Sawant faces off with the recall campaign manager in a Seattle Channel debate (Image: Seattle Channel)
You can watch this week’s Seattle Channel debate between District 3 representative Kshama Sawant and the man running the campaign trying to recall her to see who won the argument.
But Sawant’s side says it won the debate over the first ever recall of a Seattle City Council member before it began.
“We’re talking to literally hundreds of people who think they already voted on this,” Bryan Koulouris said. “It comes from exactly what the recall campaign intended — confusion and an intention of low voter turnout.”
The Kshama Solidarity campaign spokesperson tells CHS the strategy to convince D3 residents to vote “no” and help Seattle’s longest serving city council member keep her seat in the December 7th recall is awareness and information.
On one level, Koulouris says people simply aren’t prepared for a new election to follow so closely on the heels of another with ballots scheduled to go out just two weeks after the November vote and due to be returned between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The next level?
“When you have the truth on your side, the more debates that happen, the more the truth is going to come out,” Koulouris said.
But what about the other side? Why go in front of cameras in a battle of words with one of Seattle’s most veteran, most victorious politicians?
“Councilmember Sawant has spent her time in office breaking the law and ignoring the rules that hold our elected officials accountable,” Henry Bridger said. “Sawant will do or say anything to distract voters from her record. District 3 deserves better and we look forward to holding Sawant accountable on December 7th.”
For the Recall Sawant campaign’s leader, the debate is part of bold moves to try to win the strangest little vote in King County Elections history.
The single vote ballot is scheduled to be mailed to District 3 residents by the end of next week.
Only voters in District 3 — encompassing Capitol Hill, First Hill, the Central District, Montlake, Madison Valley, and Madison Park — will participate. 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 Sawantās current term through the end of 2023.
Organizers have outlined multiple acts they say warrant recall including using city resources to promote aĀ Tax AmazonĀ initiative, allowing demonstrators insideĀ City HallĀ during a protest in June 2020, and marching toĀ Mayor Jenny DurkanāsĀ home address kept secret due to her past role as a federal prosecutor. A fourth charge of allowingĀ Socialist AlternativeĀ to influence her officeās employment decisions was rejected by the stateĀ Supreme Court.
In addition to the charges, the Recall Campaign has increasingly included messages about the right to recall. “I’m so proud of them for standing up to the hate the Sawantanistas have thrown at them over the last 17 months, just because they have been exercising their constitutional right to recall an elected official for breaking several laws,” Bridger wrote in a recent social media update.
For Kshama Solidarity, the battle is about saving Sawant’s job, of course, but also taking on the “right wing” effort to “disrupt democracy like Fox News” in Seattle.
Born in Mumbai, Sawantās political career in Seattle wasĀ formed out of the Occupy movementĀ when the economist was still teaching atĀ Seattle CentralĀ andĀ Seattle University. Sawantās leadership, the council member has said herself, has been focused on larger, sometimes global issues. As other district leaders have made habits of community meetings and ācoffee talk,ā Sawant has mostly avoided that kind of interaction in favor of rallies and protests.Ā At the local level, this has left Sawant open to criticism about her officeās interest and availability in neighborhood issues and day to day problems around homelessness, drug use, and street safety. Some Capitol Hill community leadersĀ have praised her āalternativeā styleĀ and leadership on issues like the minimum wage.
While the recall vote is sure to be a talking point at Thanksgiving tables around the city, the question will come down to around 75,000 registered voters and an unpredictable turnout. In the 2019 race when Sawant last defended her seat on a wave of late voter support, turnout hit 59%. On this ballot, the vote will likely again come down to the difference in only hundreds or a few thousand of votes.
The December 7th vote is the latest battle point in the now two-year recall fight. Earlier this year, CHS reported on the Recall Sawant campaign and campaign manager Bridger turning in signatures collected to put the vote on the ballot past the deadline to include the vote on the upcoming November General Election ballot when turnout would be at its highest.
The Kshama Solidarity group said the delay for a winter election will suppress turnout, going so far as to help collect signatures in a failed effort to force a November vote.
But now the race for December 7th is playing out.
