As the fight over District 3 representative Kshama Sawant becomes a $1 million battle, the group hoping to remove the most senior member of the Seattle City Council with a recall ballot vote is claiming a surprising comrade in the political tussle over the socialist firebrand: labor.
The Recall Sawant campaign announced Wednesday that Seattle Building and Construction Trades Council representing 19 affiliated local union locals is endorsing their effort.
“In 2014, the Ironworkers endorsed Kshama Sawant as a Labor friendly candidate because she had a strong message coming out of the dark days of the 2008 great recession. Unfortunately, since that time we have found that the actions of this elected official did not embody the message,” Chris McClain, Iron Workers Local #86 executive secretary, said in a statement from the campaign.
“We support District 3 working to find a strong Labor candidate that holds true in word and action for the benefit of Seattle, District 3 and the Labor Community in that district,” McClain said. “A candidate that supports unions, apprenticeship and prevailing wages through employment opportunities.”
The Kshama Solidarity group fighting the recall effort called the endorsement “an attack against workers and the labor movement as a whole.”
“McClain’s shameful words testify to the deep betrayal that this is of the tens of thousands of trades workers, both unionized and non-unionized,” the solidarity campaign said in a statement on the endorsement.
In its statement, the Kshama Solidarity campaign notes the recall endorsement comes from leadership of the union groups involved who participate in the labor council, not “rank and file” members and points out that “nearly 20 labor unions – representing university workers, nurses, educators, retail workers, many public-sector workers – have proudly stood with the Solidarity Campaign to fight the recall attack.”
The labor council endorsement comes as efforts continue to gather the more than 10,000 District 3 signatures required to get the recall question on the ballot. CHS reported here in May on the start of the signature gathering effort that has focused on a by-mail strategy while both campaigns have occasionally tangled in the streets. The campaigns have also argued over Sawant’s admission of guilt for improperly promoting the Tax Amazon ballot initiative, one of the issues behind the recall effort. Sawant was ordered to pay a penalty of $3,515.74 — double the amount of city funds her office spent promoting Tax Amazon.
The campaigns, meanwhile, are increasingly well supported. According to the most recent filings with the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission, the recall fight is now a $1 million batle.
Organizers need around 10,000 signatures from District 3 residents to put the recall on the ballot. Only D3 voters will participate in the yes/no recall vote. If the majority of D3 voters choose yes on the recall, the council would select a temporary replacement until the next general election in the city. The winner in that vote would finish Sawant’s current term through the end of 2023.
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I wish this blog was less biased there days
Why doesn’t Sawant demand that Safeway let shoppers take food for free, since food is a basic human right, and Safeway is a multi million dollar company that can afford it, right? Why doesn’t she demand that SPU and SCL not shut off people’s utilities if they dont pay? Heat and electricity are basic human rights, right? But she wants the owners of houses, who rent them out to fill the need of renters, to accept renters that dont pay rent. Pathetic.
This is just one more example of Sawant and her minions screaming bloody murder whenever someone objects to her marxist policies. She is so arrogant that she cannot abide anyone disagreeing with her.
The logic of the Solidarity campaign is really starting to falter. We are supposed to believe that unions that support the recall are not representative of their rank and file. They even went so far as to insinuate many of them don’t live in Seattle in an attempt to discount their voice. In the same vein we are told that unions who do support Sawant are 100% behind her. The lack of respect toward voters via intellectual dishonesty is about the only consistent thing the solidarity campaign has going for it.
The one thing I do take away from this is that it just became much more difficult for the solidarity campaign to continue to paint this effort as some billionaire, right wing, racist fueled effort. That was never true and now its even more obvious how disingenuous that claim was when it was made. I continue to encourage voters to look past the smoke screens and distractions thrown up by a desperate politician and vote based on the facts of the case, all of which are true and undisputed.
Not sure why Sewant wants to stay on City Council. The job is clearly too smart for her “revolution”. And she clearly has no interest in fixing pot holes, improving safety, making bus running on time, etc these small things. She should just directly run for Governor.