Tag Archives: elections

Harrell will seek second term as mayor’s race will be part of busy year in politics for Seattle voters

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(Image: City of Seattle)

In advertising, orange can be used as a color representing boldness and excitement while green often represents feelings of sustainability — and wealth

Mayor Bruce Harrell is up for another round leading Seattle.

Harrell announced this week he will seek reelection in November 2025 to retain his seat at Seattle City Hall:

During my first term, we’ve made real progress and put our One Seattle approach into action – advancing our shared priorities by uniting the people of our city together around common values. We’ve delivered public safety solutions, kept parks and sidewalks open and accessible while moving people into shelter and housing with services, made historic investments in affordable housing, prioritized a transportation system focused on safety, and passed nation-leading climate legislation. But there is more work to do – this is the time for proven leadership to stand up for our values and keep Seattle moving forward as a city that is welcoming, affordable, and safe. Today, I registered my re-election campaign and look forward to kicking off this effort early next year.

Harrell’s camp points out the son of the Central District was elected Seattle mayor in 2021 “by the largest margin for a non-incumbent candidate since 1969” as the city’s voters chose the more moderate candidate over his more progressive opponent, Seattle City Councilmember Lorena González. Continue reading →

Zahilay launches bid to become ‘the first millennial, immigrant, or refugee’ King County Exec

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(Image: Girmay for King County)

Girmay Zahilay is beginning his run to lead King County with a major head start — the endorsements of the next wave of state Democratic leaders.

Zahilay, who has represented Capitol Hill, the Central District, and nearby neighborhoods from the University District to Skyway on the King County Council since 2020, has launched his campaign in the 2025 race for King County Executive with endorsements from newly elected Governor Bob Ferguson, and Attorney General-elect Nick Brown.

Zahilay also starts the race with the backing of several major labor groups including UFCW 3000.

“King County gave me the tools to climb the ladder of opportunity. Now, I’m running to make sure that ladder is available to everyone.” Zahilay said in his announcement. Continue reading →

‘A Man in a Porsche with a Trump Flag Hit Him with a Baseball Bat’ — More on SPD’s investigation of the possible Capitol Hill Election Night hate crime The Stranger dug up

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While several reports of disturbances involving Trump supporters on Election Night on Capitol Hill involved individuals or groups yelling from passing vehicles, details of an incident reported to have started with hateful harassment that escalated into an assault with a baseball bat on a gay man on 12th Ave have finally been made public.

The Seattle Police Department is looking for the suspects involved in the Election Night assault on Capitol Hill and investigating the incident as a possible hate crime.

The Stranger was first to report the assault investigation Friday reporting “a man in a Porsche with a Trump flag hit him with a baseball bat” and questioning SPD why the department did not go public with the investigation or seek assistance in the case. A spokesperson told the outlet that detectives “may not publicize a case to prevent suspects from destroying evidence, or drawing others who may copy the crime.” Continue reading →

After transportation levy’s big win, push begins for voter support for new Seattle Social Housing payroll tax

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Tech 4 Housing volunteers were out in support of ballot Initiative 137 this weekend (Image: @tech4housing)

The Prop 1 transportation levy had strong support across the city (Image: wacommunityalliance.github.io)

With more than 66% of Seattle voters approving the city’s $1.55 billion transportation levy earlier this month, attention is now turning to the next big financial decision set for the ballot this winter

Volunteers from Tech 4 Housing were at the Capitol Hill Farmers Market this weekend raising support for funding social housing.

Advocates won’t have to pitch more property taxes for this one. The Let’s Build Social Housing ballot Initiative 137 would add a 5% tax on companies for every dollar over a million paid to a Seattle employee in annual compensation including salary, stock, and bonuses. It will appear on the ballot in a special election in February.

A Seattle City Council-backed alternative initiative will also be presented to voters. That proposal would not create a new tax, instead amending the existing JumpStart payroll tax to provide $10 million annually to the Seattle Social Housing Developer in funding administered by the Seattle Office of Housing for five years with an option for extending the program.

Under state law, voters will be presented with a two-part decision. “Should either of these measures be enacted into law?” will be the first question. Then voters must select which of the two options they prefer.

As for the transportation levy, Seattle voters easily backed its focus on spending on streets, transit, sidewalk, and bike lanes for the next eight years with only the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods voting against the proposition.

 

Mapping Scott and Rinck wins across Capitol Hill, the Central District, and the ‘blue city’ of Seattle

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Maps of the neighborhood by neighborhood totals show recent political fault lines across Capitol Hill, the Central District, and Seattle held firm in the November election even as city leaders stoked rising priorities around law and order solutions to the city’s drug crisis and street disorder.

Meanwhile, anybody looking for clues about the changing political nature of “blue cities” will likely be confounded by our local results.

In the battle for Tanya Woo’s appointed citywide seat on the Seattle City Council, progressive challenger Alexis Mercedes Rinck dominated the core of the city with some of her strongest precinct showings in Capitol Hill’s renter-dominated center and on her home turf in the Central District with results approaching 75 to 80% of the vote. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill’s Pedersen is new Majority Leader in the Washington State Senate

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Capitol Hill’s Sen. Jamie Pedersen (D-Seattle) will be the new Majority Leader in the Washington State Senate.

