Next week is an important election for the city of Seattle. We will be electing a new Mayor, county executive, and half of the city council. Below is how I plan to vote and why...
Statewide issues
Initiative 1033 -- NO
Ref 71 -- APPROVE
King County
County Executive -- Dow Constatine
Port of Seattle Commissioner
Pos. 3 -- Rob Holland
Pos. 4 -- Max Vekich
City of Seattle
Mayor -- Mike McGinn
City Attorney -- Pete Holmes
Seattle City Council
Pos. 2 -- David Ginsburg
Pos. 4 -- Sally Bagshaw
Pos. 6 -- Jessie Israel
Pos. 8 -- Mike O'Brien
Seattle City Prop 1 -- YES
Seattle School District
Dir. Dist. 5 -- Kay Smith-Blum
Dir. Dist. 8 -- Wilson Chin
rationale over the flip...
If you only have time to fill out part of the ballot, be sure to respond to I-1033, R-71 and the county executive race. We have a chance to tie Maine be the first state to uphold gay rights legislation in a vote of the people, and both I-1033 and Hutchison could be quite damaging to our city, county and state.
Initiative 1033 -- NO!- This initiative would freeze city, county and the state budget at the current levels allowing an increase for only inflation and population growth from year to year without a special vote. Having a vote is risky because if it fails the cost of the vote further reduces money available for the budget. Extra money is returned to property tax payers (ignoring the fact that much of the state revenue comes from sales tax). This will freeze all budget at the current recession levels making the current financial difficulties even worse. Vote for this if you covet the CA budget crisis and want to outdo them up here! Those who believe that at least once in a blue moon government can do something right fill in the NO bubble!
Ref 71 -- APPROVE Vote APPROVE to expand gay and elderly domestic partner partner benefits to include all the benefits of marriage, though it is not a marriage.
King County Executive -- Dow Constatine Constatine, currently chair of the county council, is an intelligent and experienced leader who is very supportive of progressive causes. Hutchison is a conservative (claiming to be an independent) who gave money to Bush/Cheney, Huckabee and Rossi, wants to teach creationism in the schools, has little relevant experience and makes statements that show her complete lack of understanding of or opposition to important transit projects.
Port of Seattle Commissioner Pos. 3 Rob Holland Holland holds a degree in seaport management and wants to implement a green jobs program. His opponent was part of the McCain campaign, need I say more?
Port of Seattle Commissioner Pos. 4 Max Vekich Vekich is a former longshoreman who has been involved with environmental and labor legislation as a state legislator. His opponent (Tom Albro) is a conservative businessman. Notably, the Washington Conservation Voters did endorse Albro so perhaps this isn't as open and shut as it might seem on the surface.
Seattle Mayor- Mike McGinn The city is quite divided on the race with many younger people favoring McGinn and older people favoring Mallahan. McGinn wins my vote for his forward thinking approach to transit, housing and environmental issues and for his knowlegability about city issues and willingness to reach out to people from diverse groups across the city. Mallahan seems like an upstanding individual who talks frequently about his values and business experience. The biggest problem I see with Malahan is that he lacks passion for policy discussion. He seems to have only a surface level understanding of many issues and he seems disinterested in debating these issues to develop his understanding.
City Attorney -- Pete Holmes I am voting for Holmes for increased transparency and more reasonable cost effective treatment of non-violent offenders.
Seattle City Council Position 2 -- David Ginsburg Ginsburg is one of the first politicians to express significant concern about the issue of peak oil. This is an extremely important issue as we desperately need to have a plan for when the oil supply starts to decline. Ginsburg gets this and favors transit designs that involve significant light rail expansion and the use of feeder buses to bring people from the neighborhoods to the light-rail stations. This seems like the sort of transit system that would stand up best under increasing gas prices and potentially a significant number of people attempting to move to the city to avoid lengthy expensive commutes. His opponent, Conlin agrees with Ginsburg on much but sees a much lower sense of urgency. Ginsburg is intelligent, knowledgeable on the issues and has a technical background. Seattle desperately needs to move forward and take the lead on sustainable post carbon living and Ginsburg is ready to take that step!
