PROPOSITION NO.1,
PARKS, RECREATION, TRAILS, AND OPEN SPACE LEVY
Prop 1 replaces the current expiring parks levy. Parks ain’t free. If your house is assessed at $800,000 it’s going to cost you about 50 cents a day to drink a beer at Gasworks, Discovery, Volunteer, Marymoor, or any of King County’s other parks and playfields. That seems like a steal!

(Also, unlike in most Canadian cities, drinking in Seattle parks is illegal...let’s work on that next.)

VOTE APPROVED

EXECUTIVE
Shockingly we have a wide open race for King County Executive. After four terms at the helm of the county, Dow Constantine took the money ($450,000!) and ran off to head Sound Transit. Eight candidates filed to take his place. Only seven remain, because current King County Assessor, John Wilson, suspended his campaign after he was arrested for stalking his ex-girlfriend. He’s still on the ballot, but don’t vote for him. He’s creepy.

This is essentially a two person race, Claudia Balducci vs. Girmay Zahilay, who are both sitting King County councilmembers. Zahilay currently represents my district on the council. He’s fine, but frankly, I don’t think he cares too much about public transit, which is a priority for me and a significant responsibility for the King County government. He makes no mention of buses or light rail (or bikes!) in his voter’s guide statement, and barely makes mention of public transit on his website. But you know who does? Claudia Balducci.

Balducci is a bus rider and bike commuter who wants to expand bus routes and build more cycling infrastructure. In a two person race with two good candidates, my tiebreaker goes to the bus lady.

VOTE CLAUDIA BALDUCCI

MAYOR
I’ve lived in Seattle for 33 years, during which time the city has had eight mayors (nine if you count Tim Burgess’s two months as interim mayor in 2017), and on a scale of 1 to 8, with Mike McGinn being #1 and Jenny Durkan being #8, current mayor Bruce Harrell is a solid 4, somewhere in Paul Schell territory. In other words, he’s fine.

Seven candidates are running to replace Harrell as mayor. From former mayoral candidate Joe “Magenta” Mallahan, whose sole qualification to run the city is he was a T-Mobile exec, to Doctor Clinton Bliss who (in addition to having the coolest name on the ballot) sports a killer serpentine mustache. I’ll pass on both.

My vote is going to Katie Wilson, who co-founded the Transit Riders Union in 2011, and has spent the past 15 years advocating for transit infrastructure and general mobility improvements (like sidewalks and stuff). Traffic sucks in Seattle and it rains a lot too. We should not be cutting bus hours and tearing out bus shelters, but that’s what’s been happening under Mayor Bruce Harrell for the past four years. Cities are for people, not cars.

Kill your Tesla, take the bus.

VOTE KATIE WILSON

CITY ATTORNEY
Ann Davison is terrible—ghosting judges, voting Republican. Ugh. She fluked her way into the city attorney’s office four years ago after we decided to kick Pete Holmes to the curb in the primary, pitting Davison in the general election against Nicole Thomas-Kennedy, whose “defund the cops” policies proved to be too scary for Seattle at large. Liberals suck at strategy.

Fortunately we have three good options to replace Davison in January. Rory O’Sullivan, Nathan Rouse, and Erika Evans are all competent and qualified to be Seattle’s next city attorney. Hey, if we play our cards right maybe we can keep Davison from even advancing to the general election. But liberals suck at strategy.

Honestly, O’Sullivan, Rouse, and Evans have similar positions on many things. YES to community courts. NO to Trump’s immigration policies. YES to emphasizing domestic violence cases. NO to wage theft. So who to choose?

I’d love to put my support beyond Nathan Rouse, because he’s a former professional bike racer and a public defender. Both cool. But he also has the least experience of the three not-Davison candidates, so I fear that his candidacy may be risky when facing the incumbent (even a terrible one) in November.

So it’s kind of a coin flip between O’Sullivan and Evans. How about I vote for one, you vote for the other, then the next person votes for the first one, and the next person votes for the other? And we wipe out Davison in August, so it’s O’Sullivan v. Evans in November. Win-win! But liberals suck at strategy.

