Park, Montlake, and Mt. Baker, where Orion’s mother was raised after being — according to a story Orion likes to tell — conceived on Broadway.

Meanwhile, Orion will gather with supporters Saturday for a “special address” to launch his candidacy.

You can learn more at facebook.com/eganforseattle.

UPDATE: Here’s Orion’s campaign announcement. He is scheduled to appear Tuesday at 11 AM at Broadway and Harrison, “in the heart of his work and personal history on the Hill.”

 

EGAN ORION TO ANNOUNCE CAMPAIGN FOR SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL

SEATTLE – 3rd generation District 3 neighbor, LGBTQ champion, and Capitol Hill Chamber Executive Director Egan Orion will announce his campaign for Seattle City Council in the district on Tuesday, April 2nd at 11:00am.

Orion, who has lived in the Central District for 17 years and on Capitol Hill before that, will challenge Councilmember Kshama Sawant for the District 3 seat representing Capitol Hill, Leschi, Central District, Madison Park, Madison Valley and Montlake neighborhoods.

According to Orion, “For nearly two decades I’ve worked to address the real needs of the diverse communities in our part of Seattle. In the last few years, I’ve seen too many local issues—from public safety to homelessness—ignored by Sawant, forcing neighbors and non-profits to seek our own solutions. It’s time for a voice in City Hall who welcomes input, shows up and listens, and gets results for all of us.”

Orion has led local non-profits and run two small businesses from District 3. In his work with PrideFest, Orion created the largest event throughout District 3—PrideFest Capitol Hill, as well as managing the largest festival day in Seattle — PrideFest Seattle Center. As Executive Director of the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce and with the Broadway Business Improvement Area, Orion works to build a thriving and diverse Capitol Hill including advocating for and securing homeless outreach workers to help address our crisis on the Hill.

Orion will kick off his campaign on Capitol Hill at the corner of Broadway and Harrison, in the heart of his work and personal history on the Hill.

 

PLEASE HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE!
Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.

 

 
Subscribe and support CHS Contributors -- $1/$5/$10 per month

27 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Jim98122x
Jim98122x
4 years ago

“There’s a difference between talk and legislation and building coalitions and getting real change done,…
She seems to be a little more focused on rallies over results.”

OMG…talk about the understatement of the century.
Welcome to the fray, Egan.

iluvcaphill
iluvcaphill
4 years ago

Thank goodness! He’s got my vote!

Steve
4 years ago

Hurray!

Capitol Hill 1976
Capitol Hill 1976
4 years ago

Great news!

Matthew
Matthew
4 years ago

Anyone but Sawant!

Chris
Chris
4 years ago

Great to have a D3 Candidate to replace the position that I thought Beto Yarce was going to get. Sawant was a nice experiment, but I am ready to have a representative that supports the district who elects them.

walks dogs
walks dogs
4 years ago

I am so excited to see him enter the race. Finally someone who I feel can take on Sawant and win.

Kshama Will Not Be Televised
Kshama Will Not Be Televised
4 years ago

Sawant has a “passionate following”? Is that why a whole 16 people showed up last weekend to make campaign buttons and sundry other future landfill waste for her campaign? And is it why anyone who’s watched Sawant and her ‘movement’ for any time can name most of the people who appear at her protests, because they’re really the only ones to show up?

I wouldn’t call Kshama a ‘master of propaganda’ because her efforts to make her ‘movement’ seem way bigger than it is, and her efforts to make it seem that it isn’t just a cult of Kshama’s ‘personality,’ are so painfully obvious to the most casual observer. She does seem, though, to have taken to heart one of the central lessons of the Wizard of Oz: people and events can -always- be made to seem much bigger and more ‘powerful’ than they are.

Unfortunately for Kshama, Toto pulled back the curtain a long while ago, and none of these street guerilla theatrics are going to save her sole claim to fame.

Bob Knudson
Bob Knudson
4 years ago

Well, she indeed does have a “passionate following,” but I believe it is a very small one and this will be reflected in the results of the election next fall.