State Democrats elected Pedersen to the post Monday. Pedersen joined the Senate representing the 43rd District including Capitol Hill in 2013. He was first elected to the State House of Representatives in 2006.

Pedersen is set to lead a Democratic caucus that is positioned to gain another seat from November’s election. Continue reading →

What people on Capitol Hill said when CHS asked about the election

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With reporting and photos by Alex Garland

Morgan – I’m shocked. I thought most people had understood the choices more clearly, and that that people maybe in public spaces weren’t comfortable, but in their hearts, they knew that here’s something more important to be chosen here. So I’m I’m sort of dazed and confused after this. Valencia – I’m disillusioned and sad. Felt like we’re headed to hell in a hand basket. I mean, I’m sorry for lack of better words. It just, I don’t know. I just, I kind of agree with Morgan. I really, kind of felt like people really knew the stakes. And I thought that women especially, and you know, men, women that raised them, and you know what? I mean, they have sisters, they have moms, they have, I mean, all of that, but they just would know that this what the right thing was. And it just, I’m just bewildered to talk. I can’t believe it. It’s, I mean, at the same time, it’s like, I’m not surprised, but I still am really surprised, because I really had a hope that we were going to do the right thing.

There are many ways to try to explain this week’s election results and the victory of Donald Trump. Geopolitical trends. Inflation. Turnout.

How to explain what we are all feeling is something else. CHS spent some time after Election Day talking with people out and about on the Hill about what happened Tuesday and how they feel about it. Many weren’t ready to talk. Some were mad. Some cried. Some crowed.

There have been reports of MAGA supporters making a show of their happiness with strange actions like walking into Capitol Hill coffee shops and loudly announcing the election’s results. Or the video of the guy driving around a mostly empty Capitol Hill yelling with glee that Donald Trump is “your president.”

CHS didn’t find anybody like that in our interviews. But we did find a few neighbors ready to say what they are feeling. The rest of us are still sorting it out. Hopefully you find some connection — and, maybe, some answers — in their words.

Nancy – Not great. Not good. I think it’s different, because it’s not so much that it’s a surprise anymore, but it’s still. It is almost more hurtful to know that people are choosing to elect the same person after everything that he accomplished in his four years and everything that he has threatened to do over the last four years, I also was so much more excited about the candidate than I was in 2016 I was actually really excited about the platform that the Democrats were running on. I think there’s more at risk because of the things he accomplished in 2016 like abortion rights, LGBTQ rights, and everything that he has threatened to do and done, the fact that we are choosing to go back to that it is like getting pushed down when you’re already down. It was already unbelievable to me as that he was running again, especially because he’s a convicted felon. I think it just speaks to the level of dissatisfaction that people feel as Americans, I think that obviously Trump is not the answer, but for the people that are hurting and that they’re experiencing poverty and they’re experiencing crisis, he has manipulated them to believe that he is the answer and that he is looking out for the common American person. Obviously, we know he isn’t, but I think it just speaks to the level of crisis and despair that people are experiencing, and the level of manipulation that he has achieved with Americans, especially white Americans and white men.

Continue reading →

Election Night on Capitol Hill: Voters fill the Broadway drop box as cops bust up demonstrators outside the East Precinct — UPDATE: Rinck and Scott come up big

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A jury-rigged lighting setup helped voters on Election Night on Capitol Hill (Image: Alex Garland/CHS)

Voting continued on an Election Night on Capitol Hill marked again by protest — and the tension of watching a neck and neck presidential vote play out across the country.

Amid the tension, Seattle’s progressive candidates marked unsurmountable leads in the first count of King County ballots Tuesday night.

Alexis Mercedes Rinck on Election Night (Image: @TammyMoralesSEA)

In the battle for Tanya Woo’s citywide seat on the Seattle City Council, progressive challenger Alexis Mercedes Rinck moved out to a significant Election Night lead, tallying 57.3% of the city’s vote. Woo, who has filled the Position 8 seat since 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, tried to make public safety a center of the debate in the campaign, joining leaders like council president Sara Nelson in championing a traditional law and order approach while Rinck has said true public safety requires solutions that address the root causes of crime like social and housing programs.

The progressive 43rd District Democrats 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.

UPDATE: Councilmember Tammy Morales, who will welcome a fellow progressive joining her on the council, celebrated Rinck’s strong showing. “Position 8 going back to a People’s Champion, a renter, a transit rider, a queen Latina, and the youngest person ever to serve on Seattle City Council,” Morales wrote.

Serving only the final year of Mosqueda’s term, Rinck will find herself campaigning again in 2025.

She will be the youngest person ever elected to serve on the Seattle City Council.

As for the 43rd District leadership in Olympia, Shaun Scott appears well on his way to victory. His Election Night totals came in near landslide levels at 67.8%.

