You can also enjoy some of our other election coverage, including the endorsements and five initial takeaways from the fizzled red wave.

And just to clarify one thing we mention in the pod, the three options the city council has when considering how to proceed with an initiative are: put it on the ballot as is, to put an alternative initiative on the ballot with it, or to simply pass it as an ordinance without putting it on the ballot. I may have been too zippy with my democracy joke to let that be clear.

We want to know your thoughts, opinions, and predictions for 2024. Reach out to us at podcast [at] theurbanist.org.  

As always, you can find The Urbanist podcast on iTunes, Spotify, and other major platforms. And if you are enjoying the podcast, be sure to offer a “like” or “thumbs up” on your favorite platform. It’s a great way to spread the word to new listeners.

The post The Urbanist Podcast: General Election 2022 Roundup with Jazmine Smith first appeared on The Urbanist.

With the predicted Red Tide fizzling, Democrats have a solid chance to gain two Washington State House seats: one in Legislative District 10 (LD10) and one in LD26, plus a senate seat in LD42. That would make the Democratic advantages 29-20 in the state senate and 59-39 in the house, giving them a bit more breathing room to pass legislation. John Zingale also flirted making an unexpected pickup in LD18, but Republican Stephanie McClintock recovered by Thursday’s drop to take a two-point lead, and appears to be pulling away.

Marie Gluesenkamp Perez pulled off the biggest upset in the country in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, flipping the red-leaning district for the first time in decades. That means Washington is sending eight Democratic Representatives to Congress and just two Republicans. Democrats will hold the U.S. Senate, and they have a shot to hold the House (even in an uphill Midterm were they were predicted to get crushed) thanks in part to the upset in Washington’s 3rd.

Perez is bringing “a populist, working class, rural voice back into the Democratic Party and [doing] it in a way that’s also economically progressive and socially progressive,” Sierra Club Seattle chair Robert Cruickshank said on a Hack and Wonks podcast appearance on Friday. He thought that presented a model for Democrats to emulate nationwide.

“Seeing the campaign she ran, the ads she ran, I think potentially point to a direction forward for Democrats as they really try to figure out what do they do about rural America,” Cruickshank added. “She’s winning right now because she has a huge lead in Clark County by double digits, but she’s holding her own in the rural parts of the county. She’s at 45-46% in Kelso-Longview area out on the rural Washington coast. She’s not going to win this race without running up decent numbers in the rural parts of the district. And so I think there’s a lot Democrats can learn from here.”

Perez received scant national support for her campaign, but a local political action committee associated with Fuse WA did spend $800,000 on her race, which proved to be enough when paired with the $3 million and change she raised herself. She was the right messenger with the right message, which can really amplify reach. It’s fairly damning that national Democratic party leaders sat this one out thinking it was a lost cause, but it is a big win for grassroots campaigning and for Fuse WA.

Nationally, many of the expected blue-to-red flips are not manifesting. Republicans may still eke out enough of the close races to narrowly take the House of Representatives, far short of the 30-seat majority projected by some models. Their hopes of retaking the U.S. Senate are dashed, however. Sen. Raphael Warnock’s runoff in Georgia will allow Democrats an opportunity to pick up a seat and provide some much needed breathing room in a 50/50 split Senate with some very wobbly “Democrat” votes in West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. John Fetterman’s win in Pennsylvania provided a red-to-blue flip that will increase the Senate margin, at least if Warnock can hold his seat. The campaign strategy to woo blue collar workers paid off for Perez and Fetterman, who showed greater strength than normal in rural areas and improved margins with working class Whites, a demographic that has long been sliding toward Republicans.

What does the strong showing for progressives mean for future elections? Here’s some takeaways.

The Seattle metro’s blue wall continues to hold

The blue wall in the Seattle metro area held, despite considerable investment and hype from Republicans. Republicans continue to hold LD25 south of Puyallup, but that’s it as far as Puget Sound suburbia goes. Unlike swingier major metropolitan areas farther east, the suburbs in the Seattle metro aren’t that purple these days. They’re increasing looking solidly blue — even in years when Republicans think they’ve landed upon the perfect wedge issue like car tabs or crime.

Even more moderate “mainstream” Republicans struggled to break through, as former legislators like Chad Magendanz and Mark Harmsworth got no traction in their suburban races challenging supposedly weak Democratic incumbents and didn’t even make it close. LD5 and LD44 just don’t seem that swingy anymore, despite their former status as Republican bastions in the ‘burbs.

