(Image: Recall Sawant)
The Recall Sawant campaign said Wednesday it has submitted 16,243 petitions to put the vote on the ballot.
CHS reported here on the campaign’s decisions around the signatures and the missed deadline to qualify for November squaring up a likely winter special election in District 3 covering Capitol Hill, the Central District, and neighboring areas to decide whether Kshama Sawant should remain on the Seattle City Council.
Organizers have outlined multiple acts they say warrant recall including using city resources to promote a Tax Amazon initiative, allowing demonstrators inside City Hall during a protest last June, and marching to Mayor Jenny Durkan’s home address kept secret due to her past role as a federal prosecutor. A fourth charge of allowing Socialist Alternative to influence her office’s employment decisions was rejected by the state Supreme Court.
Work by King County Elections will now begin to verify the signatures. Organizers need nearly 11,000 verified signatures from District 3 residents to qualify for the recall vote. Only D3 voters will participate in the yes/no recall decision. 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.
The Kshama Solidarity group has said the delay for a winter election will suppress turnout, going so far as to help collect signatures in a failed effort to force a November vote.
“We are now one step closer to holding Councilmember Sawant accountable,” Recall Sawant campaign manager Henry Bridger said in a statement. “After seeing her ignore the laws that hold our elected officials accountable, District 3 voters are sending a clear message: It’s time to recall Sawant.”
The Kshama Solidarity group, meanwhile, called Wednesday’s submission of signatures after the deadline for November’s ballot has passed a case of “blatant, right-wing voter suppression, backed by the same people who are funding voter suppression across the country.”
The campaign said it is planning a “Megacanvass” Saturday in Cal Anderson to begin organizing what its leaders have said will be a get out of the vote effort “the likes that Seattle has never seen before.” Sawant backers says she is also increasing her efforts to establish rent control in the city and “take back from the landlords what they’ve taken.”
Though contributions have slowed, both sides are well financed with around $1.3 million raised across the two campaigns. The Kshama Solidarity group has continued to pull ahead recently, adding nearly $60,000 since August. That 10% bump far outpaces the recall campaign. Recall Sawant added only around $10,000 — about 1.6% — in the same period.
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I knew it. Sure as rain, the deadline for November passes and lo and behold, the recall campaign suddenly discovers that contrary to its pessimistic outlook of two days ago, it has enough signatures to qualify after all. Mirabile dictu! Yes, they’re playing by the rules they were given, and I agree that calling it “voter suppression” is a bit of a stretch, but it’s still a cynical move.
And it looks like Sawant may well have shot herself in the foot by helping her opponents collect the signatures. As a (somewhat reluctant) recall opponent I’m glad I refused their persistent entreaties to sign. Even if it ultimately didn’t matter in this case, it was and is not a smart tactic.
I bet these Sawant articles pay all the bills around here lol angry neighbors leave your comments below.
I can’t wait to see her gone.
If the recall succeeds, the Council’s choice to replace her could easily be worse.
Yep. Likely Oliver when they lose to Nelson.
I don’t think Oliver lives in City Council District 3.
If the Council honors the intent of the *full* electorate (the ones that show up for regularly scheduled elections, as opposed to deliberate off-cycle elections) then they will indeed choose a strong progressive to fill Kshama’s seat. While it would be nice to have a “less strident” progressive in that seat, I expect anyone appointed there to pretty much vote the way Kshama votes.
In the meantime, voters should reject this deliberate and transparent effort to diminish turn-out.
LESS STRIDENT progressive: says a 1%er probably. So in other words you want a corporatist like Durkan. Nope. We don’t need more business as usual people representing us. Yes, it’s Seattle, we all like to hang up the rainbow flags, but when it comes to actually doing anything to solve homelessness, or why middle class people can’t afford a home: suddenly everyone is quiet. I have a good job, I can BARELY afford a house here. The Durkan types are cool with zoning the city as mostly single family keeping the housing crisis going. I don’t know if I am in favor of Sawant or against, however, one thing I DON’T want is less strident progressives.
A tinge of sexism stains the recall effort. Here you are, a white cisgender man and you are upset that a woman & poc is on city council and should be recalled.
“The Kshama Solidarity group, meanwhile, called Wednesday’s submission of signatures after the deadline for November’s ballot has passed a case of “blatant, right-wing voter suppression, backed by the same people who are funding voter suppression across the country.”
Hmmm. I guess it’s just not in the realm of possibility that instead of a right-wing voter suppression group, that this is simply about 16,000 people from her district who don’t feel she represents their interests while doing bad, irresponsible things.
I’m with you on the skepticism for the right wing attack, but 20k people voted for someone else in 2019, so I don’t buy that this is some bold new face of resistance against Sawant.
It’s clear they’re hoping for lower turnout by avoiding the general election in November for just that reason.
I don’t think anyone is questioning the validity of the 16K signatures from CD3. There was probably no more than 3 or 4 well compensated heads of the Recall that made the decision to deliberately miss the November general election ballot. That is what the Kshama Solidarity group is comparing to the tactics used all over the country to “choose the electorate” by Republicans. If you don’t control the majority, choose a smaller pool of voters.
I voted for Sawant I’m sorry to say and I’d like to vote her out, in part because of her participating in the outing of the Mayor’s address and her letting people congregate inside city hall during the pandemic. etc. etc. but these folks spending MY TAX money to shift the timing of their vote to a standalone, expensive election is WORSE. I was looking forward to voting her out and now I’m going to look the other way. So many things we could be spending city money on besides this.
Take note: the recall Sawant people are 100% white, shock. The same people who are angry about taxes on Amazon.