Seattle City Council Position 4 -- Sally Bagshaw Both candidates have significant progressive credentials. Her opponent (Bloom) has opposed public transit projects preferring buses, and prefers zoning policies that encourage sprawl over density. He is a more traditional liberal and doesn't place as much value on transit development and environmentally positive infrastructure changes. Most of the local democratic party groups as well as many labor groups endorsed Bloom; the Conservation Voters, the Stranger, some labor groups and the Seattle Transit Blog endorsed Bagshaw. Bagshaw is a lawyer with public policy experience in many relevant areas and is considerably better on the above transportation and environmental issues. With the massive influx of people to the Seattle area expected to continue we need a change in direction if we wish to keep our high quality of life.. Vote Bagshaw!
Seattle City Council Position 6 -- Jessie Israel-- Israel is a young business women, a former peace corps volunteer who most recently worked for the King County park system creating Public/Private partnerships to keep the parks functioning in the face of massive budget cuts. The incumbent Licata has been a significant advocate for social justice, civil rights, the poor as well as nightlife. However, he tends to oppose larger projects and prefers buses to other forms of transit.
Israel recognizes that the decisions we make now in terms of where we place transit, what form it is in and how we zone around the transit stations will effect Seattle for decades to come. She understands the need for higher density around stations in terms of keeping housing affordable in the face of significant continued population growth. and the need for a permanent stable transportation system.
Some have expressed concern that her desire for more cops and her endorsement by the police and fire department unions indicates that she might be too conservative on crime related issues. She actually is quite progressive and supports programs to help keep people out of jail in the first place. She notes, however, that Seattle has less cops per capita than most any other city its size and thus the number needs to be increased. Further, the police union reports that a good part of the reason she was endorsed is that she took the time to chat with the officers after the candidates meeting. All the other candidates quickly departed. She is about building relationships and understands the need for the council to improve its strained relationships with city employees, residents, neighborhood associations, as well as the county and state governments.
Her election would do much to further the goal of making Seattle a leader in sustainable urban living.
Seattle City Council Position 8 -- Mike O'Brien A strong supporter of transit and progress on environmental issues O'Brien also has an MBA and significant business experience. He has worked as a CFO of a local law firm and chaired the Sierra Club. His opponent is far more conservative on many significant issues and is running an ugly campaign recently accusing O'Brien of wanting to toll every city street. This is an easy one, vote O'Brien!
City of Seattle Prop 1 -- YES! This proposition renews the housing levy and increases it somewhat to take into account rising building costs. This small levy creates jobs building housing which is made available to low income renters. In times such as these this is even more critically needed than usual. Vote yes!
Seattle School Board Director Dist. 5 Kay Smith-Blum Smith-Blum is a local business person who wishes to involve the community more in education and to help young people develop community ties as part of their education. She also wishes to increase availability of free early child-hood education, increase vocational training for those not college bound, teach the students about nutrition, improve the quality and environmental sustainability of food in the schools, and use technology to improve involvement of parents in their children's education. She seems to have many good ideas in a time in which we need to try new ideas to move our stagnated school systems forward.
Seattle School Board Director Dist. 8 Wilson Chin Chin is a lifelong Beacon hill resident and research scientist who has been involved as a coach and school volunteer including involvement on search committees for Principals and other hires. He will bring a rational analytical approach to the board and also plans to focus also on improving the science curriculum to make it more relevant for future employment, to improve vocational education for those not planning to pursue college and to work to address the needs of different ethnic and social groups. His opponent (Betty Patu) is a life long teacher and probably also a reasonable candidate, but this seems a time when an intelligent outsider with differing experiences to bring to the job probably outweighs her direct experience.