Primary elections are coming up, with ballots due by this coming Tuesday, August 4th. Incredibly, there are 47 candidates running for city council alone (not in one district, but still), so maybe you need a hand getting your decisions all sorted out.
Thankfully, there are people wonkier than thou who have taken the time sift through the candidates and develop opinions they’d love you to share.
Here’s a quick rundown on some sources you may wish to reference:
- DOUG’s Voter’s Guide: My favorite, not just because he’s from Wallingford, but his is the only election guide that makes a strong case for Pickles the Orphan Polar Bear.
- The Stranger’s Voter Guide: The Stranger has gone through some tough times recently, with the departure of Dominic Holden and others, but they’re still the best progressive rag in town.
- Progressive Voter’s Guide: Like The Stranger, but without all the potty talk.
- Poverty Action Network Voter’s Guide: Love the title, but actually all they do is send a questionnaire to all the candidates, then publish their answers verbatim. Where’s the action?
I’m sure the Seattle Times has a Voter’s Guide. It’s probably on the Google.
Very helpful! Thanks very much!
Hmmmm I don’t think you meant to call this a voter’s guide, rather call it what it is, your handpicked personal opinions voter’s guide. 🙂
All three sources are similar in their recommendations because of their very similar Political Persuasion (OK, I’m guessing about Doug’s).
The Seattle Times, which you mention (for shame on your for not linking to it), has a much different take on the races. And, I wouldn’t exactly label the Seattle Times as crazy conservative or something partisan like that.
I’m not saying that I entirely dislike the opinions of the Stranger or these others, but let’s be fair to ourselves and include a little balance.
Here’s a couple other alternate opinions for a more Balanced and Fair Wallyhood Blog. Read them only if your brain can take some of their the *gasp* opposing viewpoints.
Seattle Times: http://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/
Seattle City Club https://livingvotersguide.org/
The Seattle Times endorsed George Bush not once, but twice. Yes, they have a conservative editorial board that is out of step with progressive Seattle.
Thanks for linking to Doug’s guide. I look forward to reading it at every election and was starting to wonder when it would appear.
JKC, so because they endorsed George Bush 6 years ago (that was unfortunate) you discount their entire opinion of other races in 2015? That’s like saying you won’t consider Hillary for President just because she voted for the Iraq war. I’ve made mistakes before (there I admit it 🙂 ) yet I still consider other opinions even if they don’t align with my own. Sometimes Seattle falls victim to “Group Think” because well, birds of a feather flock together, However, that isn’t always respectful of other opinions, nor does it allow for honest discussion and dialog of divergent ideas/thought.
Plenty of content from the Seattle Times gets considered here, but their editorial board specifically represents the Seattle business establishment.more than residents. That’s my take on why it isn’t all that relevant in a neighborhood blog – surprised it was even mentioned.
I got the Tony Provine mailer with the bulldozer on it. He just may eek out ahead because of it. Very savvy on the part of his people.
According to the Times, all the council members are running away from upzoning.
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattles-upzoning-plan-seems-to-be-sinking/
Yeah, right now no one wants to wear a HALA hat. Attitudes could start changing right after the elections, though. Provine comes by it naturally, coming out of neighborhood organization roles. I have been suspicious of O’Brien, but lately starting to think he might be for real, and he does seem very competent.
http://www.runforthemoney.org/ lists council candidates who’ve had a ton of money dropped on them. In second place: in District 5 (which includes Wallingford) is Rob Johnson, who is reported to have gotten $74,000 from “big business, chain hotels & restaurants, and the landlord lobby.”
The only candidate with larger cash bombs from big business is the opponent of Ksama Sawant, the dreaded socialist who committed the unpardonable sin of leading the movement to raise wages from poverty levels, and now has the gall to act against the rocketing rents that are making Seattle increasingly unaffordable for most.
Useful information, but they’re clearly focusing on a couple candidates. Ethics & Elections maintains more comprehensive stats – only for direct contributions, not the independent expenditures per above, but it’s interesting. For charts, http://web6.seattle.gov/ethics/elections/charts.aspx I selected “All Candidates”. Our districts 4 & 6 are bargain districts! For itemized contributions, http://web6.seattle.gov/ethics/elections/lists.aspx?cycle=2015
I recommend reading the online survey for city council candidates conducted by the Seattle Human Services Coalition. It is available at http://www.shscoalition.org/onlinecandidateresponses/.
Voter guides completely based on your own personal ideology. It’s your blog and so it is your right. However, it’s preaching to the choir. Leftists will advocate leftist voters’ guides and rightists rightist ones, yeah which is totally outnumbered in Seattle. My point is though no minds get changed. Leftists will vote for leftists and rightists for whomever is perceived as more rightist. Eric’s post was very helpful, providing links to specific questions and answers affecting our neighborhood. My only disagreement with Eric is that Seattle is only a drop in an ocean but ideologies are and always will be part of the voting process. Grown men can stomp their feet and ask people not to vote but that has no effect, if anything encourages participation in the voting process so that is good, not the intended consequence I gather, but the actual one.
I don’t know. People often vote for knee jerk reasons. That’s why all these candidates have to show their opinions in code. Look at Provine’s mailer: “We are in the process of transforming a horrible block into an appropriately high-density apartment building.” He can’t say he’s anti-density ,and perhaps he isn’t anyway, so he says “appropriately.” You better believe I got the hint and I’m probably going to vote for him.
I don’t know if David Yao is an operative, but his link is very effective. It definitely gives a Rob Johnson supporter pause.
I am surprised that this wasn’t mentioned, but didn’t Wallyhood run some pretty thorough interviews with the candidates in the city council and school-board races for Wallingford districts? I would think these would also be important to reference.
Finally getting around to the obscure stuff – KC Elections Director? DOUG: “What are `Lean Management principles’ and `Six Sigma techniques’?” Here’s a nice writeup – http://www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/1000/PMC-ImproveServiceDeliveryLeanSixSigmaReport.pdf
Sounds good … or not. In reality, I expect it’s about the people who put it into practice. Interesting reference from a writeup of a case study in Los Angeles County govt: “Lean Six Sigma was selected as the method of choice because of its success in the elections field of King County, Washington.” So it looks like KC went way out in front on this and did well with it. I admit I’m only skimming it, but this writeup makes it out to be about putting “subject matter experts”, i.e. people who actually do the work, in charge of decisions that are typically made in manager meetings, and leaving them in some degree of ownership in the resultant processes. And then laying off all the managers. (Ha ha, just joking … maybe, I’m skimming.)
So in my view it reflects well on the current crew there, and since I think it’s ridiculous anyway that this is an elective office I’m happy to stick with Julie Wise who just works there and isn’t endorsed by Mayor Murray or any other political organization.
It is always valuable to look at Geov Parrish’s insightful analysis re candidates (yes, coming from a very “progressive” perspective): http://geov.org/gp/?p=218 “The best bets in the five-person field are neighborhood activist Tony Provine and gay activist (and Democratic Party honcho) Michael Maddux. I started out not entirely trusting Maddux, but people I trust vouch for him, and he’s run a more broadly progressive campaign than Provine. By a whisker, MICHAEL MADDUX.” . I also appreciate his description of our New Seattle as “SeattleLand!” (a for-profit theme park) in another blog post: http://geov.org/gp/?p=218. “Behind closed doors, far from public scrutiny, the project of remaking Seattle continues apace. …When the inevitable bust arrives, the people getting rich in SeattleLand! will retreat to their comfortable lofts, somewhere in the heart of a real city far away. We’ll be left with the mess.”