“The Seattle Council Position 8 incumbent @TeresaCMosqueda passes the baton to our next Position 8 councilmember @Alexis4Seattle” — (Image: @PoulChapman)
Early results from Tuesday’s Election Night count in the August primary seem to be strong enough to show which candidates will continue through to battle into November for seats in two key local races.
Those results also appear to be a good sign for Seattle’s most progressive voters and efforts around affordable housing and funding for social programs and police alternatives.
In the race to fill the Position 2 seat in the 43rd District representing areas around Seattle including Capitol Hill in Olympia, Statewide Poverty Action Network lobbyist Shaun Scott and We Heart Seattle founder Andrea Suarez appear likely to face off in the November General.
Scott’s entry in the race is a given. The candidate, who narrowly lost his 2019 campaign to represent the University District on the Seattle City Council, won more than 54% of the Election Night first tally. Suarez sits at just over 23% of the vote with the Seattle Times-endorsed political newcomer Daniel Carusello lurking behind her by just under 6 percentage points.
Meanwhile, the race for citywide Seattle City Council Position 8 seat will come down to Alexis Mercedes Rinck vs. Tanya Woo, who currently holds the seat after her appointment to finish the final year of the term when Teresa Mosqueda left to take the seat she won on the King County Council.
Mosqueda was on hand at Capitol Hill’s Elysian Brewing Tuesday night to congratulate Rinck.
“Our movement is uniting Seattle to ensure our city is safe, affordable, and welcoming for all, and while there is still a lot of work to do until November – especially against outside spending – I know we will keep it up,” Rinck said as she thanked supporters for her campaign’s strong showing Tuesday night,
On a ballot with many lopsided and barely contested races, the results of the 43rd District and City Council Position 8 represented the most spirited political battle facing voters around Capitol Hill and the Central District. That spirited fight is now likely to continue into November with the likely challengers representing combatants from both the progressive and the centrist side of the Democratic spectrum.
CHS reported here on the political gap in the race for the 43rd District seat left open by the retirement of longtime progressive Frank Chopp. Scott carries strong progressive bonafides for his work as a lobbyist and connections in political circles. “We’re happy to be endorsed in this race by almost every labor organization that’s endorsed in this race,” Scott told CHS. “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.”
Suarez, who rose to prominence in the city through her leadership at We Heart Seattle and exposing what she says is a corrupt system of social services spending on homelessness and addiction in the city, brags about her lack of political connection and says she will bring a more realistic, more honest, and more open approach with her leadership.
“Right out of the gate, my opposition came after me because I talk or affiliate with the Republican party, and it’s another one of these, if you’re not ride or die on the far left progressive agenda on every issue, you’re somehow a right winger,” Suarez says. “And that’s kind of the Seattle kind of temperament here in the 43rd.”
The race for the 43rd will include a major focus on homelessness and housing. In an unscientific survey of CHS readers, Suarez supporters said they most valued issues around Public Safety, Homelessness, Addiction and Mental Health when making their decision. Scott supporters said their top concerns were Housing, Affordability, Homelessness, and Streets and Public Transportation.
Seattle’s lone City Council race to be decided in November will represent a similar contrast. The progressive-leaning 43rd District Democrats have endorsed Rinck, a queer, Central District Latina who hopes to fully fund city services and get corporations to pay their fair share in taxes. Rinck has said she is “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 needed these resources.
Woo, meanwhile, has grown as a leader in the Chinatown International District’s community before her appointment to the council last year where she has become a staunch ally to the centrist and pro-business efforts of Council President Sara Nelson.
The race now begins for November 5th.
You can view the full results from King County Elections here or statewide results from the Secretary of State here.
It’s a party at the ballot box in #CapitolHill. Less than an hour left to #vote. pic.twitter.com/tktJUVEKeu
— Kendra Gilbert (@KLGnews) August 7, 2024
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I’m voting against Woo in November. The current council’s behavior is fucking outrageous and Woo needs to be rejected.
And I’ll be voting for Woo. This council will be the first in some time now to actually improve conditions in this city.. The last thing we need is a candidate with Mosqueda’s backing and approval.
Good for you.
The last thing we need is a council that refuses to listen to the public. Cutting off public comment, refusing to hold a vote on a social housing ballot initiative, and threatening to arrest people who took the time to come to the chamber is completely unacceptable.
They were being disruptive and disrespectful…
Yes, the council has been very disrespectful this whole year.
Don’t be childish…
By childish, do you mean like Sara Nelson telling people not to clap or cheer for public comments they agree with? Or, do you mean Bob Kettle saying “I fucking hate this” about having to listen to public comment while on mic?
They are paid by the tax payers to sit there and listen. Not waste time. Plot to empty the room by force. Ya sit there until the job is finished.
The council is paid by taxpayers to actually get work done. There are rules for people who want to come to comment. If they can’t abide by those rules and are disrupting the session, they deserve to be thrown out.
