(Image: Shobhit for Seattle City Council District 3)

There are more than 70,000 registered voters in District 3 representing Capitol Hill, the Central District, and nearby neighborhoods. But there might not be enough votes to go around.

With a month to go before the May registration deadline and 120 or so days until the August Primary, there are now 10 candidates for the D3 seat on the Seattle City Council.

The latest to join the fray is Shobhit Agarwal, a queer resident of Capitol Hill, a native of India, and a one time computer science and engineering guy who now works in retail and says that diversity of experience would inform his work at Seattle’s City Hall. In the Hill’s dense core, you can call Agarwal a neighborhood leader, of sorts, as he says helping lead the board for his 14th and Pine condo building will be the base of starting his campaign to pursue initiatives to promote green infrastructure, electric vehicles, and climate friendly businesses and jobs.

“I’ve been on the my condo board for five years, and I’ve seen how being on the board you can make progress and make things happen,” Agarwal tells CHS. “I want to do the same for the city.”

ELECTION 2023

• KSHAMA SAWANT: ‘Workers Strike Back’ — Sawant making ‘Important Announcement Regarding Her Council Office’ — UPDATE: She’s out
• SHOBHIT AGARWAL: Shobhit Agarwal makes ten — In a crowded field, latest District 3 candidate taking building by building approach
• RY ARMSTRONG: The race for District 3 had to have a Democracy Voucher candidate — Ry Armstrong just might be it
• ANDREW ASHIOFU: As D3 candidate field crowds, Ashiofu hopes unique perspectives on housing, health, and transit will change the race
• ALEX COOLEY: ‘Like, the beauty of democracy’ — Judkins Park and cannabis community leader joins ‘conversation’ for District 3 seat on the Seattle City Council
• BOBBY GOODWIN: Bobby Goodwin, a public defender who wants cops to work harder and the streets of Seattle to be safer, wants your District 3 vote
• JOY HOLLINGSWORTH: With ‘cannabis justice,’ hunger advocacy, and three generations in the Central District, Hollingsworth enters race for District 3 — UPDATE
• EFRAIN HUDNELL: This District 3 candidate wants to use affordable housing to help save Seattle from a ‘death spiral that we’ve seen in cities that have gone boom to bust in a way that only American cities do’
• ALEX HUDSON: With her heart on First Hill, Hudson joins race for District 3 with a neighborhood approach to urbanist policy
• More…

It might seem small minded to compare the work of a condo board trying to make sure their building has electric vehicle charging infrastructure to the efforts of the city council but a community is a community. Agarwal says he hopes his building is a base as he builds his campaign and gets a solid start among the other D3 candidates scrambling to collect enough signatures to qualify for the city’s Democracy Vouchers program.

Odds are getting better and better you’ll have one run into one of them. Agarwal’s entry into the race makes him the tenth candidate to begin the voucher process that requires a starting 150 signatures to qualify a candidate and begin the process of releasing pledged funding. According to the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission that administrates the program, only two D3 candidates have so far qualified — Cannabis entrepreneur and Central District community leader Joy Hollingsworth and transit advocate and First Hill neighborhood leader Alex Hudson.

Agarwal, who in an interview with CHS expressed an engineer’s approach to solving Seattle issues like affordable housing, homelessness, and transit, says his push to qualify for vouchers he hopes will be built with lots of help from the residents in his building.

He hopes his messages about green infrastructure and green businesses and jobs, public safety spending that brings in new police officers from the neighborhoods they serve, housing affordability powered by a “differential tax” on foreign real estate investors, and street and local issues like untying Agarwal’s traffic pet peeve on James Street, will resonate with neighbors first and then the rest of the district into the August primary.

His — now that he is recovering from a recent appendectomy — will be a walking campaign, building to building, door to door, Agarwal says.

“I’m starting in my building. 153 units. Now, not everybody like me. Not everybody will help. But if I get 25% support, that’s a good start.”

https://twitter.com/voteforshobhit/status/1639841198671298562

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