Your first all-in-one-place look at West Seattle’s would-be District 1 City Councilmembers: 20 days away

| Highland Park | West Seattle news | West Seattle politics

Sounds like a long time, but it’s not: We are now less than 3 weeks away from your first side-by-side look at the four (so far) people who want to be the first-ever Seattle District 1 City Councilmember, representing West Seattle and South Park. WSB is presenting the first announced candidates’ forum in this race:

Thursday, February 5, at Highland Park Improvement Club (1116 SW Holden)
Doors open 6:30 pm
Forum 7-8:30 pm

The candidates are (in first-name alphabetical order this time):

*Amanda Kay Helmick
*Chas Redmond
*George Capestany
*Tom Rasmussen

If you need to bookmark a reminder, here’s the official listing on the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar (Facebook event page coming up soon too). HPIC has lots of room, and we’ll have refreshments, so have dinner and then come see and hear (and bring a question for!) the contenders for this area’s new seat on the City Council, which starting this year will be made up of seven people elected by district, two at large.

dsa January 16, 2015 (10:10 pm)

Just out of curiosity, has anyone seen the population counts on these districts? I know district 1 and 2 have quite a bit of non residential, but they seem quite a bit larger than some others, meaning it could be less representation for us.

chas redmond January 17, 2015 (10:15 am)

All 7 districts have the same population – plus or minus about 2 percent – that’s the way the district’s were drawn and the change in the City Charter calls for a re-alignment of the borders every census to make district adjustments to keep the 7 districts all within a small percentage of each other’s population. Here’s the King County Voter’s Guide writeup:
http://your.kingcounty.gov/elections2/contests/measureinfo.aspx?cid=47892&eid=1258

Toby Thaler January 18, 2015 (10:03 pm)

dsa/chas: Actually, the population balance was less than 1% difference between highest and lowest population under 2010 Census. Of course, populations change, and balance could be off now; that’s why a redistricting is required after every Census. The current council electoral districts are good for two cycles: 2015 and 2019. The 2023 election will be after the 2020 Census redistricting.

David January 22, 2015 (10:03 pm)

What is the format for the forum? Questions from the floor? Questions on cards? What safeguards are in place to ensure a fair forum to all candidates?

WSB January 22, 2015 (10:16 pm)

Pretty traditional. We reserve the right to change the mix but currently are planning on an hour of questions through the host, some of which will have been suggested by readers ahead of time and attendees at the event, and then half an hour of Q/A from the floor. Regarding fairness, we’ll have time limits; no one will have seen the questions ahead of time; and we’re expecting each candidate to answer each question – TR

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