Next time West Seattle’s biggest political group, the 34th District Democrats, meet, they will decide who else to endorse for the August primary — and that’s why more than two dozen candidates in almost one dozen races came to The Hall at Fauntleroy last night for our area’s biggest pre-primary candidates’ forum.
One week earlier, four of the contenders for King County Executive took questions in the InSPIRe-sponsored forum (WSB coverage here) across the street at Fauntleroy Church (WSB sponsor); with many 34th DDs involved in that group, they urged members to attend that event to get a look at the KCE candidates, but as for everything else – last night was the big night.
The marquee race: Seattle Mayor, which started the night; also featured – four Seattle City Council races, the Seattle City Attorney race, Seattle Port Commission positions, and Burien City Council. Read on for our marathon roundup of highlights (focusing on the city races) – including links to the 34th DD’s own coverage, as well as photo galleries, and a link to what we sent out via Twitter during the event:
The format: First a lightning round of sorts in which the candidates were asked “yes/no” questions and had to quickly hold up paddles displaying their answer. Then, a series of questions in which the candidates had one minute each to respond. In some groups, another “lightning round” followed that.
Mayoral candidates who were on hand: James Donaldson, Councilmember Jan Drago, Joe Mallahan, Michael McGinn, incumbent Mayor Greg Nickels, and Norman Sigler. Place cards were out for no-shows Kwame Garrett and Elizabeth Campbell, who is gathering signatures for an anti-tunnel initiative — she was in West Seattle but at the Viaduct/Tunnel “scoping” meeting, not the candidates’ forum:
The lightning round is where the clearest differences emerged as the mayoral candidates answered questions. Two examples: Nickels was alone in holding up “yes” in response to “do you support spending city funds to build a new jail”; he was alone in holding up “no” in response to the “do you support parking meters in The Junction?” (that refers to the city’s Junction parking review, under way now; our coverage is archived here). Here’s video showing most of the “lightning round” – the questions were asked by 34th DDs chair Tim Nuse:
When the yes/no questions were done, all expressed varying degrees of support for publicly funded campaigns, increased public transit, labor unions, LGBT rights.
One curveball came on an issue that often comes up at 34th DDs meetings – the fact that the White Center Food Bank, which has a clientele partly in the city limits (West Seattle from SW Myrtle southward), doesn’t get funding from the city of Seattle, while the West Seattle Food Bank gets, according to the 34th DDs, about $76,000 a year. Will you pledge to support the WC Food Bank if elected? the candidates were asked.
Nickels didn’t answer the question directly, saying only that he would keep helping those in need. McGinn followed that up by saying, yes, he would, and Drago and Donaldson said the same. Mallahan noted that he was unaware of the situation but thinks it “makes complete sense … that the city would help fund it.”
With some supporters of the “Nickelsville” homeless camp, which just moved back to West Seattle last weekend, in the audience, a little tension rippled as the candidates were asked about homelessness, but the word “Nickelsville” didn’t even come up (Mallahan referred to it somewhat obliquely as a “tent city,” saying “it wouldn’t be fair” to use a different term). Donaldson suggested that closed Seattle Public Schools buildings might be used to house the homeless; Sigler proposed two permanent tent cities, one in the north end, one in the south end. Drago advocated “street outreach teams.”
No attacks, no sharp disagreements, no harsh words, and after about 45 minutes, the group thanked the candidates and declared it time for the next group. Nickels left quickly afterward:
(photo by Johnathan Fitzpatrick)
A few other major groups around the area had endorsement meetings last night, though we don’t know for sure if that’s where he was headed. He and the mayoral candidates did arrive early for mingling.
After two Burien City Council candidates fielded questions, hopefuls for Seattle City Council positions 2 and 8 took the stage: incumbent Councilmember Richard Conlin, West Seattleite David Ginsberg, Bobby Forch, David Miller, Mike O’Brien, Bob Rosencrantz, Jordan Royer and Rusty Williams.
Of note during the yes/no round – all expressed opposition to the concept of having Seattle annex all of North Highline (this August’s ballot will ask the southern half of that area whether they want to become part of Burien); only Royer professed support for using city funds to build a new jail; changing City Council positions to geographical districts instead of at-large was supported by all except Conlin, Rosencrantz and Royer; all except Forch said “yes” to the concept of continuing to reduce the requirement that housing developments provide parking for residents.
Asked about cleaning up the polluted Duwamish River, it was another case of nuances among all trying obviously to stress their environmental credentials. Miller noted that he’s been endorsed by B.J. Cummings, who led the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition for years. O’Brien touted his Sierra Club leadership role; Rosencrantz said he’d led the Thornton Creek Alliance; Royer offered “Don’t just clean up the contamination, but also where it’s coming from”; Ginsberg suggested specific improvements throughout the watershed, such as bioswales; and Williams recalled growing up with the knowledge the Duwamish was polluted, flashing forward to the current knowledge that a cleanup is under way, “hard to believe it’s happening.”
What about public safety? the candidates were asked. After several other candidates voiced support for continuing to hire more police officers, O’Brien veered over to the root of the issue: “Yes, of course, I suport more of all the good things. The question is – how do we do it? We’re talking about building a $4 billion tunnel and we just laid off 170 teachers. We’re talking about building a $200 million jail and we’re going to close the libraries for a week to save a million bucks … it’s about priorities.” A few minutes later, Royer jabbed back a bit, saying, “Getting rid of the tunnel would not give us one dime more for police. It would be nice if it did, but it won’t.”
