Tag Archives: election 2015

District 3 neighborhoods sharply divided on Sawant and Banks going into November election

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Screen-Shot-2013-09-28-at-1.48.42-PMWe’ll have wait to see if Seattle’s new district-based City Council will become gridlocked in ward politics, but the competing interests within the districts themselves, especially in District 3, could prove to be an even more influential dynamic.

Following last week’s primary election, it’s clear there are some deep divisions between District 3 neighborhoods over socialist City Council member Kshama Sawant and Democrat Pamela Banks.

Political consultant Benjamin Anderstone dug into the the raw election data for Crosscut to see how Sawant and Banks faired at the neighborhood level. Not surprising, Sawant dominated Capitol Hill and the Central District, but she was clobbered by Banks in the more affluent precincts along Lake Washington.

(Sawant) did well this time around in urban Capitol Hill (61 percent) and the Central District (64 percent). Support is much thinner on the ground in the affluent neighborhoods of Madison Park and Washington Park, where Sawant placed third with 16 percent each. At the Broadmoor Golf Club, Seattle’s only Republican precinct, she polled at only 6 percent.

Sawant’s main opponent, Pamela Banks, unsurprisingly fared best in these neighborhoods – 60 percent at Madison Park and 63 percent at Washington Park. These are unequivocal results. Primary results suggest Sawant could be on track for a strong showing, but it certainly won’t be a unanimous one.

Sawant has picked up two points in the district-wide ballot count since the first drop on August 4th, extending her lead to 52% of the vote to Banks’ 34%. Some were anticipating a bigger showing from Sawant. In 2013 she won 58% of the vote in District 3 precincts and did even better on Capitol Hill. Then-incumbent Richard Conlin has backed Banks, along with six other sitting City Council members. Continue reading →

Report: Seattle campaign cash disproportionately flows from ‘rich whites’ on Capitol Hill’s eastern slopes

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Screen Shot 2015-07-23 at 12.19.53 PMJust 1.5% of Seattle residents gave to political campaigns in 2013, and much of that money came from residents of predominantly wealthy, white areas on Capitol Hill and Lake Washington’s shores.

In its recent report, Sightline Institute mapped campaign giving in Seattle and found neighborhoods like Madison Park, Madrona, and Leschi to be among the most prominent “big money” zones in the city. The Seattle researchers also found one of the largest, high density areas of political giving fell squarely on Capitol Hill.

“The disparity in political giving between poorer neighborhoods home to more people of color and wealthy, white neighborhoods is stark,” said the report’s author, Sightline executive director Alan Durning.

To level the playing field, the report’s authors are backing Seattle’s Honest Elections Initiative. In addition to reducing the maximum donation amount from $700 to $500, I-122 would institute an opt-in system of public campaign financing funded through a small property tax levy. The program would give voters $100 “democracy vouchers” that they would then give to candidates to fund their campaigns.

Sightline’s report showed the Capitol Hill-centered Council District 3 to be the biggest geographical source of major campaign giving in local elections, followed by parts of downtown and Upper Queen Anne. Half of total donation dollars in 2013 came from just 1,683 contributors, or 0.3 percent of the city’s adults, according to the report. Not surprising, the report also found a strong correlation between political giving and homes with views.

Council District 3 recently became the most moneyed race among the nine City Council races this year. A June spike in donations to City Council member Kshama Sawant and challenger Pamela Banks helped push the total contribution amount in the race to just over $500,000, according to data from the city’s Ethics and Election Commission. Sawant’s campaign has repeatedly pointed out that her average contribution size — currently at $114 — has remained significantly lower than Banks’ $261.

UPDATE: This mapping of contributors who gave more than $500 to campaigns in 2013 gives another view of the Hill’s money influence:

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City Council advances $930 million Move Seattle levy with only minor tweaks

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LevyMapFINAL-400x518-400x518Mayor Ed Murray’s proposed $930 million transportation levy made it through the City Council gauntlet relatively unscathed Tuesday. While council members added a handful of amendments to the Move Seattle plan (PDF), an amendment to slice the proposed levy by a third and replace it by other funding mechanisms failed to pass.

Council committee members unanimously advanced the bill to a full council vote on June 29th, teeing it up to appear on this year’s ballot. “A unanimous vote by the Council in committee sends a great signal to Seattle residents,” Murray said in a statement.

Murray rolled out his Move Seattle plan during a Capitol Hill event in March, calling for a roster of transportation projects to make Seattle’s streets safer and more efficient by 2024 and a property tax levy to pay for it. Continue reading →

Round 2 of District 3 candidate forums a more scripted tussle in Madison Valley

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This week’s second Council District 3 candidate forum was more scripted than the first but Kshama Sawant and Pamela Banks still managed to get in a tussle or two.

“Rent control is not the answer, it doesn’t generate units and it creates false hopes,” Banks said about her opponent’s signature campaign issue.

“Candidates who take campaign funds from companies like Vulcan show they could not create affordable housing,” Sawant said during one of her opportunities to punch back.

