Washington state megathread

[Asian Nazi]

I'm really interested in Sawant's candiacy; the issues she's running on and the way she's promoting them are fascinating. Also the fact that she's an actual socialist (without Bernie Sander's years and years of elected experience) is interesting as well. I haven't been paying much attention to Washington politics since I moved from my birthplace in Kent, Washington in 1999 (when I was 5), but I've been following Sawant running for office since last year.

Also, she's kind of attractive, if I may note that.

I've actually met Sawant before (I'm a member of the same organization that she is).  She's awesome.   I don't think that she's going to win, but I can't even describe how excited I would be if she actually pulled this thing off.  We're also running a candidate in Minneapolis (Ty Moore) and Boston (Seamus Whelan (sp?)).

[Asian Nazi]

#conlinisgonelin

[Asian Nazi]

We just pulled ahead by 41 votes!

https://electionsdata.kingcounty.gov/election-results-nov/three/City%2C%20L-Z/Seattle/City%20of%20Seattle%20Council%20Position%20No.%202

Can someone run the math as to how many votes are left to be counted?

[Asian Nazi]

In funny/horrifying local news, a couple weeks ago, the mailbox room in my apartment complex was broken into.  The thief stole all of the mail, including the ballots of probably most of the registered voters.  Now, my apartment complex is probably a pretty Democratic area in an otherwise swingy district, but I didn't think that the theft would be decisive.

Well, this is the current result of my county council race, with about a couple thousand ballots left to count:

Satpal Sidhu (D)
19,318   49.98%
Kathy Kershner (R)
19,332   50.02%

...

[Asian Nazi]

Big changes for the structure of Whatcom County Council coming up, too.  Currently, six of the seven county council members are voted on in the primaries by three (horrendously drawn) districts, but were voted on at-large  Propositions were passed that will change this to a proper district system, with five districts and two at-large seats.  In the short term, this probably means more pro-coal conservatives on the Council, but in the long term this definitely will lead to better representation and a less...uh...chaotic political environment since right now the composition of the council swings wildly depending on whether turnout is better in urban Bellingham or the fundie countryside.  Also, term limits were passed, limiting the council members and county executive to three terms. 

[Asian Nazi]

I posted a thread about Whatcom County here earlier today if anyone's interested: 

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=222382


Also, in awesome news, two, possibly three Latinos have been elected to Yakima City Council for the first time ever!   

http://www.yakimaherald.com/news/elections/historic-election-two-latinos-elected-to-yakima-city-council/article_be4f5ff2-82b3-11e5-9bd0-371092904c06.html

[Asian Nazi]

Any elections looking interesting in 2016?

WA-7, the race for State Senate (or the House, I guess, if the GOP has a good year), and because this is WA there will undoubtedly be some interesting initiatives on the ballot.  And since the current Secretary of State is a Republican I'm sure she'll receive a strong challenge from the Dems, but I haven't been following close enough to know who is likely to run.

[Asian Nazi]

It's amazing how few people in Washington outside of the  most politically well-informed know who Tim Eyman is and how awful his proposals are. Every single one of them are tax initiatives that sound like common sense until you take a second to think about it. Which of course most voters don't.

Infuriates me to think of how many people think stuff like "2/3 majority to raise taxes" and "All tax increases have to be approved by the public" are legitimately smart ideas.

I think he's fairly well-known by anybody who follows local news at all.  I certainly had heard of him before I became an election nerd at least.

But yeah, he's a huge HP and has singlehandedly destroyed my support for direct democracy.

[Asian Nazi]

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2016/03/01/23637993/trans-activist-danni-askini-is-running-for-the-washington-state-legislature

Since he declared his candidacy for the WA-7, the race to replace Brady Walkinshaw's ultra-liberal Seattle-based State House Seat (WA-43) is getting crowded.  Today, trans activist Danni Askini entered the race, aiming to become the first openly trans person ever elected to the Washington State Legislature.  

Other candidates include "housing advocate Nicole Macri, LGBT advocate Thomas Pitchford, environmental advocate Sameer Ranade, and lawyer Dan Shih" (all Democrats, obviously).  

I don't know enough about the inner workings of Seattle politics to predict how this race will shake out.  



EDIT: It's also March already, we should get a new thread title!

[Asian Nazi]

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So on the Democrat side, we have one candidate from the Eastside (Habib), one candidate from South Puget Sound (Fraser), one candidate from Southern Washington (Moeller), and possibly one candidate from Snohomish County (Hobbs).  Gotta wonder if a Seattle Democrat will jump in the race, too. 

I imagine Habib, the Democratic Senate Whip, will be the favorite.  He's blind, Persian, and a rising star in the state Democratic Party.

[Asian Nazi]

So our edgy Governor followed through with his threat and vetoed all 27 bills on his desk this morning after the State Legislature failed to pass a budget.

The reaction was about what you'd expect.

[Asian Nazi]

My wife and I voted for Kasich today.

That was the first ballot I ever threw in the trash.

Yeah was gonna troll vote for Carson but couldn't be arsed.