Williams wrapped up the topic by saying Seattle “needs to be a fun city to hang out in again” and that won’t happen without enough law enforcement to keep people feeling safe.
An audience question fielded only by this group: What neighborhood do you live in, and what neighborhood event did you last participate in?
Forch: Central Area, Central Area Festival.
Miller: As a past president of the Maple Leaf Community Council, he said, he’d “attended them all.”
Rosencrantz: Past president of the Montlake Community Council, and recently attended a meeting for 520 bridge-replacement planning.
Royer: Wedgwood – “Last night, the PTSA meeting at my daughter’s school.”
Ginsberg: High Point – recent neighborhood picnic (and he noted that with last night’s forum being held in West Seattle, technically that made it a community event for him).
Conlin: Madrona – where he had been land-use chair of the community council, and attended the Madrona Mayfair.
O’Brien: Fremont – Most recent, the Fremont Market, “and I’ll be in the (Solstice) parade in a few days.” (At that point, someone called out from the audience – “with clothes on?” leading to laughter.)
Williams: View Ridge; co-chair of the Magnuson Park Committee, attended the Magnuson Tree Fest, and added, “Trees are cool!”
Another round of yes/no hold-up-the-sign questions: Do you back the bag tax (which will be on the August ballot as a referendum)? Yes for all except Ginsberg, Rosencrantz and O’Brien (3:42 pm Thursday note – O’Brien says he supports the bag fee). Do you support parking meters in The Junction? “No” from everyone except O’Brien (who drew hisses, as did those in the mayoral group who expressed support).
On now to another big group of candidates, for Positions 4 and 6: Sally Bagshaw, David Bloom, Brian Carver, Jessie Israel, incumbent Councilmember Nick Licata, Martin Kaplan, West Seattle resident Dorsol Plants.
All opposed Seattle potentially annexing all of North Highline and potentially rezoning industrial land in Sodo to non-industrial uses. Opposition also was unanimous for using city funds to build a new jail; Asked about changing City Council elections to district-based votes, the only “no” votes were from Bagshaw, Carver and Kaplan.
The transportation question for this group led to a discussion of streetcars’ merits; Bagshaw said she would prefer to put money into buses, such as West Seattle’s forthcoming RapidRide line. Criticism for the Seattle Streetcar line to South Lake Union abounded; the strongest voice in support of an expanded streetcar network came from Israel, though Kaplan also offered some defense for the streetcars, saying that South Lake Union is “getting a bum rap” because the people aren’t there yet to use it in droves, but he believes they will be.
Should addiction be decriminalized? they were asked. This brought the most frequent use of the word “agree,” as the candidates expressed enthusiasm for each other’s answers to the question. Plants, who works at a shelter, said, “People want to go into recover, but they’re afraid the police are waiting for them there.” Licata urged, “Let’s get them some help; you don’t stabilize someone’s life in jail … the system does not work right now.” (He seemed to have a particularly enthusiastic pocket of supporters at the event, greeting that answer and some of his others with loud applause and cheers.)
What about preventing crime, especially among youth? Israel thought the problem should be separated into a “short-term look” and a “long-term look” and suggested beefing up “neighborhood policing,” which she believes has “eroded over the past decade.” More police are needed, Carver said, “but we need to look at the root cause … of kids getting into gangs at a very young age. We need to engage the community to fix this problem – everybody needs to get involved.”
Get to know everyone in your neighborhood, Licata advised, and that will help. Plants told a personal story of being jarred by the recent shooting outside Westwood Village McDonald’s (WSB coverage here), as that was not far from where he lives in Highland Park. “But you won’t solve it just by arresting people – we’re not putting the priorities on our kids, and that’s why we’re having these problems.” Kaplan talked about the “two Seattles” as a resident had described the haves/have-nots division, and mentioned last week’s City Hall symposium on gangs.
Other questions for this group included another yes-no round: The bag tax is supported by all but Bagshaw; parking meters in The Junction were opposed by all but Israel; Plants and Carver opposed reducing parking requirements for development.
Second-to-last faceoff of the night put West Seattle-residing Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr at the table with challenger Pete Holmes. No huge differences regarding the topics they were asked about, but Carr did provide a moment of tension when he began his answer to a question about the Public Disclosure Act by saying, “My opponent has been telling a lot of half-truths, so I’m going to correct them wherever I get the opportunity.” In response to a question about whether Seattle arrests too many people without “underlying charges, Carr said yes, but he believes they’re being dealt with appropriately, as his office has dismissed about half of those cases.
The final group of the night included five candidates for Seattle Port Commission – Tom Albro, David Doud, Rob Holland, Max Vekich, Robert Walker — who discussed issues including port safety (incumbent Commissioner John Creighton had to leave before the three-hour event made its way to the port race, but left a written statement that was read into the record).. Our notes ended at this point but you can see their positions – and those of the other participants – in a document linked to the 34th District Democrats’ website, compiled by Christi Stapleton; the 34th DDs’ site is where you also will see photos from last night’s event. An additional photo gallery created by independent journalist Johnathan Fitzpatrick can be seen here. We provided short bursts of live coverage during the forum on a special Twitter account we’ve set up for intensive coverage of “live” events – you can browse our “tweets” at twitter.com/wsblive. For a full list of everyone running for office in King County, at the county/city/districts (school, water, fire, etc.) levels, go here – the filing period is over now, so aside from withdrawals, this will be the final slate.
The 34th District Democrats will make endorsements at their next meeting, Wednesday, July 8th, 7 pm, The Hall at Fauntleroy; they already threw early support to West Seattle-residing King County Council Chair Dow Constantine in his bid for the King County Executive job.
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