I understand that. Then sit there and as long as nobody gets violent. They should be allowed to speak. Protest etc. The POTUS gets interrupted and says “let him talk”. Trump says kick the crap outta them. Violent coup’s are encouraged. That’s the difference.
If you say you are staying for an hour? Then stay and hour and leave. If the glary wants to filibuster for an hour? Who cares? People taking complaints at a bill collection call center suffer FAR WORSE than these people. They take more abuse and make far far less. Have zero power over anything. The council needs to buckle up and sit for the allotted time. Otherwise? Why waste time? Do the thing and leave. it’s what they did essentially. Using an excuse and a waddabout is not a reason. Not a solution either.
We need solutions based on reason and the council can’t even run a meeting? I mean c’mon. Talk about snowflakes.
The whole thing is mismanaged.
That word salad makes little sense. It’s pretty easy. If you want to go to a council meeting and make a comment you are allowed. There’s time set aside for that. If you want to go and disrupt the session they have every right to shut you down and get back to work, which is exactly what they did.
You can’t “shut down” and then “get back to work”. You’re either working or shut down. They didn’t “get back to work” They WENT HOME!
Word salad? I think you are just full of shit at this point. Clear nuff?
The other thing? “paid to get work done”. What do they do with their time outside of that room? That’s a lot of time AWAY from that room.
Voted for Woo the first time and now against. The main reason I voted for her was to give the ID some representation from a community member on the council to help with the issues they are having. After I saw she couldn’t care less about helping the ID I was done with her.
Agreed. Woo rehabed an old ID hotel to provide low-cost housing. She actually understands finance and project management.
I mean she’s a slumlord of that’s what you are trying to say
Youre not going to say they improved the city 2 to 4 years from now, bet.
I’ll take that bet any day.
Just to establish if youre a sychophant who will lie about being pleased, did you vote for Sara Nelson and if so, are you pleases by her net present efficacy?
No, I don’t lie…. I guess at least we’ve established that you are an uncivil person who throws around insulting phrases and false accusations to describe people you don’t agree with. Classy, really classy. Bravo.
Are you surprised? Nogoodnik has been at it for years. Mega troll with zero interest in solutions, just slander and hate.
Yall are up to your eyeballs is people that promise solutions you like on paper and dont deliver in material fact, and act like youre seriously doing something other than jawboning on the internet about it.
You simply have more access to me than your pols and thats ultimately yours to solve.
Has there been anyone in your voting history you turned on despite initial support and well wishes? If so, what criteria did you use to determine they didnt get it done and they need to go. No points for people you dont like, just the ones you did.
The entire purpose of this is after reading enough posts here and on reddit, people just sound confused as shit that they mostly got what they wanted in personel seated, wag their tongues about the bad personel being gone finally, but are not seeing many of the returns they imagined and in some cases are seeing negative returns – Sara Nelson in specific but also the funding of public schools now and looming closures.
And goddamn right Im uncivil and uncouth and provocative, youre too huffy about it like a hit dog hollering.
Forgot to add – its cognitive dissonance to support politicians because they flatter you with lines of what they will do and stand for, and then complain about all the shit happening in their stead as if it isnt related to them at all, and then still support them all the same.
Scuse me – I’m not the one complaining…. you are. I think the state of the city has definitely improved since the last election. Why in the world would I vote them out now… And I’ve definitely voted against incumbents that I do not feel are doing a good job, regardless of how I may have voted previously.
Don’t be childish.
Seriously – what should I expect from you next- “I know you are but what am I”… or maybe “your rubber and I’m glue”? Act like a 5 year old, be treated like a 5 year old.
I’d say I’m sorry that Tanya Woo is doing so poorly for an incumbent who never got voted in in the first place…but, I’d be lying.
Just because she’s not long for the council, you shouldn’t be so immature and angry about it. Children lash out and call people names, kind of like Sara Nelson lashing out at the public because they got mad she cut off public comment.
I’m sitting here laughing and shaking my head… because you just did exactly what I predicted you would…
Yeah. We need someone who worked at the KCRHA debaucle. With 170M budget and housed 260 people, tey could have taken the 170M and paid the rent for 6000 people.
It’s full of groomers and the groomed. The housing building situation is a cesspool. It’s run as a political entity vs. an affordable housing entity. It’s a tool to use.
People love their jobs getting paid to do almost nothing. Run little fiefdoms until it’s time for work.Or the political climate doesn’t favor them. Then move on and do exactly the same. They all pat themselves on the backs or attack and little else because it’s about keeping that job and maximizing income.
All that said? Not all are like that of course. But when you see it? Say something, as they say. That’s all that’s going on in these meetings. Their attitude is they look down upon the masses. We got one council member who’s legit.
Vote!
If you’re not a socialist in Seattle, you’ll be branded right wing.
