(Image: @try_thinking0 via Twitter)
December will bring new developments in Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant’s appeal of the recall case against her to the State Supreme Court.
Sawant’s legal team launched the appeal in October following a King County Superior Court judge’s decision that allowed the recall effort against the District 3 representative and longest serving member of the council to move forward.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to take up and decide on the appeal January 7th in a session in which legal briefs from Sawant’s team and lawyers for the Recall Sawant campaign will be considered but there will be no oral arguments.
In the first Appellants Brief (PDF) filed last week, Sawant’s lawyers from Barnard Iglitzin & Lavitt LLP — “the Pacific Northwest’s largest union-side labor and employment law firm” — repeat their arguments as to why the superior court erred in determining that the charges brought against Sawant were “legally and factually sufficient to support a recall.”
The brief also contends that the judge approved a ballot synopsis that “inaccurately conveys to voters that Sawant has been deemed to have committed the acts alleged.”
In September, the King County Superior Court certified a recall petition against the socialist councilmember on four allegations involving her participation in a brief June occupation protest inside City Hall, a rally and march to Mayor Durkan’s home at the end of that same month, the delegation of hiring decisions to Sawant’s political group Socialist Alternative, and the use of city resources to promote the Tax Amazon ballot initiative.
In addition to the appeal, Sawant’s camp has been busy with fundraising for her defense as both sides in the battle are making appeals for donations. Through this week, the Sawant Solidarity fund has reported just under $100,000 in contributions. The Recall Sawant campaigns reports more than $180,000.
Seattle City Council Insight reports that with the January timing for the Supreme Court decision, if the appeal is denied, it is unlikely the recall campaign will be able to gather enough signatures to get the issue on the ballot in time for an April election pushing any vote on the matter to the fall of 2021.
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Ridiculous!!!!!!
She’s our rep and we voted her in! WTF. Vote her out. You’ve had chance after chance. Democracy not sacred anymore???
Did you have the same opinion when it was Durkan? Also, they are gathering signatures to force a vote, that sounds exactly like democracy to me.
Durkan was deploying tear gas on her constituents. Not the same thing at all.
On her rioting constituents. And Sawant was just violating ethics codes left and right. Guess that’s OK?
Wait until next election cycle then.
Wait until the next election cycle then!
Recalls are a formal and legitimate part of our electoral process. If you would prefer her to stay, you have it within your power to cast a vote to that effect, but you’ve got no right to demand that others not exercise their right to ask for said vote.
Telling someone in the SA they don’t have the right the tell others what to do is futile.
People vote her in, money shoves her out. Democracy. You’re ignoring the forces at work and how they pervert the system and distort the information stream..
haha – like the TAX PAYER money she’s spending on defending herself for breaking the law AGAIN? Or like the thousand dollar checks she’s begging for in her mailers to out of state marxists organizations…It’s time to get her the hell out of office before she costs us even more. District 3 deserves a lot better and were going to get it…
Nailed it!
Yea, Jan!!!!! I hope so. I didn’t vote for her .
Have you seen the money story, friend? A surfeit of her support comes from her district and a vast majority of the support to recall her comes from right here at home. Money does talk – you and I agree on that. What money says is: “We don’t like you here at home.”
UGH! Not “surfeit” – right word is “minority” – apologies
Speaking of democracy…it’s not exactly democratic to hand over the keys to an elected council office to some unelected group of unnamed people to control the major decisions of the D3 council office. And those people she handed the keys to do all of her fundraising and volunteer campaign work. She’s not acting independently and that is a major violation of Seattle ethics law.
Well said, CD Neighbor!
she’s not anyones rep but her own…and maybe a few of you lame marxists who will have to be going back to work soon anyhow once the vaccine is available. Sawant abandoned Capitol Hill, supported violent threats against the Mayor and used her office to promote a private campaign. Now, because her supporters here are poor, she is seeking MAJOR donating from out of state and getting them. She’s afraid and for good reason – her time is nigh.
Sawant has been horrible for the district and Seattle at large. Everyone I know is sick of her and ready to donate, volunteer and vote her the hell out of office. Except for the few violent and unemployed marxists that march around here nightly destroying property – Sawant has no more support. Now she is specifically calling for out of state financial backing while STILL ignoring her own supporters here – disgusting even by her standards. Tick Tock Sawant – times running out so get you and your husbands resume ready.
Not only is Sawant outrageously using taxpayer money to pay her expensive lawyers, but she is raising more money, with a significant amount coming from out-of-state.
From the Recall Sawant campaign:
“In the past six weeks, out-of-state money from 41 different states has been flowing into Sawant’s campaign to fight the recall. More than 37% of Sawant’s money comes from out-of-state, while over 82% of our contributions are from Seattle residents.”