Power Building, Seattle Style
Seattle’s City Election Primary Results Show a Progressive Wave If The Left Doesn’t Get In Its Own Way
As control of our federal system teeters between neo-confederate fascists and the deep state military junta, let’s go local. Specifically my local: Seattle.
We have non partisan primaries in Seattle, where the top two candidates proceed to a general election. It is an elegant system that allows for candidates to be less dependant on party political structure as well as giving grassroots campaign funding strategies a real chance to make a huge impact. This is also the first election cycle to use the recently implemented democracy vouchers system, which gave every voter a set of vouchers that when redeemed will give money to the candidate of their choice.
With Seattle being a notoriously left of center city, this can lead to great outcomes like happened with our at large city council seat where I literally split my vote with my wife (to-be) between Theresa Mosqueda and Jon Grant. If the state of the Democratic party or the vile viciousness of the GOP trying to induce 24 million the freedom to not have the ability to go to the doctor has gotten you down in the past, then travel to the mystical land of a general election race between a progressive labor organizer and a Democratic Socialist tenants union leader. This is definitely a better choice than the choice between Andrew Cuomo and John Delany, who believe it or not actually is a person running for president.
As gauged by both the size of the field and importance of the position, the biggest race this election was the mayor’s race. After our current mayor Ed Murray decided to not run for a second term after damning allegations of child sexual abuse, multiple orca pods of candidates emerged. From a beef jerky family sports marketer to candidates who were so insignificant that the local paper didn’t even put a picture up on their “meet the candidates” line up. It was a mess of a ballot to fill out, with the back page’s first column completely filled with candidates.
The highest number of votes went to Jenny Durkan, a former Federal Prosecutor, proven furnisher of hard liquor to youths, and heir apparent of establishment political power. Durkan was endorsed by Murray, testing the logic of the transitive principle in the realm of sexual abuse allegations. Durkan has at least a third of the vote, bringing her to the next round of the election. Durkan is a technocrat with connections to the Seattle Police and endorsed by the chamber of commerce. When I showed the mailer that came in to my wife, she said that Durkan looked like a lady who would definitely ask to speak to a manager. I think it is also telling how much Durkan used the image of her and Barrack Obama in her campaign literature, like we are supposed to be excited that she met Obama the same way MSNBC viewers are when they pay 1260 dollars to see Hamilton for the third time.
The battle for second place remains unsettled. Not All ballots have been counted, but the current vote leader is Cary Moon, urban designer with a killer collection of leather jackets, with approximately 2,500 votes ahead of Nikkita Oliver, lawyer, Black Lives Matter activist, and most importantly, a really good spoken word artist endorsed by the patron saint of woke seattle, Macklemore. It is most likely that Moon, who has been ahead since August 1st, will be on the ballot with Durkan this November, but Moon is not dancing in front of Oliver headquarters with a new leather jacket, but rather aiding in finding lost and previously disqualified ballots. From the Seattle Times:
“In an emailed statement, Moon sent out a link to an online sign-up form for Oliver’s ballot-chasing effort. “Rushing forward to claim a decisive outcome while some ballots are in limbo would only create distrust,” Moon said.”
Moon and Oliver’s campaigns have both been conciliatory and non-antagonistic towards each other as both are keenly aware that in order for either to win they need to build a coalition with the other side. With a coalition built just from Moon’s 17.38% and Oliver’s 16.05% they decisively edge out Durkan’s 28.7%, not factoring in the rest of the 22 (!!) candidate pool. It is a great opportunity for the Seattle left to practice coalition politics and building power beyond our conversations at the local Chaco Canyon vegan restaurant..
Yesterday afternoon an open letter appeared on the Seattle Stranger arguing for Moon to step aside even if she wins the vote as an act of solidarity for the communities that Moon says she’s going to work for, most notably people of color and the working class. The letter was a keenly intersectionalized argument that makes its case for a kind of representational and personalized vision of a different mayoral election, stating that while the author was keenly aware that it would require Oliver to run a write in candidacy as Moon’s name would still be on the ballot, it would be a huge step towards justice in Seattle.
I feel for those who really wanted Oliver to come out of nowhere and go right to the top. I voted for her because I thought it would be an amazing thing to have a renter as the chief executive of a city with rapidly rising rents and a working class feeling squeezed economically and physically. This city is experiencing a record breaking infusion of capital and growth, most notably due to the giant spectral orb with Alexa integration called Amazon. People who could very easily afford a 2 bedroom house in the city limits of Seattle are now being pressed with the question of whether they want to have 3 hour commutes in order to not be shackled by the inordinate expense that is rent in Seattle. Demographically, Seattle is a city that is moving in a direction very unlike the rest of the country, it has become whiter and richer. Seattle needs left politics to address the needs of those communities being displaced and stressed by the rapid aggregation of capital among the upper economic echelons.
This is why I felt so frustrated as I read the article posted on the Stranger. Not that I was angry at the writer of the piece, Sam Keller, but rather frustratingly reminded at the discursive trap the letter is locked in, as well as the equivocation with Nikita Oliver with Beyonce, as my wife will certainly remind me SHE IS NOT (believe me I agree. When I saw the Lemonade tour Beyonce came out of a 20 story obelisk made of LCD screens playing freaky sex devil videos. I doubt either candidate could pull that off). The realist in me can’t help but feel that Keller’s strategy does not put into context the importance of representational perspectives into the political machinations of the electoral process. Even if Moon stepped out of the race, “before the final vote tally”, as proposed by Keller, Moon’s name would still be on the ballot if she wins the vote total.
Keller speaks of how a race between Moon and Durkan, a battle between ”two wealthy white women” would leave people outside of that demographic seeing no one to relate to in the contest, while having a candidate like Oliver, a renting queer woman of color, would allow for a “substantive debate about race, class, and lived experience.” The representational argument made by Keller against accepting the democratic results of the election equate the power gained by having someone that voters see themselves in with the power of democratic processes. There is a kind of cynicism in the false equivalence between Durkan and Moon ascribing a disbelief in the empathic abilities of people from outside particular classes to understand others. Admittedly, this is politics, a field full of unfeeling moral monstrosities, so maybe I’m the naive one.
A left coalition between Moon, Oliver, and similarly minded factions of the Seattle electorate can win this election. Seattle is a city on the brink between becoming a more miserable suburb of Silicon Valley or become a vanguard on the front of radical democratic governance. Keller wrote about how she wishes for Moon to show us actions and not just words. By stepping aside Moon would not be acting at all, but rather burning up any political capital for herself or Oliver as opposed to working together to take power from the moneyed interests that have had a stranglehold on our city.