Too true. As an actual conservative/right winger (who has lived on the Hill for many years, no less), it’s hilarious talking with Seattle progressives.
When you get them one-on-one, they glance around nervously before confessing: they are EXHAUSTED by all the performative nonsense they feel they have to keep up with (lest they be branded a “bad progressive” or “problematic”).
I almost feel bad for them. Almost. :)
I will vote for anyone who is going to clear homeless encampments, throw criminals the book, and do involuntary commitment to people experiencing mental health crises who roam our streets.
More policing, more safety is what we need. Enough is enough.
That’s the right thing to do.
Seattle is going crazier with every passing day. Today I took a leaflet from the guy standing near Capitol Hill station. It was from some revolutionary communist group, which had an emblem of the former Soviet Union. It made me literally scared. I wish I could warn everyone to stay away from those kind of groups. He said they have a meeting every week. As the one who moved here almost thirty years ago from the former Soviet Union, they are the most dangerous activists to me, with the rest of extreme left-wingers.
A leaflet eh? Talk about a snowflake.
I know and orange baby. He wants to be a dictator.
I am thinking “leaflet guy” does not even exist. Also? leaflet guy has no chance at influencing anyone. Neither is the guy evangelical and loud on a street corner.
Shall we say what about god and religion? I see what you wrote on “leaflet guy” whom you know nothing about.
You’re scared of people who can hand out flyers but can’t pull together a potluck, literally so.
Wrap it up T.L. this is ridiculous.
So take rights away from people? okay
I know who you vote for
Theres no fascists on the ballot, what are you gonna do?
Wait till the Nazi’s screw it up like always? Car’s 1/2 way in the ditch already…lol
Seattle has become such a slum. Sure not what it used to be. If we just get rid of the police, all will be utopia.
Shaun Scott referred to the October 7th massacrine Israel as a resistance. In a botched attempt to condemn anti-Semitism he referred to Zionism as trash and said that just because some “racist Jews” exploit the black community doesn’t make anti-Semitism okay.
Any candidate that denounced Islamists as trash and said that anti-black racism is wrong even though racist blacks exploit the Seattle community would never see the light of day. The obsession with denouncing Jews and the complete taboo against ever speaking in a way that could be seen as not positive about any other minority, including the one Shaun belongs to, is beyond belief.
Stop making him more likeable! I love it! Free Palestine!
What does claiming that “racist Jews exploit the black community” have to do with Palestine?
Scott’s supporters are very guilty of removing Suarez’s campaign signs on our streets. He may not be personally responsible, but he should come out and repudiate those who did this childish action.. Otherwise, it will continue to happen until the general election in November.
You’re assuming his campaign doesn’t like it happening…
who cares? you can’t control that
Seattle is not a progressive city. It’s wild how much people say that with no evidence. Maybe people see themselves as progressive and project, I don’t know. But Seattle is a libertarian city. Property rights are more important that human rights…look at any issue, from the war zone on Aurora to now-normaiized homelessness and affordability “crises”, and it all comes to property rights/values. It takes more that legal weed and LGBTQ+ representation to be “progressive.” Everyone knows libertarians are just conservatives who wanna smoke dope and don’t care what goes on in your bedroom…that’s Seattle
So leave off this tired argument about Seattle’s progressive bona fides…look around and see this city for what it is, a libertarian, property-focused city at best, a rich peoples’s playground at worst.
As for the “crises’ mentioned above? You can’t have a multi-year crisis: that is now the status quo, like accepting that you will also have a leaky basement or unreliable car because fixing it is too expensive. Look at the unimproved parking lots downtown, in the middle of a housing affordability crisis, and tell me that anyone is serious about fixing either of these two “crises.” Those could all be developed but as long as the miniscule taxes are paid, no one bast an eye. There is a huge hole in the ground across from city hall that could have been developed as social housing or mixed use — anything — but it was sold to a speculator and now sits, waiting for the price of housing to go up enough to make the project pencil out.
So go off on whether this candidate or that is “progressive” or conservative, but the real players are playing a different game.
lurker … we produced Sawant, arguably the most “progressive” person in politics. We produced the nation’s second highest minimum wage (only behind Tukwila), safe injections, an anti-car transportation dept, and will fuck a cop up with a mob on any given Tuesday. It’s a wee bit goofy to act like omg it’s just rich conservatives around here. Sure, it’s complex, because there are plenty of people who’d rather not take it as far as the far left has in this town, but let’s not pretend like it doesn’t have this city by the short hairs, as much fun as it is to always be a victim. While we’re doing this, let’s have the Sawantees own the consequences of her policies: maintained inequality through inflation perpetuated by massive minimum wage hikes and no efforts to change state law toward an income tax, rampant homelessness in part as a result, more dangerous streets due to a disabling of the police force and a reluctance to add sticks to the carrots used to combat addiction.
I see why they chose Elysian over Fremont Brewery.