Sawant has been clear about her affordable housing goals including support for rent control, linkage fees, and city-developed housing. For Banks, who has served as public relations lead for the Department of Housing and Human Services and served on the board of organizations like Capitol Hill Housing, the affordability platform is more fluid though CHS discussed issues of homelessness and the soaring cost of living in Seattle with her earlier this year.

All five candidates gathered Monday night before a Madison Park/Madison Valley crowd Monday evening. Inside The Bush School’s expansive indoor gym, residents of District 3’s northeastern neighborhoods heard candidates run through the standard gamut of questions, plus a few neighborhood specific ones.

Unlike past forums, candidates were given many questions ahead of time and the crowd was noticeably more subdued. Continue reading →

Retired ‘neighborhood government’ advocate enters District 3 race as fourth Sawant challenger

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unnamedA retired public media consultant, TV news broadcaster, and neighborhood activist has become the fifth candidate to enter the race for District 3.

In the 1970s, Lee Carter, 72, was head of the Central Seattle Community Council Federation and told CHS he wants to put neighborhood power and senior issues back at the forefront of city politics.

“We cannot solve the problems of housing for seniors… without returning power to the neighborhoods,” he said

Carter is the fourth candidate to challenge expected frontrunner Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant for the Capitol Hill/Central District-dominated district seat. All candidates must register by May 15th to appear on the August 4th primary ballot. The top two finishers from August will advance to the November election.

This election won’t be Carter’s first run at City Council. In 1999 Carter won 8% of the vote in a primary election for a City Council seat. At the time he supported re-writing the city charter to put neighborhoods at the forefront of city decision making.

After being active in the “neighborhood government” movement in the 1970s, Carter spent much of the 1980s as a political reporter at KIRO and KING. Continue reading →

Council District 3 candidate Morgan Beach hosting gender pay gap event on Capitol Hill

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Morgan Beach

Morgan Beach

In case you didn’t know, Tuesday is Equal Pay Day — a day established in 1996 to raise awareness about the nation’s gender wage gap. To mark the day, Council District 3 candidate Morgan Beach will be hosting an Equal Pay Day Social at Capitol Hill’s Sole Repair to “explore the culture” behind women earning less than men in the workplace. Panelists for the Tuesday evening event include:

Christina Pedersen — mom, restaurant manager and community activist
Tamika Moss — HR professional and IDF Fellow
Maggie Humphreys — PRR and Co-Founder of Woman Worthy
Tiffany Woelfel — Co-Director of the Younger Women’s Task Force, salary negotiation guru, veteran, and women’s advocate

According to one study (PDF), Seattle has one of the widest gender pay gaps in the nation, with women earning 73 cents for every dollar earned by men.

When Beach announced her candidacy in January for the newly formed, Capitol Hill-centered district, she told CHS that the gender pay gap would be the top issue in her campaign. The 28-year-old Portage Bay resident sits on the Seattle Women’s Commission and is a legislative advocate for Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest.

Beach will have her work cut out for her to be the standout District 3 candidate on the issue of raising wages in Seattle. Expected District 3 frontrunner City Council member Kshama Sawant was elected in 2013 for supporting a city-wide $15 minimum wage and was instrumental in getting it passed last year. Marriage equality organizer Rod Hearne and Urban League CEO Pamela Banks are also running for the District 3 position.

Council member Jean Godden, who’s running in Council District 4 this year, has also long advocated for gender pay equity within the city and helped launch the Gender Equity Initiative last year.

The Equal Pay Day Social will be held Tuesday at 5:30 PM at Sole Repair, 1001 E Pike. Find more details here. 

Rocker John Roderick enters at-large council race with Capitol Hill roots

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(Image: Alex Garland for CHS)

Calling John Roderick the “arts candidate” for City Council would be somewhat limiting unless the definition includes a candidate who sees affordability and transit as part and parcel to supporting the arts. As the front man for Seattle indie rock band The Long Winters, Roderick says he knows first hand that it takes a village to raise an artist.

Roderick officially announced his candidacy Monday for Council Position 8, one of two at-large seats up for grabs this November. Also seeking the seat are current council president Tim Burgess, former Tenants Union director Jon Grant, activist David Trotter, longshoreman John Persak, and City Council agitator Alex Tsimerman.

Roderick, 46, lives in Rainier Beach, is a founding member of the Seattle Music Commission, co-host of a weekly podcast, and a former Seattle Weekly music columnist.

Having spent 17 years living on Capitol Hill as a working musician before moving out of the neighborhood eight years ago, Roderick sees himself as belonging to a belated awakening of 90s rockers who squandered an opportunity to get political when the iron was hot.

Imbued with the sense of “we’re in charge now,” Roderick said this year’s switch to district elections opened a window for non-traditional candidates to run for office.

“To keep arts out of public life and reserve City Council for a professional class of lawyers and activists is to miss an opportunity to build a civilization here rather than just a municipality,” he said. “We’ve lost sight of what makes American democracy fantastic, which is that citizens can participate in the political process.” Continue reading →