“Onto Olympia” — Scott with Nicole Macri, his soon to be 43rd District counterpart in the State House of Representatives. Macri ran unopposed (Image: @Scott43LD)

CHS reported here on the tactics of Scott’s opponent Andrea Suarez in a campaign marked by extreme polarization over social issues and public safety, slick attack ads with the fingerprints of political think tanks all over them, and back and forth accusations tying the opposition to larger, overarching threats to the country and Democracy as we know it, as CHS reported here.

Suarez gained notoriety through the We Heart Seattle organization she started as a neighborhood clean-up and homelessness volunteer group, growing the role into her full-time job. She has touted her connections to Republicans and conservative organizations while also maintaining that she is a Democrat. Her campaign is now endorsed by the Seattle Times — and the Seattle Police Officers Guild.

Scott’s support from Frank Chopp, the Washington political legend and housing champion whose retirement opened the seat. A lobbyist with the Statewide Poverty Action Network who narrowly lost a 2019 race to represent the University District on the Seattle City Council, has focused his campaign on continuing to respond to the issues that drove the Black Lives Matters protests, and the responses to the COVID-19 crisis that forged progressive policies including the creation of a public social housing developer in Seattle.

UPDATE: Suarez conceded the race late Tuesday. Overnight, Scott placed his victory in context of a Trump victory.

“Under President Trump, state legislatures must be a locus of resistance to Republican policies. Washington State’s 43rd LD has spoken loud and clear about the need for a bold progressive agenda funded by taxes on the ultra wealthy,” Scott said. “I can’t wait to get to work in Olympia.”

Scott and Rinck celebrated the results at a crowded Election Night party at Capitol Hill’s St. John’s.

Progressives in Seattle will also be pleased with the first count in the vote on the city’s $1.55 billion transportation proposition which also appears to be a done deal. CHS reported here on the proposed property tax levy and its focus on spending on streets, transit, sidewalk, and bike lanes for the next eight years. The funding and spending plan will replace the $930 million previous levy approved in 2015.

For all King County results, visit the King County Elections site.

You can find the statewide Washington election results here.

Earlier in the night, Seattle Police reported five arrests as it moved in on a group of around 30 demonstrators dressed in black bloc clothing and masks as it marched down the middle of 12th Ave. Police said individuals in the group had damaged property. “We support the First Amendment. Do not interfere with the arrests,” an SPD Community Response Group officer repeated over a loud speaker as the detentions began.

There were reports of tagging and vandalism in Cal Anderson Park from people witnessing the situation.

An arrest on 12th Ave (Image: Alex Garland/CHS)

The group was first reported in the streets near Cal Anderson around 6 PM. By 7:15 PM, SPD reported the group had “dwindled” but was still engaging in property damage.

The King County Sheriff Guardian 1 helicopter repeatedly circled the area to monitor demonstrators.

Earlier in the week, posters went up around the neighborhood announcing a protest gathering. “Let’s express our displeasure in the streets,” they invited.

Election Night in 2020 in Seattle was also marked by demonstrations and protest.

The King County Elections drop box at Seattle Central remained busy with last minute voters throughout the disturbance a few blocks away. Continue reading →

What to do if the Broadway ballot drop box is full — UPDATE

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It’s Election Day with ballots due by 8 PM. If you haven’t voted yet, do NOT drop it in the mail. It is too late to be postmarked in time.

Most presidential election years, reports come in that the Broadway ballot drop box is filling up.

King County Elections says its teams will be out emptying the ballot boxes all day.

“We find that often drop boxes are not actually ‘full’ but ballots are bunched up at the slot,” KCE said in one past update.

Their advice is to “make sure each ballot is smoothly through the entrance” — though you can also try to give the 1,000-pound boxes a thump.

You can also try another drop box — though the Garfield Community Center box can fill up fast, too.

If you can, wait it out and county election workers will be on the case to come and clear the way for democracy.

Remember, last year, the Broadway drop box made a small 40-foot move to its new location still on the edge of Seattle Central College.

As for worries about somebody damaging the county’s dop boxes, KCE says every ballot drop box will have security on Election Day “in addition to being staffed by Elections staff.” The boxes are also designed for protection “with no pry points and multiple locking mechanisms” and are equipped with fire stops.

For a more likely issue, to replace a lost or damaged ballot, King County voters can mark and print a new ballot with this online ballot marking tool.

 

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The Seattle Police Department does not endorse Andrea Suarez

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An image from a since deleted Suarez social media post

And it doesn’t endorse her opponent, either.

While the race for the open seat to represent Capitol Hill and the 43rd District in Olympia mirrors the national battle of extreme polarization over social issues and public safety, the final days of the race have taken on parochial dimensions that even have the Seattle Police Department saying enough already.

Heading into the weekend in a now deleted social media post, candidate Andrea Suarez complained about stickers on street signs in Wallingford and accused opponent Shaun Scott of wanting to “abolish the police” in a message tagging the Seattle Police Department and the Seattle Police Officers Guild union and thanking them for their endorsement.

SPD was not amused. Continue reading →