Supporters of the campaign to remove District 3 representative Kshama Sawant from office say they are within striking distance of the more than 10,000 signatures required to put the recall question on the ballot.
A fundraising pitch from Recall Sawant set to be sent to campaign supporters trumpets the ahead-of-schedule milestone. “The Recall Committee has now collected more than 9,000 in-District signatures in less than 7 weeks, but we need your help to reach the required 10,739 signatures by August 1st,” it reads, followed by a call for donations of $25, $50, or $100.
Organizers have said they have until October 19th to hit the signature total required to put the vote on the ballot but the fundraising pitch is geared toward a quicker resolution.
The Kshama Solidarity campaign, meanwhile, will be part of a Seattle Democratic Socialists of America fundraiser for Sawant later this month. “Millionaires and billionaires are lining up against Kshama and supporting the recall effort,” the SDSA invitation reads. “The Kshama Solidarity Campaign needs our material support.”
The campaigns are being well supported financially. According to the most recent filings with the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission, the recall fight has generated nearly another $100,000 in donations after hitting the $1 million mark combined across the two campaigns early last month.
In June, the campaigns tangled over labor support and endorsements.
Organizers need nearly 11,000 signatures from District 3 residents to put the recall on the ballot. Only D3 voters will participate in the yes/no recall vote. 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.
Once the signatures are approved, it’s not clear when the vote would be able to appear on the ballot. UPDATE: The recall campaign says it is aiming to get the vote on November’s General Election ballot.
CHS reported here in May on the start of the signature gathering effort that has focused on a by-mail strategy while both campaigns have occasionally tangled in the streets. The campaigns have also argued over Sawant’s admission of guilt for improperly promoting the Tax Amazon ballot initiative, one of the issues behind the recall effort.
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I’ll be the first to admit that Sawant and her core group of supporters can be annoying AF. No argument there whatsoever.
But she’s not crooked or corrupt, at least not in any way that’s knowable. Not one of the recall campaign’s three official charges against her was in any way self-dealing. All three, misguided and/or mildly illegal as they may have been, were pursuant to policy objectives — and nothing else.
Besides, voting to recall anyone is a big gamble if you don’t know beforehand who will take their place, and in this case we can’t. Even Sawant’s fiercest foes should first ask themselves: what if she’s replaced by someone who (a) completely shares her views and (b) is more politically savvy and effective in legislating them? For this reason alone both sides are well-advised to wait until 2023, when we’ll have an idea of who might replace her. On the recall, the only rational choice for anyone is no.
I absolutely agree. I didn’t vote for Sawant in the last election for District 3, but I won’t be signing the recall and I won’t be voting in favor of it either. This should only be exercised for the worst of the worst. And while I disagree with some of her tactics or think they are productive, I do believe they were for policy reasons and not reasons of malice or bad faith.
That’s some straight up ridiculous logic. I don’t think you understand all the reasons why people want Sawant gone.
I signed the recall, and wouldn’t mind if the replacement ended up being someone with similar views. If they’re effective in legislating them, that means they’re able to work with others and come to reasonable compromises. Something Sawant with her Trumpian tactics seems incapable of doing.
Nearly every problem she claims to want to fix has been getting worse during her 8 year tenure.
Cool, that’s what for elections are for.
Yep. Super cool that we have this legal and valid process to remove her from office after she conducted herself illegally.
Two points:
Neither of these actions is conduct that belongs on the City Council. Both were reckless, frightening actions taken to help incite an angry mob.
There is no such thing as “mildly-illegal”. She absolutely broke the law and endangered people.
Sure there is. Jaywalking and littering are “mildly illegal.” First-degree homicide is not. And Sawant didn’t endanger anyone. People decided on their own whether to enter the building (personally I wouldn’t have, but millions of people last summer calculated that the cause was worth the risk and this was just one such event out of many nationwide).
You neglect to mention that Sawant was a leader in the march to Jenny Durkan’s home, thereby violating her privacy as a former federal prosecutor, and endangering her life.
