Tag Archives: king county council

Powered by Census population shifts, King County Council redistricting options could unite Capitol Hill

Posted on by

Parts of Capitol Hill could see new King County Council representation under a draft plan by the county’s redistricting committee. The committee is nearing the home stretch and should wrap up within the next two months. Capitol Hill’s place straddling county District 2 and District 8 will be reshaped in the process.

As with pretty much every jurisdiction in the nation, district lines are re-drawn every 10 years after the U.S. Census Bureau releases its head count of how many people live in America, and just where those people live. At the federal level, it often results in congressional seats moving from slower-growing states to faster growing states.

That concept plays out in miniature across the various levels of government. In Washington, the state is busy re-drawing lines for its congressional and legislative districts. The commission drawing those maps, a five-member panel including Capitol Hill’s former state Rep. Brady Walkinshaw, has released a set of proposed maps, but the group still has a way to go.

The commission re-drawing Seattle’s City Council district lines is also working away on its own maps.

At the county level, new maps were recently released which reflect radically different growth rates across the county. Continue reading →

No endorsement: Sawant, challengers fail to shine as District 3 candidates make lackluster showing in 43rd Dems endorsements vote

Posted on by

It was Sawant vs. DeWolf Tuesday night — and nobody came out on top

The one time council member Kshama Sawant didn’t want a no endorsement result she got it as the 43rd District Democrats failed to reach agreement on a single District 3 candidate with a standing-room crowd at the University of Washington’s Kane Hall Tuesday night. After two ballots, the attendees were unable to come to an agreement on an endorsement, even when the field was whittled down from the six candidates to Seattle Public Schools Board member Zachary DeWolf and Sawant.

This decision signals a splintered electorate where none of the five challengers have truly seized the mantle in taking on a polarizing incumbent and that anything could happen in the next two months before the August top-two primary. It also could be a sign of things to come in a summer of political races featuring an unprecedentedly huge field of candidates.

The first ballot Tuesday was inconclusive, leaving DeWolf and Sawant to duke it out on a second round. The All Home King County staffer received votes on 46% of ballots in the first set, while the incumbent was on 42%.

“These kids have hope and they cannot wait for us any longer to act,” said DeWolf, catching his breath after arriving a few minutes late to speak as he was running from another school graduation ceremony. “Please do not let them into a world where people are sleeping outside, where people are going hungry, where our cities crumbling because of the climate crisis. We owe it to these kids to deliver results so that they can be proud of the world that they’re living in.”

Unlike in last month’s contentious 37th District Democrats endorsement process, which resulted in a complicated ‘no consensus’ decision after three and a half hours and four ballots, the 43rd’s Democratic Party allows for the endorsement of a candidate outside of the party, such as Sawant of Socialist Alternative. Continue reading →