Bridger didn’t provide more than the brief statement to CHS about the status of the campaign efforts and strategies we might see play out on the streets around District 3. The campaign has continued to use expensive by-mail advertising to reach voters. Both sides remain well financed with more than $1.5 million raised across the two campaigns. The Kshama Solidarity group points out it has nearly twice as many D3 donors as its opposition.
Koulouris, meanwhile, says the Kshama Solidarity campaign continues to mount “the biggest ‘get out the vote’ operation that this city has ever seen” with tabling, door to door efforts, and rallies. The spokesperson said Sawant herself will remain focused on her legislative duties and continuing “to win victories for tenants and workers.”
Koulouris says there are also hopes for more debates.
“When working people are aware of what we’re up against and what she fights for, people react to that extremely well and want to have someone on their side,” he said.
Ballots in the recall are expected to be mailed beginning November 17th and will begin landing in District 3 mailboxes. Your vote must be postmarked or dropped in a county drop box by 8 PM on Tuesday, December 7th.
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The recall campaign comes out of racism and sexism. It’s a colossal waste of money.
That said, the Sawantilians are adding to the confusion. Their canvassers were out on force leading up to and even on the day of the election. And now we haven’t seen them since. Why weren’t they helping progressive candidates get elected? Why isn’t Sawant herself working with progressive groups on her issues? She seems so laser focused on her own socialist “movement,” she forgets the work and dedication of the activists who came before her and her acolytes.
Comes out of racism and sexism? In the CD? Talk to your Black neighbors.
As you say – she has forgotten the work she was elected to do.
She has ignored our issues for years – the frequent deadly shootings on 21st/Union, flooded streets full of potholes, constant thefts at our local Walgreens, increase in property crimes, unsafe tent encampments at our public schools, and increased inequality in public education due to the pandemic. She has endorsed the ill-advised uncontrolled rise of density in our neighborhood which led to the proliferation of expensive “luxury” townhouses, mostly rented as AirbnBs. Her local policies are simplistic with harmful consequences for D3 and Seattle as a whole.
Instead, the council member has opportunistically used national and international issues, and most recently BLM, to build a national profile and screams about rich Republicans trying to recall her. We are neither rich nor Republican in the CD. This being said I would have preferred for her to being voted than recalled.
Please run for her council seat when she gets recalled. I live in CD and you echoed the core issues that I care about most.
Jeff…thanks for your note. I got other work to do, work that I love. I think this is a big problem with politics…most people who succeed in their chosen field will never pursue politics because they have found their calling already. This leaves the agitators and the talkers. I am excited about Sara Nelson as a new council member. She seems to care about pragmatic solutions. Good luck to her.
Henry Bridger is a racist and sexist huh? Spare us your ridiculous comments please.
I would like to hear proof of Henry being racist or sexist. Oh, donāt forget they also said he is a white supremacist, right wing Republican, and big business supporter. As a matter of fact, they have said that about anyone that does not support Sawant.
Violet. You could not be more wrong!
The only colossal waste of money was Sawant’s decision to gunk up the courts with an endless array of trivial lawsuits and delay tactics, which is the only reason this has dragged on as long as it has. And she did all that on your credit card — got the council to vote to spend taxpayer money on her legal stalling.
All that stalling was much more expensive than the actual recall campaign, which is very cheap. It’s not that expensive to print and mail the ballots. The tactic of concern trolling about the recall being a “waste of money” is so obviously insincere that it’s stunning anyone has the nerve to actually put it into writing.
not true about sawant’s team.. i see them all the time. just today they were in front of carmelo’s tacos on olive way. please do more research before posting false information.
Violet Please explain to me how the recall campaign comes out of racism and sexism? I am truly interested in where you get this opinion as the Washington Supreme Court did rule she violated 3 laws? Or am I getting this wrong? So the WA Supreme Court is racist and sexist?
Sawant is horrible in her job. She has been wrong on pretty much every topic. She is obnoxious. And for you to call this racist is simply idiotic.
Sawant, coming in hot as always with an answer to anything but the question.
Totally. Its almost comedic.