While I certainly can appreciate wanting Sawant gone, I feel this is a bad approach for a couple of reasons.
If she beats the recall it gives her side armor for 2023 – and may dissuade a good candidate from running.
If she gets recalled she can run again and win.
I’m not sure what the recall effort gets us, other than a nice time out for her more over-the-top bat-crapping she’s done in the last couple of years. That’s nice, in a way.
But I worry in the long term and short it will energize her followers, similarly to how Amazon dumping money into a PAC that funded Egan Orion energized her supporters.
She’s a demagogue and a rabble-rousing speechifying idiot who ignores D3’s actual problems while she grandstands for The Socialist Alternative and plays up to her very militant, very angry base of supporters. DON’T LET THE RULING CLASS DEFEAT OUR REVOLUTION. I can see the plastered phone poles already.
Please don’t turn your back on Seattle and on the issues of this recall! This recall is crucial for Seattle and the wellbeing of its citizens. She broke the law. You may think they are minor, but they aren’t and they will get worse.
The recall process was the first Article written in our State Constitution, our founders of Washington gave that power to the people immediately and was detailed further in Article 33 as well as amended by the People in the 1970’s.
Well, I guess we know whose side you’re on, publishing a free advertisement for them above the fold. Can’t say as I’m surprised, all things considered.
It’s actually called unbiased journalism. If you didn’t realize, most of the articles were leaning heavier in favor of Sawant until CHS was called out on it by several people, including myself. Their job as journalists is to report the news as it becomes available, with an unbiased opinion, and they usually weigh the story based on what is important to their readership and the areas they serve and place it above the proverbial fold.
Yes yes, I get it – propaganda works.
Everyone is biased just like you. Nobody forces you to come here. You can always choose to only consume Fox News.
This article is the least pro Sawant I’ve ever read on this site.
I’d hate to see Sawant gone. She truly cares about Capitol Hill, hardly a week goes by when she’s not out talking to folks in our local parks, meeting with our local small business owners or enjoying a coffee or drink while supporting locally owned establishments. In short, she really cares about us.
LOL ok
And she’ll even bring you a nickle if your toof falls out and you put it under your pillow.
I live in D3. She cares not one bit about us, only the subset of us who participate in OUR REVOLUTION AGAINST THE RULING CLASSES.
Sorry, D3 is not your cosplay theater. We need actual problem solving, not mindless sloganeering.
Hysterical. LOL. Are you her public relations director?
I live in the Leschi area (the non fun side that doesn’t get the pretty water views) and have literally never seen her. This whole time. We live in the same neighborhood, apparently, and yet nope, never. And I’m every where in the central district, in local parks, supporting our local businesses, and being out and about.
I’ve seen Pamela Banks wandering about, I’ve seen Egan Orion, never her.
D3 isn’t *just* Capitol Hill, you know that right? She has lots of other constituents she’s supposed to be answerable to, that may want the occasional ear of their city council representative; not just those on Capitol Hill most sympathetic to her personal ideological leanings.
That said, this recall is dumb. It will fail, it will give her even more ammo to rail on how she’s a target of big business and she stands up for the little guys, and that will make it even harder to recruit someone viable that wants to run against her.
I’m not getting involved either way, I wish the recall people had just continued to let her do her thing, continue to provoke strong reactions, while laying the ground work to recruit and develop a much better candidate to challenge her in 2023.
If she “truly cares about Capitol Hill,” why are there numerous comments on this blog attesting to the fact that she never responds to constituent’s concerns.
I will be voting for the recall, because the charges against her are valid, but also because she is obnoxious, selfish, arrogant, and divisive.
If you think a dozen anonymous user handles commenting on a neighborhood blog should drive the political narrative, there’s no hope for our country.
Yeah she really cared about all the residents of D3 who were stuck in CHOP zone last summer. I emailed her almost weekly during that mess and got no response. She is a disaster and needs to go.
