Primary election

 

The most important thing about the primary is to select Democratic candidates who are able to tack to the middle, thereby reaching the most voters—not the most ideological voters. 

 

I say “Democratic” because the Republican party that included governors Dan Evans (Washington), Jay Hammond (Alaska), Frank Sargent (Massachusetts), Tom McCall (Oregon) no longer exists. So if you loved Stalin—the purges, fear, disregard for even communist law, the gulags, Lysenko pseudoscience, nutso economics—you’ll love today’s Republicans.

 

Some final reminders about levies and schools:

 

• Electing school boards is insane. Elected boards have no accountability, they engage in group think, and put decision-making in the hands of committees. Let’s do what other cities do: Make the mayor accountability for schools. Since that’s not going to happen here, the best we can hope for is to eliminate obvious crazies. I support charter schools, because, as in healthcare, competition is the only sure way to improve quality.

 

• Managing an operating budget by referenda—levies—is about as idiotic as requiring Congress to approve an increase to the debt ceiling to pay for what it already agreed to spend.

 

Ballot measures

 

Seattle Prop. 1. YES. Replaces an expiring levy for libraries. What the feckless politicians do is pull out operating expenses for the most popular services—911 emergencies and yes, libraries—from the bloated operating budget and let the voters decide. Duh. The voters are going to approve the no-brainers. I’m a lifetime member of the Friends of the SPL and use the libraries online services every week—whether to look up words in the OED or products in Consumer Reports. Go to any library branch, and it will be crowded. People use the libraries. Although I hate the funding process, I have to vote ‘yes’ for libraries.

 

Fire Protection Districts 43 and 47, Prop. 1. These are housekeeping measures that should save money for the residents of rural King County north and east of Maple Valle and Black Diamond.

 

Congress

 

Because of the so-called ballot “reform” of several years ago, the top two candidates win the primary regardless of party. This means that Republicans try to get multiple Democrats to run, so the right-wingers win by default. It also means that extreme left-wingers, who think the two main parties are indistinguishable, despite what the Republicans have done to the Supreme Court, environment, and affordability, try to make trouble for centrists. 

 

For the record, a centrist Democrat in Washington would be a left-of-center Democrat in most other states.

 

Honestly, every incumbent Congressional Democrat deserves re-election:

 

District 1: Suzan DelBene.

 

District 2: Rick Larson.

 

District 3: Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.  What a mess. Eight candidates are ganging up on the centrist—and courageous—Perez. The right says she’s too left. The left says she’s too right (and would rather that a Republican win than a centrist Democrat).

If you know anyone who lives in Clark, Skamania, Cowlitz, Lewis, Pacific, Wahkiakum, or south Thurston county,  please ask them to vote for Marie.

 

District 6: Emily Randall.

 

District 7: Pramila Jayapal. Her opponent from the so-called “Fifth Republic Party” is viciously anti-Jewish, despite the majority of U.S. Jews who are appalled by Netanyahu.

 

District 8: Kim Shreier.

 

District 9: Adam Smith. The Marxist candidate, former Seattle councilmember Kshama Sawant, got booted out of the Socialist Alternative Party because she was too extreme. She thinks Bernie, AOC, and Mamdani are capitalist tools. She’s trying to portray Adam Smith as a Trump supporter, because he’s a centrist Democrat. She thinks the Socialist Workers Party candidate in this district is a right-winger.

 

District 10: Marilyn Strickland.

 

Legislature

These are districts where there’s more than one Democratic candidate. Where more than one Democrat is a good candidate, I recommend the one with either the most endorsements or the most money, so the unfortunate top-two primary system doesn’t undermine the stronger candidate. The city shown is the residence of the candidate.

 

D=district

P=position

 

D1 P2 (Kirkland): Shelley Kloba.

D5 P1 (Issaquah): Zach Hall.

D11 P1 (south Seattle): David Hackney.

D32 Senate (north Seattle): Jesse Salomon. 

D32 P1 (north Seattle): Danica Noble.

D32 P2 (north Seattle): Lauren Davis.

D33 P2 (Burien, Seahurst): Mia Su-Ling Gregerson.

D34 P2 (Burien): Mary Anito.

D37 Senate (Seattle): Chipalo Street.

D37 P1 (Seattle): Sharon Tomiko Santos.

D43 Senate (Capitol Hill): Jamie Pedersen. My district. It’s hard to say that gay, left-leaning Pedersen, the Senate Majority Leader, is on the right, but that’s what his misguided opponents say.

D43 P1 (Capitol Hill): Nicole Macri.

D45 P2 (Kirkland, Redmond): Vanessa Kritzer.

D46 P1 (Seattle): Gerry Pollett. It’s hard to say that left-leaning Pollet is on the right, but that’s what his misguided opponents say.

D47 P1 (Kent): Debra Jean Entenman.

 

King County

 

Assessor: Rob Foxcurran. A professional appraiser, he’d bring an outsider’s perspective to an office damaged by its current assessor’s scandals. I hope that Al Dams comes in second. Both have been endorsed by a respected officials and organizations.

 

Council Dist. 2 (west side of Lake Washington): Rebecca Saldaña. Endorsed by a cast of thousands from all parts of the political spectrum.

 

Council Dist. 8 (western part Seattle): Nick Duda. He’s running on a centrist platform against left-extremist Mosqueda. “Compassion matters deeply, but compassion without accountability is not a strategy,” he says.

 

Supreme Court

How stupid is it to vote for judges based solely on their statements in the voters pamphlet—if the voters even read them.

 

Position 1: Colleen Melody. One of her opponent’s professional experience involves “bible quizzing.”

Position 3: Mike Diaz.

Position 5: Theo Angelis.

Position 7: Debra L. Stephens.

 

Northeast Electoral District

            Position 1: Josh Schaer

 

City of Seattle

Council District 5 (north Seattle): Julie Kang. The challenge is to pick the candidate who’s most down-to-earth and realistic, as opposed to ideological. Kang’s background is in education. She has lots of endorsements, including Sara Nelson, Tanya Woo, Martha Choe, and John Okamoto—all of whom were decent councilmembers—as well as the Seattle Times.

 

Municipal Court Judge Position 5: Garmon Newsom. Showed a lot of integrity as Burien’s city attorney during litigation related to homelessness.