Sawant, was caught lying that she never had a chance to defend herself in court. She did. Many times.
She also stated that she didn’t know and still does not know the address of the Mayor. But she showed up to the Mayor’s home.
She blatantly said that she does not represent everyone in the District. The very district that she works for (35:45).
Time to vote YES on the Recall December 7th.
It’s so frustrating that she just accuses everyone she doesn’t like of being a big business corporate Trump-loving Republican. She even did in this response. You criticized her for not representing you and thousands of other working people who aren’t members of Socialist Alternative, and she said “yes I am proud to not represent the billionaires, the big corporations, the racist right-wing Trumpers and Republicans, etc.”
She is obnoxious, divisive, and only in it for herself. She constantly drops the buzzword “solidarity” but does everything to sow the opposite of solidarity in her own community. Pitting workers against workers, progressives against progressives, families against families, all the people she claims to represent.
I’m so sick of it. And it’s difficult for me to understand how the rest of D3 isn’t sick of it by now as well. You folks know you don’t have to lay down in front of a bus to defend a politician just because they agree with you on policies, right? You can just admit that someone is “good on policy but terrible person” and take the opportunity to replace them with someone who isn’t a terrible person.
The MOST important take away from the debate is when Sawant proudly stated that she does not represent everyone in her district. She only represents her base. That is the most honest thing she has ever said.
Yes and she followed it up by lying that everyone who doesn’t support her is either a billionaire, a racist, or a Republican. Well here’s one working-class antiracist progressive who isn’t represented by Sawant, and I’m fed up with her bullying and name-calling! Stop calling me a billionaire, stop calling me a racist, and stop calling me a Republican!
My home on Capitol Hill has had our Defend Sawant sign lit on fire twice, thrown out into the street more than 3 times until it finally disappeared one day. The new flavor of #caphill is absolutely disgusting.
But I thought the destruction of private property was justified in the pursuit of the greater good, right?
It’s more a story of the potential to die in a house fire brought on by political violence rooted in whiny cry babies so twisted by propaganda on their screens all day that they’re starting fires in peoples yards.
Would the greater good be relocating more people to a park near your house so more landlords can double the rent cuz “now’s a great time to capitalize on a booming market”?
Funny thing… when I spoke to a couple of her paid staffers this past summer in regards to them vandalizing an older woman’s home. I was told casualties, including harm, are okay to get things done they way they want and that the old woman doesn’t matter because she is probably living off of her husband’s pension. This is the logic of Sawantanistas. I don’t feel bad for you and your poor sign being burned several times. How about all the volunteers who have had rocks thrown at them, spit on, attacked and abused? That’s okay with you? Because it’s not okay with me or the grand majority of the district and civil human beings in this country.
Mr. Bridger, you have generally conducted yourself well under difficult circumstances through this campaign. I would suggest you return to your earlier ways and acknowledge that depriving someone of their freedom of speech, in this case their right to political speech, is wrong in all instances.
Tell that to the folks living above the Starbucks that was almost lit up last summer. Seems you just told their story as well. Or is THAT political violence somehow different?
“JCW”
Yeah I live there.
The second time it was hit someone shouted out their window “Whoever’s calling the police your Mom’s a Hoe” so don’t be so sure.
Got notice 6 months in advance that my rent is going up 30% thanks to Sawant’s law. From what I’ve heard that’s the whole apartment complex.
The landlords aren’t reading the room going into this recall election. Greedy bastards got my lazy butt out to canvas in the hopes for better rent control.
Moving soon – I am sorry to hear about your signs. This is not acceptable; however, Recall Sawant signs (you know the ones that look kinda crude and homemade as opposed to the glossy professional ones endorsing the “people’s candidate”) have also been vandalized in our neighborhood. There are bad actors on both sides.
The potential danger of dying in a house fire is infinitely larger for those of us living near the various homeless encampments. People are trying to stay warm and prepare food. As a consequence, tents go up in flames regularly, endangering their owners (ask at Harborview how many burn patients they have recently treated from these encampments) and everyone in the vicinity.
