Recall $awant: a blitz of TV ads, mailers, posters, and ‘get out the vote’ workers

(Images: Kshama Solidarity — top / Ella Li — bottom)

The PAC set up to help recall Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant has been released from campaign contribution limits and is using the cash on strategies including a $10,000 TV ad getting heavy play during NFL and sports broadcasts in the city thanks to a $100,000 Comcast advertising buy.

CHS reported here on the formation of the A Better Seattle political action committee and early contributors led by the state PAC of the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, the Washington Multi-Family Housing Association, and Matt Griffin, principal at the Pine Street Group, the developer behind the $2 billion downtown convention center expansion.

Last week, the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission granted the PAC’s request to be released from campaign contribution limits after a court ruling that the release would not impede voter participation in the December 7th election that will determine only if Sawant is recalled and not determine her possible replacement.

If the majority of D3 voters choose yes on the recall, the council will 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 chair of the group is Chris McLain of Ironworkers Local 86. Treasurer Philip Lloyd has been a busy player in Seattle’s nexus of dollars and politics — he also filled the same position on the campaign behind the court-snuffed Compassion Seattle initiative and the PAC that powered Ann Davison to a surprise victory in the City Attorney race. The phone number for the PAC belongs to the Downtown Seattle Association.

According to the most recent filings with the city, the PAC has already raised $160,000, closing the gap between the Recall Sawant campaign and the Kshama Solidarity campaign formed to fight the recall. Together, some $1.9 million has been raised by the organizations from around 16,000 contributors. Unlike the December 7th recall vote which is limited to only Sawant’s D3 constituents, anybody can donate.

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 in June 2020, 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.

Ballots in the recall were mailed beginning November 17th. Your vote must be postmarked or dropped in a county drop box by 8 PM on Tuesday, December 7th. Learn more and check on your ballot at info.kingcounty.gov.

While the A Better Seattle cash has been channeled into expensive television ads that play across the entire city and region, Recall Sawant has focused the bulk of its expenditures on direct mail campaigns to District 3 residents. Kshama Solidarity, meanwhile, has also spent on mailers and posters — the latest touting endorsements against the recall from Bernie Sanders and Noam Chomsky — but also a diverse set of in-the-field, get-out-the-vote costs like coffee for volunteers and wireless printers for tabling efforts where the campaign has offered to print ballots for voters who may have misplaced theirs. The group has also paid out thousands to campaign workers.

Both “yes” and “no” proponents, meanwhile, continue to criticize the composition of their opponent’s contributor pools. According to the city’s campaign contribution data, some of the criticism rings true. Yes, 40% of Kshama Solidarity contributors live outside the city compared to 19% for Recall Sawant. But the Solidarity campaign points out that with more than 9,400 total contributors, they have around 5,600 contributors in the city. Recall Sawant reports around 3,900. So, Kshama Solidarity does, indeed, have more out of Seattle contributors — but it also has more in-city.

But what about where it really matters in District 3? Kshama Solidarity weighs in with around 3,600 contributors — 35% of its total. Recall Sawant? 33% — or about 1,675 people.

Contributions to A Better Seattle, meanwhile, have not yet been categorized by district by the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission.

Meanwhile, a new PAC has joined the D3 recall roster as of this week but there have been no filings, as of yet, for Citizens for Safe Neighborhoods.

How is all this cash and campaign spending playing out? CHS reported here on strong early turnout with one week of voting to go.