I am so tired of Sawant and her Che Guevarra cosplay and have signed for the recall, but if you see all the huge apartments popping up around the central district it’s fairly safe to say she’s here to stay. It’s the younger, more “progressive” millennials who live in the district for a while who pushed her victory last time. Stupid Amazon.
Yeah it’s much better to have neoliberal cosplay. She is nothing like Che but I guess you’re all about bad faith stuff.
Is this the future you want, where every legit election ends up in a recall because the group that lost couldn’t mobilize enough voters or convince anyone with, I don’t know, actual policies in the election?
Seriously, if you don’t like them, vote them out. Run people with better ideas. Except for legit corruption or super moral failings, recalls are just bad actors adding more chaos to an already chaotic time.
Like, consider the people who are mostly behind this recall effort, and think really hard if you want to be working with them on any issue.
It’s precisely rhetoric like this that I’m so tired of. Being against something just because your opponent is for it. It’s an excuse for not having to think. It’s an excuse to not have to challenge yourself. It’s so typical of Trumpers and “Sawantists”.
Yep, there may be some shitty right wingers giving some money to the recall effort, but I’m more than happy to work with an opponent to achieve common goals.
I’m so tired of the pro-Sawant rhetoric claiming that “millionaires and billionaires” are behind the recall effort. That’s just plain false, and they know it, but unfortunately a lot of leftists buy it.
As a moderate Democrat who has never voted for a Republican (okay except as insurance commissioner or prosecuting attorney in one instance) I am totally for her recall, but I must say anyone who has owned a house and had a job over the past 10 years in Seattle, is a millionaire.
Sawant is just wrong about Israel:
https://insidesources.com/ny-times-front-pager-gets-israel-v-hamas-story-all-wrong/
No she’s not. Why are people so bad faith about Israel?
Prediction – Sawant recall goes forward, recall is successful and city council appoints Nikita Oliver following their city wide loss for Position 9
Nikita Oliver would be a huge improvement.
Agree with her or disagree with her, but she cares about her community, unlike Sawant.
Pretty sure Oliver lives in District 2. More likely Zach DeWolf would be appointed. He ran last time and was endorsed by Mosqueda who will most likely be council president next year.
I will not support this silly republican hitjob. Nor will any of my neighbors.
There are pretty much no Republicans in District 3 who are the only people who can sign.
That’s not true with Broadmoor (28% for Trump in 2020) and Madison Park. District 3 has 74,000 voters. Assume 10% overall voted for Trump and they hate Sawant’s guts, that’s already 7,400 signatures.
Please provide your source of “facts”.
Broadmoor 28% for Trump in 2020, 25% in 2016.
https://www.kuow.org/stories/seattle-precincts-with-the-most-trump-voters-they-re-not-all-what-you-d-expect
74,921 registered voters in District 3 in 2019.
https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2019/11/8-1-as-county-makes-legendary-victory-official-sawant-back-to-business-at-seattle-city-hall/
Yes, there are a bunch of Democrats and moderates signing the recall but conservatives also make up a big part of signers. You only need 10,000 signatures.
Tom, my man did you even attempt to fact check your assumptions?
The most “anti-Sawant” parts of D3, the voting precincts East of MLK and North of E Aloha, voted for Trump at a ~6.4% rate. This translates to a whopping ~1,280 votes for Trump vs ~20,000 votes for Biden in said precincts. Unsurprisingly the overall D3 voting rate for Trump drops down into the 5% range as you move further West and begin incorporating Capitol Hill’s voting results. The district only netted ~4,000 votes for Trump meaning there’s a whole bunch of Biden supporters signing this petition. It’s time to move past the lazy and played out narrative that only Trump voters “hate Sawant’s guts.”
A substantial portion of center left Democrats, myself included, voted for Biden, are ardent supporters for climate change, human rights, expanding the ACA, enhancing consumer protections, investing in our public school systems, etc. yet detest Sawant’s inflammatory approach to politicking and her focus on building a national movement at the cost of meaningful outreach to her constituents. To us she’s Trump on the other side of the coin, representing what’s wrong in our present “me first, scorched earth” political environment.