To put it simply, we have homeless encampments because we have no mental health care. No affordable housing strategy remotely feasible in a highly desirable city nor the further increase in density demanded by Sawant and Gonzales will get these people housed. More development will make developers wealthier and the CD more gentrified.
I find it rather pleasing that someone had the perseverance to do that. I’m also pleased you are disgusted, but probably for the wrong reason.
I was thinking it was likely multiple different people in separate instances.
Eventually, there won’t be anyone left in this district to vote for Sawant. Unless we’re able to use Cal Anderson as our address.
The poor moderator of this “debate” looks like a deer in the headlights as he continually tries to ask Councilmember Sawant time and again to stay on topic and address the actual issues in the recall instead of shouting out her pre-approved SA talking points. Finally near the end he loses it and starts shouting at her to keep it down. She time and time agains tries to claim, much like Violet, that this is some sort of racist, Republican led effort which would be comical if not for the fact its clear so many people think this is true. Who are these mysterious racist, Republicans that live among the citizens of District 3? How come they never vote in other elections but are coming out for this one?
She goes on to claim she still doesn’t know Mayor Durkan’s address and the court never found evidence she did. Well here is the statement from the Supreme Court ruling, “although she says she did not organize the protest, it is no coincidence that the protestors found themselves in front of Mayor Durkanās house. Further, since the subject of Councilmember Sawantās speech at the protest was Mayor Durkan, a voter could find that Councilmember Sawant intended to protest at the mayorās home and went to the mayorās home to deliver a message to her. This charge is factually sufficient for a recall.ā That sounds to me like the Supreme Court thinks she did.
District 3 deserves so much better than this. Every one of the recall charges are true. Not once has Councilmember Sawant shown any contrition for her actions or vowed to do better in the future. Instead she deflect, casts blame and demonizes anyone who dare oppose the “movement”. I hope voters see through Sawants attacks and remove from her office. I have full confidence that the council will appoint a progressive replacement for her seat who is able to effectively govern without the divisive and toxic rhetoric that has become the hallmark of her time in office.
It’s obvious to anyone with half a brain that Sawant organized the protest and gave them the mayor’s address. As a councilmember, she has access to the address, which is not available to the general public. Her claim that she doesn’t know Durkan’s address at all was an absurd and insulting lie, since all the councilmembers have this information.
Sawant gave them the address and organized the protest, which was primarily attended by her army of paid supporters in red shirts. They let the few Black Lives Matter people who were there take the credit/blame for it after the fact, so it would look like a more organic protest and not the obviously astroturfed political event it actually was. This bit of chicanery gives Sawant just enough of a facade of deniability to make outrageous claims about not being involved in the protest at all despite being the only prominent political figure involved in the protest, being the featured speaker of the protest, and most of the people in the crowd wearing her shirts and waving her signs.
The give away for me is that she could have deescalated the situation. Instead Sawant chose to take advantage and manipulate a mob for her advantage.
That is consistent pattern for her that in my opinion makes her totally unfit for any public office.
Looking forward to this recall vote.
The Recall effort comes from people who have lived in the City for over 2.0 yrs and remember how fabulous it was. Sawant and crew are hateful anti every who thinks differently than them. Good riddance to Sawant!!! Let’s go!
Everyone in my building is voting to get rid of her.
Agreed. The election of this divisive narcissistic cult leader frayed the social fabric of the city. She represents herself and the SA cult not District 3. She is MIA except during election season when she dusts off her megaphone to rile up a base of naive young people new to the City with bullshit and lies. This year the false promise is rent control, which is beyond the purview of city council because there is a state law banning it.
God bless Henry Bridger II, who has the patience of a saint. I would’ve completely lost my patience with Sawant about ten minutes into this thing. The constant lying, the refusal to answer any direct question, the gish galloping, the endless bombardment of smears and ad-hominem attacks, the constant distractions and pivoting to her own issues, it’s like she designs her entire personality to be maximally infuriating.
I have to hope that D3 voters have had enough of this crap and are ready to be represented by a decent human being for whom they won’t have to constantly make excuses and rationalize their support.
