With love for a home neighborhood at the core of the decision to enter the race, First Hill resident and Transportation Choices Coalition executive director Alex Hudson is running for the District 3 seat on the Seattle City Council.
“When I say that’s the vision for the City of Seattle that my leadership has produced and will continue to produce, I’m not saying that because it’s an urbanist fantasy,” Hudson says of her home turf and its almost one of a kind in Seattle mix of housing types from old mansions to affordable skyscrapers. “I’m saying that because I live in that neighborhood, and I see it, and I’ve helped to build it.”
The leader of the transit policy and advocacy organization and former head of the First Hill Improvement Association says she believes her progressive record of accomplishments in diverse policy areas and ability to build coalitions and find common ground across divides is what the district needs to rebuild hope after years of political battles under Kshama Sawant and in a city facing significant challenges in housing affordability, homelessness, public safety, and the health and vitality of small business districts.
“It is not naive to believe that Seattle’s best days are still in front of us and that there are solutions to these problems that are at our fingers,” Hudson says. “All of this stuff, it feels really hard. It feels really intractable. We can have it and we will have it if we come together, roll up our sleeves, listen to each other, and have a real solution space… we can fix these things and we’re going to.” Continue reading →
With the race for District 3 now wide open and sure to draw an expanded field of candidates after the decision from incumbent Kshama Sawant to step aside at the end of her term, some candidates will defy easy categorization. Andrew Ashiofu hopes his unique viewpoints as a Black, HIV+ political and social activist with an immigrant perspective will set him apart in the race for D3.
He also knows where the shoe pinches.
“There’s an African adage, the person that wears the shoe knows where it pinches the most,” Ashiofu says.
“I’m going to come from a renter’s perspective. Yes. And I know how difficult it is to sustain rent, the increase in rent and all. So I would want laws to protect renters. And when we talk about single family units, we want to know what is it that is worrying them. So the first step is let’s listen to what’s their worry.”
Growing up in Texas to Nigerian parents and with a life path that included a time living homeless in Chicago before a career as a flight attendant, Ashiofu today is a Capitol Hill resident living his beliefs and working in his communities. He is chair of the Washington State Stonewall Democrats, co-chair of the Seattle LGBTQ Commission, and a board member for People Of Color Against AIDS Network and Gay City.
He sees his campaign as a mission to bring his perspectives to all of the district, challenging voters to find solutions to help those who need it the most. And to do it all with a bit of flowers and bees — not honey. Continue reading →
Sawant spoke Thursday in front of 21st Ave’s New Hope Baptist Church, a frequent site for Socialist Alternative media events (Image: CHS)
Socialist Alternative is promoting Thursday’s announcement as the launch of a new initiative — “Kshama Sawant announces Workers Strike Back”
Kshama Sawant, the District 3 representative for Capitol Hill and the Central District on the Seattle City Council, will hold a Thursday morning press conference as her constituents wait to find out if she will seek reelection to a fourth term in office.
“Seattle City Councilmember and member of Socialist Alternative Kshama Sawant will stand alongside fellow community organizers, rank-and-file union members, and socialists to make an important announcement regarding her Council office,” the media advisory sent Thursday morning by her Socialist Alternative political group reads.
UPDATE 10:00 AM: In an op-ed published on The Stranger website, Sawant announced she will not be running for the seat and instead will focus on a new national campaign for higher wages and to form a new political party.
“There is a vacuum of real left leadership, locally and nationally,” Sawant writes. “We need a new party for the working class—one that holds elected officials accountable, that bases itself on social movements, that organizes alongside workers on the streets and in workplaces.”
In her statement, Sawant warned “the corporate establishment in Seattle” not to “rush to mix their martinis just yet, because we are not done here.”
“My Council office will continue fighting relentlessly for working people right up until the final days of my term,” Sawant promised. “We will be bringing rent control for a vote, and alongside our new organization, Workers Strike Back, we will be building our movement for renters’ and workers’ rights. And when this term is over, we will continue to be disturbers of the political peace in Seattle, as well as nationally, whether inside or outside City Hall.”
UPDATE 12:00 PM: In a media event dominated by the effort to launch a Socialist Alternative campaign to create a new national political party in which Sawant attacked the failings of the “Democratic establishment” including progressives leaders like Pramila Jayapal and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic Socialists of America, and even powerful trade labor unions, Sawant said the decision to not seek a fourth term on the Seattle council was based in focusing the strength of her political group on a new national party initiative.
There will not be a Socialist Alternative heir apparent to replace her in District 3.
“Just the vocabulary of heir apparent and picking up an individual’s mantle — that is completely contradictory to actually how working people win victory,” Sawant said.
“If we join resources behind one campaign, it takes away resources from another,” she continued. “So we think the best possible use of Socialist Alternative resources and the powerful solidarity that we bring for working class people is best used at this moment by launching this national campaign.”
Sawant said Thursday the new national effort will include an online news and information component to fill in a “vacuum” in the country and the world’s media landscape.
The 2023 battle for the District 3 seat is shaping up like your typical race for the Seattle City Council.
