Monday brings a neighborhood team effort as the Seattle political season heads into the stretch run toward November with a candidates forum from the Capitol Hill Community Council and the Eastlake Community Council… in Montlake.
It will be a collaborative effort as the candidates for Seattle City Council Position 9, Seattle City Attorney, and the Seattle School Board races are slated to take part in the event.
The councils are promising “a chance to hear directly from the people seeking to represent us.”
Community Candidate Forum
Monday, September 29, 2025, from 6:30–8 p.m.
Montlake Community Center Multipurpose Room — 1618 E Calhoun
The organizers say they hope the night “will go deeper than soundbites and give voters a real sense of how candidates plan to serve Seattle’s neighborhoods.”
The Position 9 race will be one focus of the night. CHS reported here on the latest updates on the city’s “Stay Out of Drug Area” effort led by incumbent City Attorney Ann Davison.
Davison and her fellow incumbents including Mayor Bruce Harrell and City Council Position 9 representative Sara Nelson are playing catch-up after terrible showings in the August primary.
City Attorney challenger Erika Evans rode a wave of anti-Trump defiance to a top finish in the primary race. Evans, a former federal prosecutor, has emphasized her record as a civil rights prosecutor with a dedication to public service and personal experience with poverty in her campaign.
Meanwhile, many will also be there Monday night to hear from the candidates for the Position 9 seat, one of citywide representatives on the council.
A key Harrell ally at City Hall, the incumbent Nelson is in a similar position as the mayor headed into November. CHS reported here on the maps of primary voting patterns from August that showed the strength of support for progressive challengers and inroads those challengers were able to forge into wealthier. areas that are typically strongholds for centrist and pro-business candidates.
The City Council president Nelson had an even weaker showing than Harrell on Election Night and has garnered only 35% of the city’s vote in her race against nonprofit executive and former community organizer and policy advisor Dionne Foster.
Notably, Monday night’s forum will not include the candidates for Position 8 — the one race where Seattle’s 2025 political framework of centrist incumbents struggling against progressive upstarts isn’t playing out.
Incumbent Alexis Mercedes Rinck has ridden her bonafides as the the most progressive member of the current council to a solid primary showing and the presumptive lead headed into the November 4th election. Republican and Capitol Hill business owner Rachael Savage has made for a surprisingly spirited challenger powered by provocative political positions.
We’re checking with organizers to find out if what logistics led to Position 8 being left off the bill.
The run-up to November, meanwhile, will bring many more candidate events, forums, and debates including opportunities to hear from Harrell and his upstarst progressive challenger Katie Wilson in the race to lead the city including a joint Capitol Hill Community Council/First Hill Improvement Association Mayoral Debate on October 21st.
You can find all CHS Election 2025 coverage here.
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bye bye Nelson and Davison. Trumpers in disguise
It’s no mystery why Rinck won’t be there. She’s crushing the polls and she and her political advisors know she doesn’t need to do stuff like this. It’s lame, but it’s political reality.
Rachael Savage is so unserious and is mentally ill so makes sense. Why bother?