In the hat, it’s West Seattle writer and former “Rosie the Riveter” Georgie Bright Kunkel, who spoke briefly at Thursday’s West Seattle Democratic Women luncheon as the group paid tribute to her husband Norman Kunkel, who died earlier this year (as noted here). (Georgie revealed she’s doing open-mike comedy at Comedy Underground on June 8th, by the way.) The group also presented a check to an organization for which Mr. Kunkel did a lot of work, the Sightline Institute (whose Alan Durning is shown above with Georgie) in his honor. The centerpiece of the luncheon at the West Seattle Golf Course clubhouse, however, was a candidates’ forum – one of several in West Seattle in the coming weeks. The field won’t be set till after the filing deadline a week from today, but three candidates each for two City Council seats – the open Position 4 (which Jan Drago is leaving to run for mayor) and Position 6 (with candidates including incumbent Nick Licata) spoke to the group – read on for video highlights and a few other notes:
We didn’t hear any surprise revelations, but that’s not what candidates’ forums are usually about, anyway. Their biggest value is for you to be able to compare and contrast candidates side by side. Toward that end, we have short video clips of each of the six in attendance – as they answered a closing question, “why are you running?” First, the three Position 4 candidates who participated, starting with Dorsol Plants, former Highland Park Action Committee chair (his website is here):
Next, David Bloom, who held his official campaign kickoff hours later (his website is here):
Then, Sally Bagshaw (whose campaign site is here).
Joshua Caple was the only declared-so-far Position 4 candidate not on hand; a letter he wrote was read instead, earlier in the forum. Now, the three Position 6 candidates, starting with incumbent Councilmember Nick Licata, who held a campaign fundraiser in West Seattle last week (his campaign website is here):
Next, Martin Kaplan (whose website is here):
And Jessie Israel (campaign site here), who’s planning to join a West Seattle greenbelt cleanup this Saturday:
Two other City Council seats are on the ballot this year – Position 2 (where incumbent Richard Conlin is one of three declared candidates) and Position 8 (where Richard McIver is not running for re-election, but six candidates already have jumped in) – see a list of all declared candidates (including mayor) here. West Seattle has more candidate forums ahead – the 34th District Democrats plan to host candidates on June 10 for everything but County Executive – four of those candidates have confirmed for the InSPIRe-organized forum next Monday at Fauntleroy Church (WSB sponsor).
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