As results trickled in from this month’s first primary electing Seattle City Council members by district, two strong trends emerged — trends that are completely mutually incompatible. The tension between them — between the citizen-powered campaigns the district system supposedly enable and the massive floods of campaign cash flowing from Seattle’s newfound wealth — will be the dominant story of this fall’s general election.
Progressive election
The primary was a good night for activist campaigns. The biggest of them, of course, was Kshama Sawant, the incumbent whose socialist class rhetoric is as alarming to Seattle’s civic establishment as its popularity is bewildering.
Big-money opposition to Sawant in the District 3 (East Central Seattle) seat had coalesced around Pamela Banks, an Urban League head on leave who touted her progressive credentials even as her stances — and donors — belied them. With two other active candidates in the race, and with Sawant doubling down on her image with a campaign centered on her demand for rent control, Sawant was expected to win only a tight plurality.
Nope. Sawant will top 52 percent when the final votes are counted. Her closest challenger, Banks, lagged far behind, at 34 percent. It turns out that renters, caught in an unprecedented housing crisis, aren’t all that alarmed by talk of rent control after all. Who knew?
Jonathan Grant knew. The underdog former Tenants Union executive, running citywide against well-funded rocker John Roderick and labor activist John Persak for the right to challenge City Council president Tim Burgess, campaigned almost exclusively on housing. And Grant beat the far better-funded Roderick and held the powerful Burgess to less than 50 percent. With almost all of Roderick and Persak’s votes likely to go to Grant in November, Burgess appears surprisingly vulnerable.
Voters also threw a long-overdue retirement party for Jean Godden in District 4 (Lake Union to Sand Point), promoting well-funded developer favorite Rob Johnson (no surprise) and progressive LGBT activist Michael Maddux (more of a surprise).
A strong progressive also narrowly topped a well-funded establishment favorite in District 1 (West Seattle), with Lisa Herbold, an 18-year legislative aide to the retiring Nick Licata, edging Metropolitan King County Councilmember Joe McDermott aide Shannon Braddock
Progressives did well elsewhere, too. Environmental activist Fred Felleman topped a crowded field for an open Port of Seattle Commissioner seat.
Reform candidates Jill Geary and Leslie Harris won the two Seattle School Board races. And King County Elections Deputy Director Julie Wise thumped two political candidates for the right to run that critical agency.
Given that summer primaries have less of a turnout and skew older, whiter, wealthier and more conservative than general elections, the primary bodes well for progressive candidates’ chances this fall — or not.
At first blush, the new, mixed 7-2 district system for council elections worked as designed. It gave challengers a greater chance against incumbents and encouraged more candidates — 47 ran for the nine seats, compared to only a handful of serious challenges to incumbents in the last decade.
With three incumbents retiring and Godden losing at the polls, the City Council hasn’t seen such a turnover in decades. Whether districts are the reason or voters are simply disgruntled, the City Council is suddenly accountable in a way it hasn’t been for ages.
And the people who’ve benefited most from that lack of accountability are fighting back.
More business money
With Seattle’s newfound, unprecedented wealth, and with the unlimited spending made possible by Citizens United, so-called soft money showed up for the first time this year in a local primary — independent expenditures meant to support one or another candidate but not directly tied to their campaign.
The biggest beneficiaries were Johnson and Braddock, who reportedly had $200,000 in such hidden money spent on their behalf. But the most attention came from the first announced donation, a $48,000 drop to a previously unnoticed candidate in District 5 (North Seattle) from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Kris Lethin was a Realtor himself but one with no real campaign or chance. In a crowded field, the NAR spent about $37 a vote on Lethin, apparently solely because he opposed rent control.
The message to other candidates this fall couldn’t be clearer: toe the pro-development line; oppose rent control, linkage and impact fees, incentive zoning and any other taxes or regulations that might impinge on the current gravy train; and expect a lot of cash.
Count on Johnson and Braddock to get lots more such business money come fall. Even more so for Banks, whose uphill effort to unseat Sawant will be the most expensive council race in city history. If Grant looks competitive, Burgess will also be a beneficiary.
Housing activists aren’t the only people wanting to control the City Council. Their opponents have deep pockets, and Seattle politicians remain a shockingly cheap investment. It’ll be a long fall.
GEOV PARRISH is cofounder of Eat the State! He also reviews news of the week on “Mind Over Matters” on KEXP 90.3 FM. To comment on this column, write to MPTimes@nwlink.com.