HarvardAveNotGrad
HarvardAveNotGrad
4 years ago

Am I the only person who thinks it’s just a little hamfisted that the challenger is **literally** the head of the chamber of commerce?

If you’re irritated by having an activist city councilperson who’s accountable to an outside group of mysterious powerbrokers, don’t pretend that Orion doesn’t meet that description to a tee. To think that the head of a chamber of commerce, even a local one, would put the interests of everyday constitutes first is just ridiculous.

This election will a choice between polar opposites, with one candidate explicitly on the side of business and the other on the side of working class people, each with their own organizational backing and accountability to third party structures.

Oh, and Bowers… who’s in support of upzoning and unicycles or something… sorry I almost forgot about you.

Nathan
Nathan
4 years ago

And the Social Alternative bullies begin their attacks.

Nathan
Nathan
4 years ago
Reply to  Nathan

*Socialist

HarvardAveNotGrad
HarvardAveNotGrad
4 years ago
Reply to  Nathan

How was that being bullying? Attacking?

Prost Seattle
Prost Seattle
4 years ago

The CH Chamber of Commerce doesn’t have an affiliation with the national chamber. The chamber is the local shops we all visit, not a cabal of conservatism.

HarvardAveNotGrad
HarvardAveNotGrad
4 years ago
Reply to  Prost Seattle

That’s true, they are made up of local businesses and are not a “cabal of conservatism,” but their interests are inherently distinct from those of the people who live in the district.

There is some overlap, to be sure, like street cleanups, getting sponsors for Pride, etc., but in key areas where it really counts, like taking a stand against the displacement of low-income tennants in the central district, for example, the CofC would stand in direct opposition.

Maybe you could say the same thing about the socialists, (ie. that their focus on an international movement would come at the expense of the interests of local residents), but I don’t think KS’s record of actual actions shows that.

Jim98122x
Jim98122x
4 years ago
Reply to  Prost Seattle

I don’t think KS’s “record” shows much of anything except a lot of screaming, grandstanding, and agitating. Thanks, but I’ll take the perspective of somebody who represents of a bunch of small local businesspeople who live in and serve their community, over an egotistical grandstander, anyday.

Roman Mercador
Roman Mercador
4 years ago

It’s hard to be “working” class without businesses to be “wporking” for so how about you abandon the false dichotomy?

Ed
Ed
4 years ago

LOOK closely Orion has been executive director of the chamber for a hot minute! Hardly an accolade of accomplishment and its smoke & mirrors really using their name & his short lived title to gain notoriety to seem bigger than he is. Gosh why Sawant does the same too. I call b.s. on Orion being elected. We don’t need a glorified Pridefest Event planner on the council or an unaccomplished newly appointed chamber E.D. who’s shown no job creation skills.

SS
SS
4 years ago

I met Egan several times years ago when I lived on Capitol Hill (now in CD), and I think he is a fantastic candidate. I’m familiar with his work in the community and think he would do well representing my district. He’s got my vote!

Upzone Please
Upzone Please
4 years ago
Reply to  SS

He’s awesome, he’s got my vote too.

Elton
Elton
4 years ago

A promising alternative to Sawant.

Eric B
Eric B
4 years ago

Good Luck to Egan. He would make a fine council Member!

citycat
citycat
4 years ago

This is welcome news. I am now feeling a little positive about the election. Things could change as I learn more about his position on the issues, but I have some hope that there is candidate I could vote for.

Lee Serrano
4 years ago

Having seen Egan Orion in action is both refreshing and inspiring. He brings new ideas, a new approach, and greater representation to many who feel left out of the process. I am all in with Egan !

Bob Knudson
Bob Knudson
4 years ago

The fact that Egan wanted to schedule a meeting with Sawant about the homeless outreach workers, and did not receive a response from her, tells me all I need to know about the difference between the two. Egan will get my vote, and my democracy vouchers, in November.

Sawnot
Sawnot
4 years ago

I’ll support anyone who is able to maintain eye contact with citizens during public comment sessions.

Jan Swanson
Jan Swanson
4 years ago

What is your position in the endless taxes on on home owners? Enough!!