The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
It appears the revolution has petered out. Or maybe it’s just on pause. But Seattle’s great civic experiment of the past decade, dabbing in socialism and far-left progressive experiments in public policy, is all but a no-show in the current city council campaigns.
It wasn’t long ago that candidates for public office here would routinely declare things like, “We’re going to make Seattle the most progressive city in America.” The campaigns were movements, centered around first-in-the-nation policy ideas involving wages, tenant law, anti-corporate campaign finance measures or such utopian fantasies as completely abolishing the police.
Seattle became one of the only cities to elect a real-deal socialist, of the type that wants to end capitalism — the outgoing Socialist Alternative Councilmember Kshama Sawant.
Now candidates are talking about potholes. Building sidewalks. Hiring more cops. Fixing stuff.
There are 45 candidates running for seven seats. I can’t say that none of them are socialist at heart, and I definitely wouldn’t say that progressivism is on the run. We’re all liberals here, after all. But the mojo of the once-rising left sure seems missing.
In this vacuum, Seattle politics may be returning after a decade of tumult to its natural state: polite and boring. It’s less ideology, more local community stuff. It’s neighborhood jousting, not full-throated class war. So far it’s the candidates with the more moderate profiles — the kind Sawant would deride as bland sellouts — who seem to have a lead in organizing, fundraising and scooping up democracy vouchers (publicly funded campaign contributions).
The top five fundraisers for council as of Tuesday, according to the state Public Disclosure Commission: 1) Andrew Lewis; 2) Joy Hollingsworth; 3) Tanya Woo; 4) Ken Wilson and 5) Rob Saka.
The first is an incumbent council member, so no surprise he’s up there. But the other four are all moderate-ish community-oriented Democratic challengers who are running, they say, because the city has obviously broken down in its basic effectiveness and needs some repair.
There’s no “defund the police” experimentalists in this crowd. Typical is Saka, of Delridge, an African American lawyer running in West Seattle’s 1st District. When asked whether it was a mistake for Seattle to toy with defunding police by 50 percent back in 2020, he answers, unequivocally, yes, it was. His burning question about cops is more prosaic: Do they come when you call them?
Early energy like this doesn’t always translate into votes. Some of these candidates could turn out to be voucher-fueled mirages. Or they may wilt in the summer vetting before the Aug. 1 primary.
There also are progressives mounting strong campaigns, such as Maren Costa in the 1st, a climate activist who was illegally fired from Amazon for organizing there (and who maintains that defund the police was actually the right call).
Whether all this adds up to some big change a’ coming to City Hall, it’s too soon to say. The old rule for most of these Seattle district elections — that a progressive and a moderate candidate will make the final, which the progressive will win — may still hold come November.
But before any votes have been cast, something has already shifted. That far, far left, such an uproarious force in Seattle politics this past decade? It’s barely on the ballot.
Morning Briefing Newsletter
Get a rundown of the latest local and regional news every Mon-Fri morning.
