Tag Archives: 43rd district

With August 5th primary election looming, 43rd Dems go ‘hybrid’ for July meeting

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The 43rd District Democrats will mark a first this month that should make it easier to take part in its sessions connecting area Democratic leaders and political candidates to the neighborhoods they serve. The group’s July meeting will be its first ever hybrid event allowing both in-person and virtual participation:

Join us on July 15th from 7-9pm for our HYBRID July General meeting! That’s right, you can join us in person at the Erickson Theater (1524 Harvard Ave) or join us on Zoom. Hear from State Attorney General Nick Brown, get the latest on the upcoming primary with Erica Barnett, Sandeep Kaushik and David Hyde as they record an episode of the Seattle Nice Podcast, ask questions and connect with your 43rd electeds, and meet many of our endorsed candidates and hear about ways to get involved in their campaigns.

The visit to the neighborhood with a meeting at Harvard Ave’s Erickson Theater will also include a chance to sit in — or tune in — on a live recording of the Seattle Nice podcast from Erica Barnett, Sandeep Kaushik and David Hyde.

You can learn more and register for Tuesday night’s meeting here.

CHS reported earlier on the group’s endorsements for the upcoming August primary. Ballots will be arriving soon for the August 5th vote.

 

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Scott and Rinck holding ‘Crisis Care Center Townhall’ on Capitol Hill

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The proposed Broadway site

There have been few public updates on the King County Department of Community and Human Services plan to open a mental health Crisis Care Center at Broadway and Union but two Seattle political leaders are collaborating on an event next week on Capitol Hill to raise support for the project.

“7/7 @ 7PM is our chance to lift every voice in support of a behavioral health crisis center that will help the Capitol Hill community and its people,” reads the social media post from Rep. Shaun Scott. “Come ready to have a good time at Vermillion with community leaders who support an inclusive Seattle.”

The Crisis Care Center Townhall will take place Monday night at the 11th Ave art bar and will include Seattle City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck, according to the flyer.

We have inquiries out to Scott and Rinck to learn more. King County DCHS is also listed as part of the event as is comedian Brett Hamil.

“Drinks + Comedy + Civics,” the pitch reads. Continue reading →

43rd District Democrats endorse upstarts and progressives in Seattle’s 2025 election races

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With reporting by Hannah Saunders

Seattle’s political 2025 season is shaped as a battle of incumbents vs. upstart challengers with divides along the center-leaning leaders who currently hold the offices — and want to stay — and candidates who say they will bring a more progressive vision to City Hall.

This week’s 43rd District Democrats endorsement meeting for the upcoming August primary was a showcase for these challenging progressives.

“We must do better to protect Seattle communities from attacks against the Trump administration,” mayoral candidate Katie Wilson told the endorsement meeting crowd Tuesday night, criticizing incumbent Mayor Bruce Harrell’s middle-of-the-road approach to housing, social services, and civil rights.

The progressive organizer who has worked with organizations like the Transit Riders Union, and helped lead minimum wage and renter rights campaigns around the region secured the 43rd’s endorsement with a strong 89 votes (82.4%) out of 108 ballots cast, triumphing over incumbent Harrell and candidates Ry Armstrong, Joe Molloy, and Joe Mallahan with her commitment to “Trump-proofing” Seattle with a multifaceted approach including addressing homelessness, affordable housing, and transportation. Continue reading →

Mapping Scott and Rinck wins across Capitol Hill, the Central District, and the ‘blue city’ of Seattle

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Maps of the neighborhood by neighborhood totals show recent political fault lines across Capitol Hill, the Central District, and Seattle held firm in the November election even as city leaders stoked rising priorities around law and order solutions to the city’s drug crisis and street disorder.

Meanwhile, anybody looking for clues about the changing political nature of “blue cities” will likely be confounded by our local results.

In the battle for Tanya Woo’s appointed citywide seat on the Seattle City Council, progressive challenger Alexis Mercedes Rinck dominated the core of the city with some of her strongest precinct showings in Capitol Hill’s renter-dominated center and on her home turf in the Central District with results approaching 75 to 80% of the vote. Continue reading →

The Seattle Police Department does not endorse Andrea Suarez

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An image from a since deleted Suarez social media post

And it doesn’t endorse her opponent, either.

While the race for the open seat to represent Capitol Hill and the 43rd District in Olympia mirrors the national battle of extreme polarization over social issues and public safety, the final days of the race have taken on parochial dimensions that even have the Seattle Police Department saying enough already.

Heading into the weekend in a now deleted social media post, candidate Andrea Suarez complained about stickers on street signs in Wallingford and accused opponent Shaun Scott of wanting to “abolish the police” in a message tagging the Seattle Police Department and the Seattle Police Officers Guild union and thanking them for their endorsement.

SPD was not amused. Continue reading →

Scott vs. Suarez — The race for the 43rd moves through the Capitol Hill Farmers Market

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Scott with campaign workers at Sunday’s farmers market

Suarez and her recovered signs

This election season’s battle for the open seat to represent the 43rd District in the Washington House of Representatives has many of the markings of modern political warfare — extreme polarization over social issues and public safety, slick attack ads with the fingerprints of political think tanks all over them, and back and forth accusations tying the opposition to larger, overarching threats to the country and Democracy as we know it.

But as the campaign draws closer to November 5th’s Election Day, the fight was playing out over the weekend with simpler battles over stolen campaign signs and the neighborhood farmers market.