“strangest little vote in King County Elections history”
I’m curious if you went through the records of King County elections all the way back to 1852 before making this statement? Especially those during the Progressive Era? Or the Victorian era, when our local politics was far far wilder than anything now?
You may say it was just a rhetorical flourish. But it’s also clearly a piece of the whole none-too-subtle “this recall is extraordinary and therefore bad” angle of the reporting on this site.
https://sawantrecall.org/
Bryan Koulouris is a bully. he knows he’ll lose and he’s desperate. what a sad excuse for a human being.
A great mayor, Charlie Royer, said it was his job to ārepresent everyone, not just my supporters.ā
The opposite of a great person, a mean and petty person named Kshama Sawant, says they only represent their base.
Unfit to hold office. A regular rule breaker and a legal liability for Seattle taxpayers, on the hook for lawsuits her behavior generates. Vote her out.
“the strategy to convince D3 residents to vote ānoā and help Seattleās longest serving city council member keep her seat in the December 7th recall is awareness and information” – so calling everyone who’s not for her a right wing a-hole (I paraphrase somewhat, forgive me) is awareness and information? Oh for goodness’ sake! On my walk earlier I got approached by a (Sawant) campaigner asking if I was aware that PACs are trying to steal the election. This kind of one sided, overly populist half through spewing nonsense is that keeps putting me off of wanting to listen to that nonsense. 1) maybe try to argue based on actual facts and not just polarising slogans. 2) if you object to the industry injecting money into the process (which I don’t like either) then go and canvass for a change in the political process. Doing so just for a single campaign isn’t going to change a bad model.
Every single election they say that PACs and right-wing billionaires are trying to stop them. I swear they just re-use the same posters election after election regardless of reality.
There are no PACs in this election! And there are what, four billionaires in Seattle? So even if all four of them donated the max to the Recall campaign that would be like 0.1% of their funding.
Sawant and her people lie. They just lie. And they do it for everything because they know nobody will hold them accountable. There are no consequences for the lies.
How many ways could she talk around the facts of breaking the law? This isn’t about left politics gone too far. This is simply whether certain elected officials consider themselves above the law.
I will vote to recall, i am tired of all the judging, name calling, the using of the homeless and poor to push agendas, and where is all the housing this woman has been promising all these years? It’s not hard to see how much smaller her crowd has become. She broke the law, period.
Sawant has never made the slightest effort to represent the needs of her constituents. She has no interest in the legitimate concerns of the community. This makes her unfit for office. Therefore, I fully support the recall.
You about to loose your job.
The major problems in the city have gotten much worse on her watch. Making it worse is in fact her goal because it attracts more people to her cult. She wants a Marxist revolution not a society that lifts up the most vulnerable for the benefit of all. She is dangerously unfit for public office.
She embodies the sentiment chaos is a ladder, and does everything she can to ensure that chaos prevails.
Thank you for the term. That is exactly what I was trying to convey. This is the strategy employed by NTK, Oliver and Sawant and other charismatic leaders with authoritarian tendencies throughout history. They fuel the chaos, and the chaos in turn fuels the Revolution and increases the power of the great leader.
RECALL SEWANT
I struggle to find any of the Recall campaign’s complaints convincing enough to warrant totally removing Kshama from office. Recall supporters in this comment section don’t really help their case when they spend most of their time focusing on Kshama’s personality or on some abstract “Seattle is Dying and it’s her fault claim”.
Specific to the three charges being brought forward on the ballot:
If anything, the Recall attempt feels like it is an effort motivated by existing dislike for her (either personal or political), an unequal application of standards, and a feeble attempt to oust Sawant on any possible technicality.
Our family would have also preferred to vote her out because she has been an ineffective and divisive council member. You are correct that the recall rests on relatively minor charges. However, Sawant made this all about herself and has attacked anyone not fully supportive of her as Trump-Republicans and worse. Rather than admitting errors, she has dug in and lied. She handled this very badly, unnecessarily angering people who will now vote against her. A much better strategy would have been to apologize, promising to be the “adult in the room” in the future…you know, like Gavin Newsom in Cal. She brought this upon herself…
And leading a protest to the mayor’s house? Leading or not leading…she should have not been there, endangering a former prosecutor and her non-traditional family. There too many crazies with guns out there. This got me!