Pro-housing candidates resonated

In Democrat on Democrat races, the candidate with the stronger housing message tended to win. Look no farther than former Seattle Office of Housing director Emily Alvarado’s decisive win (with almost 70% of the vote) in LD34 for proof of this. This dynamic meant state legislature candidates endorsed by The Urbanist had a pretty strong showing, too. Darya Farivar (LD46), and Julia Reed (LD36), and Chipalo Street (LD37) are joining the state house after advancing through highly competitive open seat primaries in part because they spoke to the need for more housing at all income levels. These candidates supported statewide legislation to address the overly restrictive zoning that is hampering housing production. Just as recent polling has indicated, Washingtonians want action on housing, and they’re rewarding candidates who are credible and outspoken on this issue.

Smart candidates will adopt pro-housing policies as a consensus position and do better for it. With housing prices skyhigh and homelessness stubbornly persisting, Washingtonians aren’t looking to screw around on this issue any longer.

“Democrats have a mandate,” said political consultant Crystal Fincher (who is also a boardmember at The Urbanist) on the Hacks and Wonks podcast. “We saw to a degree that we haven’t before, to your point earlier, that Democrats ran hard on their values. And those who did and talked about a holistic view of public safety and bringing comprehensive public safety, who talked about housing being a human right, who talked about the absolute need to expand healthcare coverage, to house people – not simply temporarily shelter, but get people into housing reliably, to control out-of-control housing costs across the board — that these are things that Democrats across the state in battleground districts ran on and won handily on these things. Where there was some question — I know from some consultants, from some Democrats even in leadership — whether they did have a mandate to act on that, whether the public would support those things. We heard a resounding yes from voters. We saw candidates who pledged to take action on these things succeed.”

Fearmongering tough-on-crime candidates floundered

Locally, King County rejected a throwback tough-on-crime County Prosecutor candidate in Federal Way Mayor Jim Ferrell and elected the more progressive option in Leesa Manion instead. This cast serious doubts on the narratives from the 2021 election that tough-on-crime was back and progressives were deeply out of touch following Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison’s win over abolitionist Nicole Thomas Kennedy — not to mention the kind of campaign Mayor Bruce Harrell ran to win handily and Councilmember Sara Nelson ran to win narrowly. With his one-sided message, Ferrell absolutely failed to close in this race, despite polling showing a tight race headed into Election day.

Manion’s win means highly successful diversionary programs will continue and fewer people will need to rot in a jail (drinking brown tap water by the way) when reasonable alternatives exist for rehabilitation and meaningful amends to victims and society. Jail isn’t the fix for everything. King County’s even-year electorate seem to get that, even if centrist pundits were convinced punitive politics would be rewarded.

The miscalculation on crime was devastating for the state GOP, with most Republican candidates running campaigns centered on stoking crime fears, evoking images of a crime-ridden de-policed Seattle, and blaming Democrat policymaking. Those attacks just didn’t land. Voters apparently want to have a more nuanced discussion about what truly improving public safety would entail. Alas, Republicans (and some centrists Democrats) still want to act like it’s the drug war 1990’s all over again with only one solution: more cops, more jails, and longer jail sentences. Perhaps, policymakers will invest more in mental health, drug treatment, violence prevention, and the social safety net seeing the nuanced way the electorate is viewing public safety.

Election reform is popular

By an overwhelming margin, King County also passed a measure switching county races from odd- to even-year elections. Moreover, in dramatic fashion, Seattle is set to passed ranked choice voting with the first question of “should we change our election system” trailing until Saturday’s drop, when it jumped into the lead. Ranked choice easily dominated the second question over approval voting. Both measures were endorsed by The Urbanist Elections Committee. Both The Stranger and The Seattle Times opposed ranked choice voting measure (for different reasons), but the campaign was able to overcome that disadvantage. It was a full repudiation of approval voting, which is grabbing only 25%.

Switching local elections to even years would make the electorate much larger and more representative of the population in all its diversity. Odd-year elections have allowed a path for more conservative politicians like Ann Davison with tough-on-crime platform to survive in Seattle politics, but even year elections, perhaps with an assist ranked choice voting, could close the door on that possibility. The State Legislature would be wise to authorize the switching of municipal elections to even years across the state, finishing the work that King County has led on at the county level.

