Lame duck Seattle City Council president Sara Nelson is introducing new legislation as she heads for the door that takes a swipe at the city’s professional political consultants — and possibly reveals some of the fractures between Nelson and Mayor Bruce Harrell as they both prepare to exit City Hall.
Nelson’s proposed ethics bill is set to be debated Thursday afternoon in a special meeting of the council’s Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee. Continue reading
(Image: Wilson for Seattle)
Mayor-elect Katie Wilson has announced a 60-member transition team with a handful of Capitol Hill and Central District connections as she spends December preparing to take office in the new year.
Wilson says the team will focus on “housing, business, labor, arts, community safety, civil rights, transportation and other fields.”
For the city’s residents, business owners, and workers, the roster is an invitation to fire off an email, dig through your contacts to send a thoughtful text message, or make a phone call to speak up for what priorities you want to see the new Wilson administration pursuing first and hardest.
“Over the next several weeks, members of the transition team will identify and reach out to dozens of additional community advisors to gather the broadest possible range of input, identify priorities, and help equip Mayor-elect Wilson to successfully execute her vision as the next mayor of Seattle,” the announcement reads. Continue reading
The team formed to help Katie Wilson prepare for the start of her administration in the new year should be able to give the mayor-elect any help she needs finding her way around Seattle City Hall.
Wilson has announced a squad of transition team leaders that includes years of experience working in previous administrations and one of the driving forces behind the city’s move into social housing development. Continue reading
A zoom of the mayoral primary results showing the precincts of Capitol Hill and the Central District (Source: Washington Community Alliance)
Mayoral challenger Katie Willson’s strong election night showing has only grown more impressive as ballot counts in the August primary move into their final phases but precinct by precinct maps of the results show incumbent Bruce Harrell will be working from a familiar base across Seattle and in Capitol Hill and Central District neighborhoods as the race takes shape for November.
CHS reported here as Wilson and Seattle’s band of upstart progressive made strong Election Night showings this month with messages focused on strengthening Seattle’s social and community safety nets in the face of damaging Trump administration cuts. As the dust settled on Election Night, Harrell and fellow business-friendly incumbents Sara Nelson and Ann Davison faced second place finishes headed into the November general election.
Meanwhile, a Capitol Hill business owner with a provocative platform has also become a political factor in the city.
Maps from the Washington Community Alliance show how it all has played out and illustrate that Harrell and his fellow incumbents may be working from second place but will be doing so with support from familiar parts of the city that have been the base of their past victories. Continue reading
(Image: Savage Citizens)
Rachael Savage, the Capitol Hill business owner and longshot challenger for Alexis Mercedes Rinck’s citywide Seattle City Council Position 8 seat, says she is making her next campaign a citizen initiative “to direct those living on the streets to detox-treatment-shelter or face arrest” and ban camping in the city.
“This is the compassionate way,” Savage said in the announcement of the filing.
To qualify the citizen initiative for the ballot, Savage will need to collect registered voter signatures equal to 10% of the total votes cast for mayor in the most recent mayoral election. That’s around 26,000 signatures.
The initiative is said to be modeled on a similar proposal being pursued for an initiative at the county level. Continue reading
A veteran of the Seattle City Council who was there when City Hall made the transition to district-base representation is a finalist to fill the gap leading North Seattle’s District 5.
Former member of the council Debora Juarez has been selected as one of six finalists to hold the seat until the 2026 election following the resignation of Cathy Moore.
The six will take part in an appointment forum Monday night then the council will meet on July 22 to interview the finalists. A vote on the appointment is scheduled to take place on July 28th. The successful candidate will need to gather a simple majority of five votes from the council. Continue reading
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! Thatâs 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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Moore
Hours after a humbling political reversal, Cathy Moore has announced she is resigning her seat representing the city’s north on the Seattle City Council due to “health and personal reasons.”
“My decision to leave the City Council is one I’ve been considering seriously over the past several months due to some recent health challenges,” Moore said in the announcement. “Ultimately, I believe that District 5 community members deserve a representative who can give their full attention to the critical issues facing the City and its neighborhoods.”
Moore, a former King County Superior Court judge, was elected in 2023 with a centrist approach to policy and promises of what she said would be a more civil approach to Seattle politics.
CHS reported here on Moore’s decision to withdraw her proposed legislation championed by Council President Sara Nelson that would have allowed members to vote on bills in which they have a disclosed conflict of interest. Continue reading
(Image: Workers Strike Back)
Smith
Former District 3 representative on the Seattle City Council Kshama Sawant and her Workers Strike Back group are scheduled to announce a new “election campaign for public office” Monday morning but the socialist political leader is not targeting a return to Seattle City Hall.
At Monday’s press conference outside downtown Seattle’s Henry M. Jackson Federal Building, Sawant is expected to announce her bid to unseat District 9’s Adam Smith. The moderate Democrat has held the office representing Seattle’s Central District, South Seattle, and an area stretching from Bellevue to Federal Way since he was first elected in 1996. Continue reading
Seattle City Council leadership is dropping a push to relax its ethics rules around conflicts of interest.
Councilmember Cathy Moore announced Friday morning she is withdrawing her proposed legislation championed by Council President Sara Nelson that would have allowed members to vote on bills in which they have a disclosed conflict of interest.
âI have decided to withdraw the Code of Ethics update bill from consideration, a decision I do not take lightly. My conversations with colleagues have made it clear that we require more time to ensure we get this right,â Moore said in the announcement.
In the announcement, Moore called the existing Ethics Code “unusually rigid and an outlier across the nation.” “As the Chair of the Ethics and Elections Commission noted, there is no âgold standardâ when it comes to defining ethics rules; itâs a policy choice,” she said. Continue reading