Hi CD mom, thanks for your actually patient and civil comment. I half expected I would get flamed after posting an “anti recall” comment :)
I think you’re generally right that Sawant’s posturing has probably helped to push some D3 residents more firmly into the recall camp–it sounds like that has been you & your family’s experience. I guess we’ll find out soon enough what the effect will be!
It strikes me that “playing both sides” like a Gavin Newsom would is distinctly off brand for Kshama. That’s obviously going to alienate some, but personally I’ve reached the conclusion that disputes over branding practices and personality just aren’t worth a disruptive recall effort.
Not quite. It is not a matter of style or branding or “playing both sides”. Ms. Sawant, in being unapologetic and attacking critical D3 residents as rich white supremacists, has revealed something rather distasteful about herself: She feels entitled and above the law, feels that her ends justify the means, including lies. There is no remorse – she does not think it was wrong to endanger the mayor and her family or let people into City Hall. Do you understand the difference…and why this upsets people?
You understand that the recall is exactly what you are talking about – it’s an opportunity for us, the voters, to judge whether or not we think that the things she did rise to the level of punishment [removal from office]. You may not think so, but plenty of others apparently do.
She was actually kind of incorrect when she kept insisting that the WA Supreme Court didn’t find that she actually did any of the things of which she’s been accused…. What the courts found is that all of the charges were credible – if they’d simply been made up without any evidence that they’d actually happened the petition would have simply been thrown out right then and there… The courts felt, at very least, that there was sufficient of proof that all of the charges that the case could be ‘brought to trial’ (the recall) and the jurors are us – the constituents. In this situation the courts acted kind of like the DA – the detective (petitioner) brings the case before the DA (the Supreme Court) and the DA can either say – nope, there’s not sufficient evidence to try this case or let’s go, we can convince a jury (the voters) of guilt.
An additionally – note that none of what she did needs to rise to the level of actual criminality – it just needs to have violated her oath of office – so her acts don’t necessarily have to have been crimes.
Seattle’s District 3 results from this past election may be an indication of things to come for Sawant.
Mayor Votes Percent
Bruce Harrell 12,081 57.26
M. Lorena Gonzalez 9,019 42.74
City Attorney Votes Percent
Ann Davison 10,302 50.33
Nicole Thomas-Kennedy 10,165 49.67
Council Position 9 Votes Percent
Sara Nelson 10,726 51.70
Nikkita Oliver 10,019 48.30
Iāve read all of your comments. I hope both sides destroy one another (politically). You people are the worst. I hope the cause of you being this ugly is linked to being behind a tablet or computer after a few drinks and a long day.
I want to believe this city is filled with love. When I walk around I see a lot of love. When I read these comments I mostly see hate and rage. From both sides. All of you. To include both leaders leading you all in that interview. The moderator was the only decent human on that debate screen.
Please do not “both sides” this. I have seen nothing but civility from the Recall supporters in these comments. On the other hand the Sawant supporters are relentlessly nasty and degrading, and have a long history of behaving in this way. You could see it in the actual debate as well, where Henry Bridger was civil and calm and obeyed the debate moderator while Sawant was relentlessly nasty, completely blew off the moderator, and lobbed a hundred deeply personal attacks at Henry and everyone who agrees with him.
You’re kidding, right? I was literally just walking up Madison today and some Recall supporter was yelling at this guy who told a canvasser he was voting “no” and called him a “sheep.” The canvasser was very civil and polite.
“I hope both sides destroy one another”
“You people are the worst”
“The moderator was the only decent human on that debate screen”
Is this loving?
Be the change you want to see . . .
Hilarious!! Welcome to the swamp “A person”, the sludge is warm and make sure to stand far way from the windows your throwing those stones at. Your lack of self-awareness is truly unbelievable…But whatever you do, keep that “love” flowing!
Thank you for the video. This is the first time I have seen Kshama Sawant speak at length. I donated $25 to the recall campaign and signed the petition. December 7 cannot come fast enough.