LD42, LD10, and LD26 are drifting blue

With four million of the state’s 7.7 million residents living in the Seattle metropolitan region, the metro blue wall is enough to control the legislature, but Democrats made some inroads elsewhere as well. Since Washington State used redistricting panel that was evenly split between Democrats and Republicans to draw the legislative map and the State Supreme Court has balked at taking over the process, redistricting didn’t carve out easy wins for Democrats outside of the Seattle metro where sheer numbers could not be overcome with Republican-friendly gerrymanders. Nonetheless, Democrats have prevailed in what were considered “even” districts as the state has drifted to the left, which happens to be what The Urbanist predicted.

LD10 is increasingly looking friendly to Democrats as Democratic Rep. Dave Paul is winning reelection (currently a 3.7 point lead and likely to grow) and Clyde Shavers looks well-positioned to pull out a close race against a Republican incumbent. Shavers was up just 29 votes Saturday, but there are plenty of votes still to count in Island County, which has been much friendlier turf for him.

Emily Randall is wining reelection in LD26, which is where Republicans thought they’d claw back a state senate seat. However, choosing an extremist with anger management issues in Rep. Jesse Young as their candidate likely did Republicans no favors. It’s going to be a nail-biter in Democrat Adison Richards campaign to flip a house seat in the district. Richard trailed by 613 votes Saturday, but remaining ballots weigh heavily toward Kitsap County where he has performed better. Richards won the two-candidate primary by 113 votes so we could be in for a similar squeaker.

Up north in Whatcom County, Democrats are currently on course to sweep LD42 despite fears the opposite would be the case. If Sharon Shewmake holds onto her lead, this would be a pickup of a senate seat for Democrats. Trump ally and anti-masker Doug Erickson used to hold this seat until he died after contracting Covid.

LD18 looked like it might be in play for Democrats on election night, but it drifted back toward Republicans in later returns. It appears Zingale will lose by about 5 points, which suggests the district in Portland exurbia could have flip potential if it continues to trend toward Democrats.

The 2022 election had some unique factors at play. Will voters mobilized by the Supreme Court’s attack on abortion rights stay mobilized? Will Republicans run fewer unhinged lightweight candidates? Will wavering Republicans come home after Trump finally exits the public stage? Maybe some dynamics will shift, but Washington is certainly a state where Democrats will continue to hold the advantage and progressive policies should be advancing. The Republican party is anti-urbanist and that constantly derides Seattle, undermines transit, and supports sprawl over much-needed urban housing while offering little positive vision for the state. That is simply not a winning formula.

Author’s note: This article has been updated with the paragraph about campaign spending and Fuse Washington.

The post Five Takeaways from the 2022 Election first appeared on The Urbanist.

In the races for the Washington Legislature, candidates endorsed by The Urbanist are winning almost all of their races with the exception of Matt Macklin in LD26. Macklin is running 10% behind incumbent Michelle Caldier, a number unchanged since yesterday. Indeed, all of the races for legislature have changed by less than a percentage point, so we won’t bore you with all those numbers. So far, no Sawant-style gap closing here.

In the local initiatives, all of The Urbanist-endorsed ballot measures are ahead and keeping their leads except the City of Seattle Propositions 1A and 1B. While the preferable Ranked Choice Voting does lead, the overall question of whether to implement a new voting mechanism does not. The “no’s” lead by 2,500 votes, but have lost some ground since Tuesday

Local Initiatives

The post General Election 2022: Wednesday Ballot Drop first appeared on The Urbanist.

Here are the early results. The Urbanist Elections Committee made endorsements in many races across the Sound Transit funding district, marked with an asterisks below. This table includes other races not endorsed by the Committee, but may be of interest to readers.

Key: INC = Incumbent, * = Endorsed Candidate,

Local Initiatives

Local Positions

Federal Positions

The post General Election 2022: Early Counts first appeared on The Urbanist.

You can register to vote on Election Day, but that must be done in person. Check those election office websites for more information.

To assist with your candidate selection needs, please refer to The Urbanist Election Committee’s cornucopia of endorsements, ranging from the Washington Legislature to King County Prosecutor to Seattle City ballot initiatives. There is only one issue on the ballot, and that is the future. Vote like the atmosphere is on fire.

If you would like an audio version of our endorsements, check out the Urbanist Podcast where you can listen to the dulcet tones of Hannah Sabio-Howell and Rian Watt as you move quickly and deliberately to the ballot box. Subscribe to The Urbanist Podcast on your favorite service, or enjoy the episode here:

Guest Opinion Articles

And if you need some further conversation about the pros and cons of particular race or ballot initiative, please consider the work of some of our guest contributors:

The post General Election Day 2022: Your Last Minute Roundup of Urbanist Endorsements, Op-Eds, and Ballot Box Locations first appeared on The Urbanist.