Sunday, Shaun Scott and opponent Andrea Suarez told CHS that both campaigns were confident that they’d come out on top.

Scott has regularly canvassed at the Capitol Hill Farmers Market since the start of his campaign, which has amounted to about 24 visits, he said. Attending the market has allowed the candidate to talk with many voters who are more challenging to reach through traditional campaigning methods like door-knocking. When speaking with neighborhood residents, the primary concern Scott says he hears is the need to pass the rent stabilization bill, House Bill 2114, which will be re-introduced next session and would, in part, limit rent and fee increases.

CHS Election 2024

“Renters are one of the most disenfranchised groups that we have in our state, because we have a state legislature that is dominated by property holders, homeowners, landlords, and as a result, the interests of renters and working people are not reflected in our state government and it’s decisions,” Scott told CHS.

While acknowledging the skyrocketing of rental prices, Suarez holds different views on the efficacy of rental caps. Continue reading →

As rising rents erode queer communities across Capitol Hill and the Central District, leaders pin hope on state rent stabilization legislation

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Rep. Nicole Macri at the September affordable housing forum (Image: CHS)

Nobody in Washington rents like the queer communities living across Capitol Hill and the Central District rent. Political and community leaders say there could be new opportunities in Olympia to address the climbing rents in the city’s core causing continued displacement among the city’s LGBTQIA+ population.

Advocates and legislators met in September with the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance to discuss rent stabilization and support, where House Bill 2114— which passed in the House and died in the Senate this past year — took up much of the conversation and was the’ go-to answer when responding to community questions about how they will improve the lives of renters.

A National Low Income Housing Coalition report this summer found that workers in the Seattle and Bellevue areas would need to earn $50.87 per hour to afford a two-bedroom unit.

A recent University of Washington graduate spoke about their experiences with renting in Seattle.

“The lack of stable rents really makes me feel as if Seattle doesn’t want to support young people, especially those who are all about improving their communities and not just making a big salary,” the renter said.

“It’s likely I won’t be able to stay in Capitol Hill at a certain point due to a future rent increase.”

The challenges for renters in Seattle hit the city’s LGBTQIA+ communities especially hard. Continue reading →

The race for the 43rd pits Scott’s progressive bonafides vs. Suarez’s ‘We Heart Seattle’ approach

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An August primary can be a quiet affair but the loudest political battle on Capitol Hill ballots this summer appears to be in the race for the open 43rd District seat in the Washington House of Representatives.

Still, not many have heard the voices of the candidates in the race and the loudest statement so far might be the flood of Andrea Suarez yard signs that suddenly are lining certain Capitol Hill and Central District arteries.

Suarez’s challenger Shaun Scott doesn’t have a yard sign army but he does have the highest profile endorsements in the race and the support of Frank Chopp, the Washington political legend and housing champion whose retirement opened the seat.

“While we’re talking about wide support, we’re happy to be endorsed in this race by almost every labor organization that’s endorsed in this race,” Scott says. “We’re proud to be endorsed in this race by every sitting Washington state lawmaker who is going to be in Olympia in 2025 after this election.”

“It’s easy to put a yard sign… even if they didn’t consent to it being put up in the area around where they live. It’s much harder to build a winning coalition.” Continue reading →

What do Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Shaun Scott, and Bob Ferguson have in common? Endorsements from the 43rd District Democrats

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A few of them Dems (Image: 43rd District Democrats)

The path to November’s ballot including a decision on Biden vs. Trump and a vote on the city’s $1.55 billion and counting transportation levy runs through this summer’s primary election.

This week, that path ran through the 43rd District Democrats as the political group dedicated to promoting the Democratic party and working to increase participation through education held its endorsement meeting and gave the nod to a handful of candidates including a choice in the key citywide race for Position 8 on the Seattle City Council.

While the candidates anointed by the group Tuesday night will need to win much wider support in their citywide, countywide, and statewide races, the 43rd Dems organization representing Seattle neighborhoods including Capitol Hill, Madison Park, Eastlake, Belltown, and voters in the downtown core hasn’t been the worst measuring stick for the political mood of the wider city and densely populated region.

Here is a look at the candidates who won the 43rd Dems’ backing headed into the August Primary.

Alexis Mercedes Rinck

Seattle City Council Position 8
Alexis Mercedes Rinck is a Queer Latina who hopes to fully fund city services and get corporations to pay their fair share in taxes. She said she came before the 43rd Dems “as a living testament” to investments in early childhood support and education, and that she understands the importance of investing in youth and city services as someone whose family used these services.

Tanya Woo, appointed to fill the position on an interim basis earlier this year, cited her involvement with the Chinatown International District’s community. She highlighted how she’s built affordable housing through the Louisa Hotel, and that the hotel charges a percentage of residents’ income so that they can afford to pay rent.

“I’m working on legislation on how we can do that for the entire city,” Woo said. Continue reading →

Nobody getting primaried here — Democratic leaders in Capitol Hill’s state legislative district running unopposed

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None the big “D” Democrats in the state’s 43rd Legislative District representing Capitol Hill and the nearby in Olympia will be primaried. And none will face a challenge from the right.

The final count of candidates registering for this summer’s August primary shows the state leaders hailing from the 43rd — Sen. Jamie Pedersen, Rep. Nicole Macri, and senior member Rep. Frank Chopp — are each running unopposed.

The area might be the power center for a nationally recognized socialist city council member but, this time around, there will not be a challenge from the left to push back on the Democratic stronghold. Continue reading →