That said, as AnoninSeattle asserts above, this recall is a dumb move and will only embolden Sawant when this ballot measure inevitably fails. Energy and money would be better spent laying the groundwork for 2023.
Where did I say the “only” people signing are Trump supporters? Where did you see the district had 4,000 voters for Trump? I couldn’t find the breakdown. It still wouldn’t surprise me conservatives were the majority of the signers. Some of them might have sat out and didn’t vote in 2020. They don’t have a strong negative opinion towards Biden but they do with Sawant.
Here’s a couple useful data sources:
I get it, it’s easier to label the majority of signees as the boogeyman but again, it’s out of touch with reality, and is straight from the Trump/Sawant political playbook.
You and I likely see eye-to-eye on most political positions/policy ideas and in 2023 I hope we elect a council member that unifies us along our commonalities rather than divides us against our differences.
In my Madrona precinct, it was around 158 votes for Biden and 9 for Trump. But I bet more than 50% of those voters will vote Yes on the recall.
@ Tom – From what I can tell you’ve way, way overestimated….. there were and unless I’ve made transcription errors, 3,946 votes for Trump in all of district 3 in 2020….
This information is freely available from King County, which has a spreadsheet of all voting totals by precinct, all you have to do (which I did) is match up a list of precincts in D3 with their respective votes for Trump and total them up.
So even if all of the Trump voters signed, you’d still need 1.5X more non-Trump voters to get to 10,000… so much for it being a grand republican/conservative conspiracy.
If you’d like to do your own count feel free
https://data.kingcounty.gov/Voting-Elections/November-2020-General-Final-Precinct-Results/2824-fjrn/data
How have I way overestimated? After seeing the last 4 years, 3,946 in the district still voted for him. These are hardcore far-right people. If they can’t stand Biden, there is no way they wouldn’t take every opportunity to get rid of someone who is far more liberal. There aren’t only 3,946 Republicans in the district. Adding to that number, there are Republicans who don’t think Trump deserves another 4 years but they can’t stand Sawant. If the recall requires 20,000, 30,000 signatures and gets them, then ok, most of the signers are Democrats. But we are talking about 10,000. It is quite possible 4,000-6,000 of them are Republicans.
Lol….. now you’re backing off – you’ll recall your estimate was 7,400 in your first post – or 10% of all of the registered voters in D3 as of 2019…..
That would mean the almost twice as many people as voted Republican took the time to sign a petition. If they exist and they couldn’t rouse themselves to vote in the first place how likely does it seem that they would go to the trouble of signing the petition….. if they were so concerned that she not win her seat again these mythic voters could have just voted… 3454 votes would have tipped the scales enough to defeat her. But then again perhaps they aren’t real.
Voter turnout was extremely high in 2020… up to 90% in areas of King County, and I’ll bet D3 was one of them. So that would mean in that last 10% that may not have voted nearly half of them would have to be Republicans, which seems highly unlikely…. as only 5% of the 90% who did voted that way. If we figure that non-voters were similarly distributed that would only add around 370.
I suppose you could be cynical and figure that all of the non-voters just didn’t bother because they arch conservatives and knew they couldn’t win… but there are many reasons to doubt that.
10% of 74,921 registered voters in district 3 being Republican wasn’t an unreasonable assumption when some areas on Capitol Hill were above 20% Trump in 2020.
Sorry but the actual numbers clearly say it *was* an unreasonable assumption…
“Nor will any of my neighbors” LOL
Our family stands with Kshama.
signed the recall. I hope it makes it onto the ballot
I’d be worried if I were supporting the recall and wanted to be on the November ballot. With petitions like these, you ideally want to get twice as many signatures as you actually need to account for duplicates, ineligible voters, etc. For a recent example, Compassion Seattle made the 200 percent goal. Granted, that’s city-wide but you still need that buffer.
Is it possible that recall petitioners have reached their ceiling? They’ve been gathering signatures since April. We’ll see!