There is the business candidate — though backers of pot entrepreneur and third generation Central District resident Joy Hollingsworth will assure you she brings much more to the table.
There is the firebrand socialist incumbent who may or may not defend her seat.
And there is the Democracy Voucher candidate bringing enthusiasm and youth — if not experience — to the race.
“While I’m new to Seattle governance, I don’t think that my inexperience is a flaw that I’m concerned about,” Ry Armstrong tells CHS. “I’m trying to start as early as possible and also come from a place of empathy and listening to the community instead of coming in and saying what I want to do.” Continue reading →
The Seattle Redistricting Commission has settled on new borders for the city’s council districts that will shave off only small areas of District 3 representing Capitol Hill and the Central District to help balance disproportionate population growth in the city’s core.
The vote for the new Seattle City Council borders came Monday as the commissioners are nearing finalization of the new districts, backing off a last-minute adjustment that would have also carved off a portion of the University of Washington area to join D3 represented by Kshama Sawant.
A final vote on the plan is expected November 8th. The commission continues to take feedback here.
The hoped-for final border changes for District 3 include carving off a small area of the Central District south of I-90 into South Seattle’s District 2 and shifting the highrise-zoned swath of First Hill along I-5 into downtown’s District 7. D3, meanwhile, will gain areas of Eastlake that had been in District 4. You can explore the final map here.
The agreement culminates months of proposals and negotiations as the commission attempted to meet legal requirements while rebalancing populations in the districts across the city. When initially adopted for the 2015 election, each district was drawn to include roughly 88,000 people. Seattle growth has not been distributed proportionately. District 3, including Capitol Hill, the Central District, and First Hill, had grown proportionately larger reaching around 107,000 residents and needed its borders to shrink. Each district will now represent a few more than 106,000 people. Continue reading →
Sen. Murray with Rep. Macr Thursday inside Elliott Bay (Image: CHS)
Somehow, three-decade Democratic leader Patty Murray has ended up in a race against a MAGA-friendly political upstart for her seat in the Senate. Somehow, that seat could be part of a precarious tip toward Republican control. And, somehow, the Murray campaign is including trips to our Capitol Hill in a last push to shore up her base and help inspire stronger turnout in one of the surprise battles in this midterm election.
“Why is this race closer than it ever should have been?” Murray said Thursday as she expressed her frustration and surprise at the circumstances in a campaign stop with LGBTQ community members at Capitol HIll’s Elliott Bay Book Company.
“If we get people to vote, I will not lose this election,” Murray said.
The Seattle Redistricting Commission has kicked another local politics hornets nest with a last-minute proposal from a commissioner that would gerrymander the University of Washington campus — but not Greek Row and most of the school’s off-campus housing — into District 3 representing neighborhoods to the south including Montlake, the Central District, and Capitol Hill.
The proposed redistricting would see the UW campus join District 3 while the surrounding U-District neighborhood, including Greek Row and other off-campus student housing accommodations, in District 4.
The split would likely diminish the collective voting power of students by scattering UW votes across the two districts. D3, meanwhile, would see its young voter stock even further boosted.
“The University of Washington and University District are a cohesive community,” student Sean Haney said in a press release sent by Redistricting Justice Seattle. “We’re a connected renter, majority-BIPOC, student-heavy community that faces many unique challenges, and splitting us hurts our voice.”
The proposed amendments come only days before the SRC holds its final vote on the map amendments. Continue reading →
Her Republican opponent Tiffany Smiley couldn’t find coffee on Capitol Hill. Patty Murray had no such difficulties Wednesday in her visit to Seattle’s most caffeinated neighborhood.
Murray stopped through Summit Ave E’s Analog Coffee for an afternoon pick me up with King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay and State Senator Joe Nguyen. Continue reading →
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On the Capitol Hill, Seattle curve of E Olive Way where Democratic incumbent Patty Murray claimed 90% of the vote in August’s primary, her MAGA-friendly Republican challenger is hoping to make a stand over a shuttered coffee shop.
“These doors are closed because it’s too dangerous to ask employees to work here
anymore,” Senate challenger Tiffany Smiley says in the ad while standing — thanks to apparent computer wizardry — in front of the E Olive Way Starbucks that was controversially closed by the company this summer citing crime concerns in the area.
“Think about that. For decades, Patty Murray has spearheaded reckless policies that lead to shortages, inflation and so much crime that you can’t even get a cup of coffee from the hometown shop on Capitol Hill — even if you could still afford it,” Smiley concludes.
CHS has reached out to the Smiley campaign to ask more about the candidate’s “visit” to the neighborhood. Continue reading →
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.
There are four proposals for reshaping the borders of Seattle’s seven city council districts — including District 3 covering Capitol Hill, the Central District, and neighboring communities.
The changes based on demographic shifts and population growth may also have important political implications in determining what kinds of candidates can make it through the primary, and who ultimately gets elected.
The next step in the process includes a series of community forums across the city including one planned for June focused on District 3: Continue reading →
