Opponents don’t expect Banks to change council debate

Pamela Banks, 55, is a first-generation college graduate from the University of Washington who moved from Portland, Ore., to Seattle in 1977. She served as a senior policy advisor for former Mayor Greg Nickels, which is when she said she first considered making a run at office.

Prior to that, she’d worked for City Councilmember Sally Clark, after Jim Compton resigned from the seat in 2005. At the time, Banks remembers not feeling ready to put her name in the candidate ring — in part because of the overwhelming amount of money needed to campaign on the citywide stage.

“I was a single mom with a lot of volunteer responsibilities … the timing was not good,” she said. “I have had this wonderful career. Sometimes it’s all about timing. For me, I felt like it was a good time to try.”

Banks credited Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant for her part in passing the $15 minimum-wage initiative but said she also wants to focus more on solutions, particularly related to economic development and creating jobs.

“I want to talk about solutions to some of the inequities, rather than just calling them out without having a solution or suggestion as to how to address the inequity,” she said.

Banks, a resident of the Central Area for nearly two decades, is attempting to become the second black woman to be a part of the Seattle City Council. Her candidacy is based around a four-tier platform of quality-of-life issues that include income inequality, affordable housing, education and public safety.

The Urban League has historically focused on education, employment, health and housing within Seattle’s disenfranchised African-American community. However, Banks rejected the notion of there being a transition from working with a single demographic to the needs of an entire district. Banks said the Urban League serves all people who need help.

“It’s not a transition for me because I am a diverse person, and my whole working career has been working in multicultural and other communities,” Banks said.

She said she would step down from the Urban League if elected and will likely need to take some time off as primaries near: “I don’t think it will be hard at all.”

Still, Banks said she feels her place in history and believes diversity on the City Council is important. She said she feels “an obligation” and “urgency” as a black leader to put herself up for this role, particularly with the temperamental race-relations discussions around the country.

“I stand on the shoulders of a whole bunch of people before me, and I do feel an obligation, and I do think the time is now,” she said. “It’s hard talking about race in such a liberal, progressive city. I hope they are ready for it.”

While Sawant’s focus remains on representing those who are “normally shut out of the political process,” her fight for issues, including her November arrest for protesting airline workers’ wages, has garnered national attention. Banks said she sees Sawant as being more effective in one of the two at-large positions, rather than focused on specific districts. The at-large spots have two-year terms rather than four.

The Seattle Weekly also reported that sitting council members believed that Banks entering the race could set the stage for Sawant filing for the citywide Position 9 seat.

Sawant has no interest “at all” in running for the at-large seats, according to Philip Locker, spokesperson for Sawant’s election campaign, after filing to run for District 3 last summer.

Locker said Banks’ entrance into the race does not change Sawant’s goals, which is primarily delivering “delivering real progress on affordable housing.” That includes creating more affordable housing units and strengthening renters and tenants rights. She’s also focused on hate crimes in the LGTBQ community.

“She’s not focused on attacks against her,” Locker said. “She will be focused on the campaign.”

Rod Hearne — who plans to focus on the LGBTQ community, communities of color, educational outreach and the arts communities for his campaign for the same City Council position — said Banks entering the race also doesn’t change what he is doing tactically, which is working with neighborhood groups and activists, canvassing and knocking on doors.

“I think that’s the system they wanted when they went to district [representation],” he said. “That’s the campaign that I’m running. I don’t think it really changes that much for me.”

Banks changes the “makeup” of the race, according to opponent Morgan Beach, but not the conversation itself, which she believes includes gender and wage equality, affordability and transportation.

“We’re all running for District 3 — not against each other, necessarily,” Beach said.

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