The Transit Riders Union has endorsed candidates in five of the nine races for Seattle City Council. Here are our endorsements! And you’re invited to our kickoff party on Monday, September 28th!
The short version:
Seattle District 1: Lisa Herbold
Seattle District 3: Kshama Sawant
Seattle District 4: Michael Maddux
Seattle District 6: Mike O’Brien
Seattle Citywide Position 8: Jon Grant
Transportation Levy to Move Seattle: YES
The long version:
This fall, all nine seats on the Seattle City Council are up for election. With the debut of Seattle’s new district system, everyone will get to vote for three councilmembers: one to represent their district (1 through 7), and two to fill the city-wide positions (8 and 9).
We have a chance to elect a kick-ass city council this fall – the most progressive, diverse, responsive city council Seattle has ever seen, in fact. But the stakes are high.
Four of the candidates TRU has endorsed are facing off against strong opponents whose campaigns are being bankrolled by lobby groups representing big corporations, developers, landowners, realtors, and the chain restaurant and hotel industries that tried so hard to block our $15 per hour minimum wage. If these money-backed candidates win, our city could have dark days ahead.
The Transit Riders Union has made endorsements in five of the nine city council races. How did we decide? We sent a questionnaire on public transit issues to all candidates, we reviewed incumbents’ voting records and new candidates’ histories of public engagement and activism, we consulted with ally organizations that work on issues such as housing, homelessness and workers’ rights. We debated, and we voted. Affordable housing weighed large in our discussions. As transit riders, we want to see public transit expanded and improved. But what good is a world-class transit system if you can’t afford to live near it, or your rent is so high you have to count quarters for bus fare? The housing crisis is a hugely important issue for all of us in Seattle.
So, here are our endorsements. The bottom line? This fall, we have an opportunity to elect the best city council ever. We can move our city forward, or we can let it slide backward. TRU will be fighting to elect our progressive slate. We know can do it – but we need your help.
Up through November 3, TRU members and volunteers will be hanging posters throughout the city, distributing flyers, and doing high-visibility outreach downtown (holding signs, etc.) to remind people to vote once ballots are mailed. Do you have an hour or two per week to volunteer with us? We’d love to have your help! Email contact@transitriders.org, or leave a message at 206-651-4282 and an organizer will get in touch.
Lisa Herbold for District 1
For the past 17 years, Lisa Herbold has worked in City Hall as a legislative aide to Councilmember Nick Licata. With Licata’s impending retirement the city council will lose a crucial progressive-left anchor. Lisa Herbold, with her deep experience and demonstrated commitment to progressive policy, is uniquely qualified to keep it from going adrift.
West Seattle’s geography and history have created a unique set of transportation challenges. District 1 deserves more and better public transit, and we believe Lisa Herbold, who is a daily bus commuter herself, will deliver – while also leading on issues of affordable housing and homelessness, environmental protections and workers’ rights.
The campaign of Lisa Herbold’s opponent, Shannon Braddock, was bolstered in the primary elections by independent expenditures of nearly $70,000 from big business, landlord and commercial real estate developer lobby groups. Moneyed interests know who is likely to be on their side, and who will go to bat for all the struggling denizens of this city. Lisa Herbold is running a people-powered campaign and she needs your support and your vote!
Kshama Sawant for District 3
Seattle’s favorite socialist deserves your vote. Kshama Sawant has fought tirelessly for the interests of working and poor people throughout her first term on the city council, and she has gotten results, from raising the minimum wage to increasing funding for homeless services and tent encampments. She has been a strong ally to the labor unions that represent many of our city’s workers and to grassroots organizations like the Transit Riders Union. Kshama supported the effort to preserve and expand Metro bus service and, along with Councilmember Nick Licata, she has been leading a long overdue push for more progressive funding for public transit.
The campaign of Kshama Sawant’s opponent, Pamela Banks, is being bankrolled by a virtual Who’s Who of big corporations, developer and landowner interests. It’s no secret that they want Kshama out, and we can expect this race to get ugly. You’ll hear Kshama’s detractors accuse her of being divisive, shrill and unwilling to compromise. Don’t believe a word of it. She’s been courageous and effective throughout her first two years on the City Council, and we all need to pull together so we don’t lose our city’s most progressive councilmember. Re-elect Kshama Sawant!
Michael Maddux for District 4
Michael Maddux is the only renter running for office this fall. In a city where over half of housing units are occupied by renters, where the average one-bedroom now costs more than $1,500 and over a third of renters are paying more than a third of their income in rent, it’s vital to have this perspective on our city council. Maddux is also a gay single dad, neighborhood activist and volunteer, parks advocate, and a strong progressive who promises to fight for working and poor people.
Michael Maddux’s opponent, Rob Johnson, is Executive Director of Transportation Choices Coalition, and we appreciate his advocacy for public transit. However, Johnson’s primary campaign benefitted from $74,000 in independent expenditures from big business, landlord, and chain hotel & restaurant lobby groups. We’re concerned that attempting to please these interests will ultimately result in worse outcomes for public transit, not to mention affordable housing and a suite of other issues vital to cost-burdened Seattleites. To secure the future of our transit system, we need councilmembers who will fight hard for more a more progressive tax structure. We believe Maddux is the man for the job.