In the end, I’m going to vote for Rory O’Sullivan. I like the work he’s done as a democracy reform advocate with FairVote Washington, as well as on the democracy voucher program. He’s also worked with the Innocence Project and was a legislative aid to Jim McDermott, who is a legit American hero.

I VOTE O'SULLIVAN (YOU VOTE EVANS, SHE VOTES O'SULLIVAN, HE VOTES EVANS...)

CITY COUNCIL, POSITION NO. 8
This vote is a no-brainer. Rachael Savage is a kooky right-winger who claims that in Seattle “cops are treated as criminals” and “the press and the government stifle critical thinking and diversity of opinion.” Yeah, right. Has she met a cop or read the Seattle Times’ editorial page? Next.

Jesse A. James is a local “musician” (perhaps you’ve seen his flyers plastered on utility poles). He is endorsed by Nirvana-bassist-turned-libertarian-crank Krist Novoselic, hates the Sugar Tax, and is a huge fan of light rail. Unless you’re Julio or Cal, one-out-of-three ain’t a great average.

Cooper Hall is a freelance designer and game developer whose most interesting policies call for direct election of Seattle Police precinct captains and demands that more SPD officers actually live in the city of Seattle. Good ideas, but he’s a little light on other details.

Alexis Mercedes Rinck (AMR) has been on the city council since November 2024, when she beat Tanya Woo in a special election after Teresa Mosqueda’s seat became vacant. In that time, she’s been a nice counterbalance to the hardcore pro-corporate wing of the council, led by president Sara Nelson. One of AMR’s proposals is to shift the burden of B&O taxes from small businesses like restaurants to bigger corporations like Amazon, something that even centrist mayor Bruce Harrell supports. The tax system in Seattle (and Washington state) is incredibly regressive. Alexis Mercedes Rinck gets it.

VOTE ALEXIS MERCEDES RINCK

CITY COUNCIL, POSITION NO. 9
Sara Nelson is Seattle’s current incarnation of Donald Trump. Not necessarily on policy matters (Nelson’s not that bad), but most certainly on temperament. Cross President Nelson and you face her wrath (or her empty chair). Do we really need a vindictive council member, unwilling to listen to dissenting voices, representing the entire city? Nope.

Unfortunately Nelson is well funded by the usual center-right Seattle types and will be a tough candidate to beat. Of her three primary challengers only one has a realistic shot at unseating her in the general election in November, to which she is certain to advance.

Mia Jacobson has a lot of heart, but her voter’s guide statement, website, and videos sound like Lewis Carroll-on-acid ramblings. And like Alice in Wonderland, Mia too is fixated on rabbits—“It’s Time to Vote Rabbit” is her inexplicable motto. Sorry, Mia, but you’re just a little too nutty, even for Seattle.

Connor Nash seems like a sincere guy with a lot of energy and more than a note of subversion (he created or edited the Wikipedia pages for almost all the Seattle city councilmembers, including his opponent, Sara Nelson), but he doesn’t have the resumé to legitimately challenge Nelson.

So you definitely need to vote for Dionne Foster in August (and then again in November). She has experience working on city policy as an analyst, and has solid, progressive stances on issues of public safety and affordability that suit Seattle better than Sara Nelson’s “the cops and Amazon are always right” approach. Also, Foster cares about improving public transit and supporting a vibrant arts and culture scene, things that Nelson barely mentions, and knows little of.

VOTE DIONNE FOSTER

PROPOSITION NO. 1,
PROPERTY TAX FOR DEMOCRACY VOUCHER PROGRAM
You know those democracy vouchers you receive in the mail each election cycle, stick in a drawer, and probably don’t use? Prop 1 would ensure that you keep getting them. Sadly, big money dominates elections, so democracy vouchers provide campaign funds that some lesser-connected candidates for mayor, city council, and city attorney can use. What’s the cost to you? About a dollar a month.

The arguments opposing this proposition are two-fold: not enough people use their democracy vouchers and big PAC money still dominates elections, so what good are they doing? These are terrible arguments. First, use your democracy vouchers, people! Second, if you use those vouchers, maybe PAC money wouldn’t be so dominant.

Democracy vouchers don’t necessarily level the financial playing field in elections (we’re teeming with billionaires after all), but at least the field gets a little less tilted. This is a good program. Let’s keep it alive.

VOTE YES