Everything Is Political … in South Seattle: Ethics and Elections

The Primary Is Pretty Much Locked In

Barring any last-minute filings tomorrow, on the May 9 deadline, the contenders for mayor, city attorney, and City Council Districts 2, 8, and 9 are set in stone.

The mayoral race is pretty crowded, but with all due respect to the interesting candidacies of Joe Molloy, Ry Armstrong, etc., it's looking like incumbent Bruce Harrell versus Transit Riders Union General Secretary Katie Wilson. Will we see our first two-term mayor since Greg Nickels? Or will Wilson leverage her many, many progressive policy accomplishments to put the Harrell admin to rest? Way too soon to tell, but one prediction I do feel safe making: Given the mayor's appearances on behalf of the pro-Proposition 1B campaign, which aimed to more or less gut the city's new Social Housing Developer, we'll likely see some incredibly cringey mailers.

In District 8, Alexis Mercedes Rinck, a progressive who was recently elected with a convincing majority, is facing someone we have never heard of who has no campaign website and has raised $0. His name, for what it's worth, is Cooper Hall. While that one's probably gonna be a snoozefest, District 9, the other citywide council seat that's up for grabs this year, will be action-packed.

I may have been a little skeptical in this profile I did of Dionne Foster for The Stranger — one of my firmest political beliefs is that, no matter how bad the other candidate is, you shouldn't run for office on that alone — but then again, Foster is running against Council President Sara Nelson. I look forward to finding out what exactly Foster wants to do in terms of policy, but if public sentiment is anything close to at least one Reddit user's take on the race, we'll be knee deep in Foster policy proposals come next January. Worth noting in this race is that Nelson has opted out of the city's democracy voucher program, while Foster has already qualified for it.

While we've all got to select citywide councilmembers, this year brings a race that's near and dear to our hearts in South Seattle: District 2. Given that the seat's current occupant, appointee Mark Solomon, has said he won't run for the permanent seat, it's anybody's ball game. This is not a job title I thought I would ever type, but multimillionaire karate instructor Takayo Ederer is out of the race, despite raising approximately $27,000 toward it. You can file to raise funds without actually filing a candidacy, which is exactly what she did. Her recent history of conservative political donations, brought to light by Publicola's Erica Barnett, surely wouldn't have won her many friends outside of District 2's waterfront property belt.

Her exit leaves Seattle Department of Transportation staffer (and competent skateboarder) Adonis Duckworth, assistant city attorney Eddie Lin, advocate for food equity and restaurant workers Jeanie Chunn, and labor leader Jamie Fackler. We've profiled them all (click those names!), but we'll be covering this one a whole lot more.

Our city attorney spot is also up for grabs, and there are several candidates eager to unseat Republican drug warrior Ann Davison. We've got former federal prosecutor Erika Evans, lefty lawyer Rory O'Sullivan, and public defender Nathan Rouse. As divisive as Davison has been, it's probably her against one of these three.

Council Ethics Requirements Could Change

Speaking of Nelson doing things that make it easy for a political opponent to point to her and say, "At least I'm not doing that," she is currently maneuvering to ease ethics requirements around financial conflicts of interest for councilmembers. A new ordinance, sponsored by District 5 Councilmember Cathy Moore, but mirroring a previous proposal put forth by Nelson, would allow councilmembers to vote on matters in which they have a financial interest so long as they disclose that interest. Current rules force them to recuse themselves from any vote that affects their bag, except when it would affect everyone's bag, as in the case of taxes or fees.

The current rule kept Nelson and her fellow pro-business types from pushing through legislation to cap gig-worker pay because Tanya Woo's family owns a restaurant that relies heavily on DoorDash and other delivery apps. It also stymied an extension to the city's subminimum wage for tipped workers proposed by Joy Hollingsworth. Woo was again advised to recuse on the latter, as was Nelson, who still owns an interest in Fremont Brewing Co. In the spirit of all this disclosure, I got a raise from the demise of the subminimum wage, so I'm not mad about that.

For a bit more context here, consider that two current councilmembers — District 4's Maritza Rivera and District 2's Solomon — are landlords, which would prevent them from voting on anything having to do with tenant protections. Moore is rumored to be putting forth some bills rolling back said protections soon, so it is by no means unfair to see her current proposal as a way of securing votes on a potential future one.

That said, the ordinance's supporters argue that the bill isn't about a few landlords and people whose campaigns have been heavily financed by landlords sitting in chambers, steepling their fingers, and laughing maniacally as they gut tenant protections. It's actually, they say, about fair representation. As Moore told The Seattle Times, the bill would make sure constituents aren't denied a say when their councilmembers are forced to recuse themselves.

As District 8 Councilmember Rinck, who is not a supporter of the proposal, told the Emerald, "We heard from hundreds of people, some speaking up at public comment for the first time in their lives. Almost every single one has told us not to do this — now is not the time to be weakening our ethics rules."

The ordinance is scheduled for a hearing in the council's Governance, Accountability, and Economic Development Committee today, May 8. We'll let you know how it goes.

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Tobias Coughlin-Bogue is a writer, editor and restaurant worker who lives in South Park. He was formerly the associate editor of Real Change News, and his work has appeared in The Stranger, Seattle Weekly, Vice, Thrillist, Thrasher Magazine, Curbed, and Crosscut, among other outlets.