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Why the Seattle Peoples Party held a King County Prosecutor candidates forum without any King County Prosecutor candidates

The Seattle Peoples Party said thousands tuned in for the live stream of the event Sunday night but it was a small crowd that came to see if the incumbent King County Prosecutor would show up for the group’s election forum.

Back when it was first planned, a forum on the Peoples Party home turf pitting challenger Daron Morris vs. Dan Satterberg would have made for a major challenge for the incumbent. But the reform-focused public defender Morris bowed out of the race in September citing medical reasons leaving Satterberg unopposed.

Sunday’s anticipated clash was not to be. Campaign spokesperson Kenneth Fockele told organizers and CHS that Satterberg would not be attending the Sunday night event at Langston Hughes:

On behalf of the campaign, we appreciate the work that goes into planning an election debate, and the need to communicate with communities throughout King County. But these types of events are built around an interchange between candidates, and Mr. Morris’ withdrawal from active campaigning changed the landscape considerably. As soon as that happened, we informed the People’s Party that we will not be participating in any further debates. This allows more time for Dan to continue leading the Prosecutor’s office directly on matters of cases and policy.

The group Sunday night moved ahead with a discussion of the county’s approach to prosecution and a new SPP platform of 13 points the party wants to see implemented to better protect “communities most impacted by racial and economic disproportionality in the criminal legal system.”

Activists are also continuing to call on the county to consider “a period of redesign” for the under construction new county youth jail facility on 12th Ave.

A political contest for King County Prosecutor would have “held some promise for the first time in a long time of people running for that office actually having to debate the ideas and policies,” activist Nikkita Oliver, who led the discussion, said Sunday. Oliver said issues like racial disproportionality, police brutality. and the decriminalization of sex work need to be addressed.

“We decided that these are still really important discussions for us to have,” Oliver said.

The Seattle Peoples Party formed in 2017 as Oliver mounted a challenge to incumbent Ed Murray for the Seattle mayor’s office.

The full discussion from Sunday night is below.

 

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Zach
Zach
5 years ago

TIL the reactionary nimby people’s party movement is still trying to be relevant.

RWK
RWK
5 years ago

They are tilting at windmills. Laughable.

jason
jason
5 years ago

“better protect ‘communities most impacted by racial and economic disproportionality in the criminal legal system.’”

That’s a great way to frame things. The passive voice. Maybe men’s groups will take note and point out men are most impacted disproportionality in the criminal legal system. Curious why men are more likely to be arrested, imprisoned, murdered, assaulted, expelled from school then females but somehow this doesn’t translate into them being bigger victims than females.