Mike O’Brien for District 6
Mike O’Brien has been a progressive voice on the Seattle City Council and a strong proponent of public transit since he was first elected in 2009. We are disappointed that he did not join Councilmembers Licata and Sawant in support of more progressive funding options for Seattle’s Prop 1 and the Move Seattle levy, but we’re counting on his promise of future support for an Employee Hours Tax for public transit. O’Brien did take the lead in dedicating city funding to improve transit access for low-income riders, he’s been a leader on environmental issues and vocal opponent of the deep-bore tunnel, and overall he and his office have been consistently responsive to grassroots organizations like the Transit Riders Union. We look forward to working with Mike O’Brien in his next term on the Seattle City Council.
Jon Grant for City-Wide Position 8
Every voter in Seattle can vote in this important race for city-wide council Position 8. Jon Grant has been a staunch advocate for affordable housing and tenants’ rights as director of the Tenants Union of Washington State. As a councilmember he promises to champion policies that will help renters and prevent displacement, including developer linkage fees, tenant protections, rent control, and publicly-owned affordable housing. He supports progressive taxes to take the burden off low and middle-income households and require big landowners, corporations and the rich contribute to the common good too. And he’ll be a strong, independent voice for police accountability and citizen oversight.
Incumbent and council president Tim Burgess is the favorite of big money interests in this race. In his time as a councilmember he has opposed local progressive taxes and campaign finance reform, backed the disastrous deep-bore tunnel project, sponsored laws criminalizing homelessness and voted against funding for homeless encampments.
Jon Grant has pledged not to accept campaign contributions from real estate developers, and in the primary elections he got more votes per dollar of campaign money than any other candidate in any race. Despite a war chest more than five times the size, Burgess got less than 46% of the vote, a very vulnerable position for an incumbent. It’s no wonder – Jon Grant’s message has struck a nerve. He is the underdog in this race, and with our support he can win. Vote Jon Grant!
Transportation Levy to Move Seattle
The Bridging the Gap transportation levy that Seattle voters passed in 2009 is expiring at the end of the year. It was a levy of limited scope and size, like dipping our toe into the kind of large, city-wide multi-modal transportation projects that Seattle needs going forward to deal with strong growth and demographic changes.
We now have the opportunity to replace and expand on Bridging the Gap with The Transportation Levy to Move Seattle, usually shortened to “Move Seattle”. While still short of the amount that the Seattle Department of Transportation says the city actually needs, it will provide $930 million over nine years, through bonding and an increase in the property tax. The levy will cost the median homeowner $275 a year, much of which is simply replacing the existing property tax from Bridging the Gap. When surveyed about transportation a majority of Seattleites consistently say that they want a safer city that doesn’t require them to own a car. Move Seattle will go a long way to ensure that this will be a reality.
The levy will fund multi-modal projects all over the city from new sidewalks, bicycle infrastructure, and capital improvements that will allow Metro buses to run smoother and faster, to bridge and road repair and replacement. Every district in the city will be the beneficiary of projects that will create a more connected, transit-friendly, bike-friendly and walkable Seattle.
During the City Council’s discussions of the levy this spring, councilmembers Nick Licata and Kshama Sawant attempted to substitute an increase in the Commercial Parking Tax and an Employee Hours Tax for some of the property tax funding, a proposal that the Transit Riders Union was fully behind. However, despite the fact that this proposal was defeated in the council, TRU has voted to endorse the levy while continuing the fight for more varied and progressive funding in Seattle and beyond.
Increases in property and sales taxes can only be viable choices for so long. In addition to pushing for more progressive options, we have an opportunity now to make the property tax increases more palatable. We need to encourage state and local officials to:
- Provide property tax refunds for low-income home owners and renters.
- Look at the very nature of the property tax in Washington State. While it would require a change to the state constitution, a graduated or varied-rate property tax would allow for a more equitable and flexible property tax system.
- Push for income and capital gains taxes.
Beyond that, it is imperative that we work to make Seattle affordable to all by providing an adequate amount of affordable housing so that all Seattleites, both current and future residents are able to benefit from the projects funded by the Move Seattle levy. Levies like Move Seattle, while imperative for smart, future-proof growth, do make cities more desirable places to live, which historically has meant that those who are not high earners have been forced to leave.
Even if Move Seattle is not everything the Transit Riders Union has hoped and dreamed for, and even though TRU does have reservations with the property tax we absolutely recommend voting YES on the Transportation Levy to Move Seattle in November’s election; the setbacks caused by the levy losing would be too great. There is a lot of work to be done to ensure that we live in a Seattle that is equitable, safe and affordable to all; transportation is a major component of that, and the Move Seattle levy is a vital, necessary step.