This year is a milestone in Seattle politics, and not just because of the new districts for City Council elections. The infusion of enormous wealth into Seattle’s economy — especially the seemingly limitless corporate welfare enjoyed by real estate interests — has finally given Seattle big-city politics, in which small fortunes get spent, legally and otherwise, to keep the gravy train rolling.
Most obviously, there’s the unprecedented (at least since Prohibition days) allegation by Jonathan Grant, an affordable housing advocate mounting a strong challenge to City Council president Tim Burgess. Grant claims a developer behind a $200,000 drop of soft money on behalf of Burgess told Grant that the expenditure would disappear if Grant “cooperated.” This is good, old-fashioned mob politics: It’s all about buying politicians for pennies on the megadollar.
Whether Grant’s allegations are proven, local politics’ transformation into a Martin Scorsese script is even more visible in a story that got less attention: the reversal of three endorsement votes in the Democrats’ 37th (state) Legislative District group in Southeast Seattle.
A fair endorsement?
Democratic Party endorsements get an enormous yawn from everyone, except political insiders. But they’re coveted, because local Democratic legislative districts have something campaigns need: volunteers. Get endorsed by a district and their stalwarts go door-to-door telling their neighbors to vote for you. That’s a far more effective way to influence voters than postcards or robo-calls.
In the primary, the 37th District didn’t get the 60 percent needed to endorse Burgess. In the two new council districts the 37th overlaps with, members also could not agree to endorse incumbent Bruce Harrell and voted not to endorse in the Pamela Banks/Kshama Sawant race — a victory for Sawant, who, as a non-Democrat, wasn’t eligible for the endorsement.
Last month, the group endorsed in all three races — by only one vote in its Burgess and Banks endorsements. What changed? It was the electorate that changed. Only people who are members 25 days before the district’s election can vote.
On the final day to join, a Harrell staffperson called the chair of the 37th Distrct, asking if the campaign could legally buy bulk memberships. (Nope, it runs afoul of campaign finance laws.)
An anonymous caller then drove to the treasurer’s home at 10:30 p.m. to present 15 sequentially numbered money orders for new members.
The new members worked for Eastside for Hire, a cab company whose owner, Abdul Yusuf, has been an outspoken opponent of pending council legislation that would allow cab drivers to unionize.
On the night of the endorsement vote, the cluster of East African cab drivers huddled with Burgess and Harrell, who, witnesses claim, instructed them on how to vote in the three races. Supporters of those candidates heckled and jeered opponents’ supporters so loudly that their statements couldn’t be heard.
As it developed, at least five new voters were ineligible. Those votes almost certainly swung the one-vote margin in the Burgess and Banks races.
The losing candidates cried foul, but the 37th District’s leaders refused to revisit the endorsements. And the winners — all sharing the same consultant, Christian Sinderman — went on the counterattack, with Sinderman sending a press release claiming critics were motivated by racism against East Africans.
Sinderman is also Mayor Ed Murray’s campaign consultant. He also consults candidates in an unprecedented eight of the nine council races; Burgess, Harrell, Banks, incumbent Sally Bagshaw and candidates Lorena Gonzalez (citywide), Shannon Braddock (West Seattle), Rob Johnson (University District) and Sandy Brown (Northeast Seattle).
All of these candidates are favorites of Murray, the developer lobby and the local political establishment. So far this fall, the wave of corporate soft money has gone solely to that slate. Burgess, Banks, Braddock and Johnson — the candidates facing the most progressive challengers — have received most of it.
And those ineligible voters in the 37th District? Four of the five weren’t from Eastside for Hire at all, and one, Maggie Thompson, is a policy advisor in Murray’s office.
Strong-arm politics
So, in this incestuous little tableau, there’s at least the appearance of:
•A quid pro quo of Harrell’s opposition to unionizing cabbies in exchange for endorsement votes;
•Coercion of employees to mobilize for the boss’ candidates;
•The bulk purchase of memberships by a campaign (an ethics complaint on this was rejected for lack of evidence);
•Coordination between the mayor and a supermajority of council campaigns;
•The cabbies being instructed how to vote on allied campaigns;
•Use of illegitimate endorsements by at least the Banks and Burgess campaigns; and
•Bullying, threats and race-baiting to intimidate and discredit critics.
That smells like a lot of ugly dealings for one simple endorsement meeting.
But with so much money riding on getting properly pliant people on City Council, we’re going to see more of this sort of strong-arm politics in the future. Welcome to the big leagues.
GEOV PARRISH reviews news of the week on “Mind Over Matters” on KEXP 90.3 FM. To comment on this column, write to MPTimes@nwlink.com.