The best way to resist these attacks isn’t by holding tight to the status quo – that’s what got us here. Voters are tired of the divisiveness, the gridlock, the gamesmanship, and constantly feeling like they’re stuck choosing between the “lesser of two evils.” 

The status quo isn’t cutting it. There is a better way. 

Ranked-choice voting (RCV) is on our ballot in Seattle. Let’s join the pro-voter movement for better elections that’s sweeping the nation. All we have to do is vote for it. 

Question 1 in Seattle asks if you’d like to change how we vote. To get ranked-choice voting, we must vote YES for change. Next, you have the choice of Proposition 1A [approval voting] or Proposition 1B [ranked-choice voting]. 

Proposition 1B for ranked-choice voting (RCV) is the way to go. Here’s why.

Ranked-choice voting is tested and proven 

RCV has over a century of use internationally and has taken off in America over the last two decades. Today, it’s the election method of choice in over 50 places across the United States. These places run the gamut from dense, progressive cities to small, conservative towns. 

The reason for RCV’s rapid expansion is simple: Voters understand it, they like it, and it delivers on its civic benefits. Research shows overwhelmingly that voters find RCV simple to use. Once they adopt it, they don’t want to go back. 

As Alan Durning of the Sightline Institute explained, “ranked-choice voting is a battle-tested pro.” 

We know ranked-choice voting works and we know voters like it. Let’s not overcomplicate things. 

Ranked-choice voting strengthens representation 

Until New York City adopted RCV in 2021, women had never held more than 18 seats on the City Council. After using RCV, they now hold 31 of the 51 seats. 

This isn’t a fluke. 

Across hundreds of elections, evidence shows that RCV boosts representation for historically underrepresented groups. Turns out, when voters get to cast a ballot that reflects their values, they are able to elect people they identify with. 

That’s why racial justice advocates at The Washington Bus, Puget Sound Sage, and the BIPOC Executive Directors coalition have endorsed Proposition 1B. They know that RCV means elected officials will be accountable to their communities. 

Ranked-choice voting moves us forward on representation. 

Ranked-choice voting works for voters and candidates 

With RCV, voters know that their second choice will only be counted if their first choice is no longer in the running. You can safely vote your heart while ranking backup candidates as your second or third choices. This is why voters love ranking their choices.

It’s also in the best interests of candidates to encourage their supporters to use rankings. You’ll frequently hear candidates in RCV races saying, “rank me first, but rank my opponent second.” 

This is a game changer. Instead of encouraging divisiveness, polarization, and attack ads, RCV pushes candidates to find common ground. 

Put simply, RCV boosts candidates who have the skills to build coalitions and get things done in office. It’s a breath of fresh air. 

Why not approval voting? 

The truth is, approval voting doesn’t have much of a track record. It’s still in the experimental stages and it’s not clear if it’s even legal in Washington. What we do know suggests that, while it’s an interesting idea, it falls short of the benefits of ranked-choice voting. 

In Fargo, North Dakota, one of only two places that’s ever used approval voting in the U.S., a mayoral candidate was asked what difference approval voting would make for campaigns. He responded, ”I would probably bet that every candidate says ‘just vote once’ because that has more power as a vote.” 

That candidate was right. 

A core problem with approval voting is that once you tick the box for your favorite candidate, as a voter, it’s in your best interest not to tick a second box for a candidate you’re just ok with. 

Approval voting is binary. You don’t get to express that you like one candidate more than another. Instead, you’re forced to game out whether you like a candidate enough to give them as much support as your favorite candidate, or if you dislike them enough to give them as little support as your least favorite. 

This is why, in approval voting elections, voters often end up just voting for one candidate. They don’t want to risk muddying the waters and accidentally helping their second favorite beat their top choice. 

With approval voting, voters vote much the way they always have, and candidates campaign much the same way they always have – mudslinging, attack ads and all.

Ranked-choice voting is the only method that will make fundamental improvements in our politics. 

Who is behind these campaigns? 

The grassroots groups behind ranked-choice voting are the same people who won us mail-in ballots, same-day registration, and more. We’ve built momentum around the “Ranked-Choice Voting Local Options Bill,” fostered partnerships among community-based organizations, and gotten RCV questions on ballots in Clark County, San Juan County, and, of course, Seattle this year. 

This is a robust movement that’s wide and deep. 

But let’s be real. The movement is strong because it has to be. We need to protect our local democracy as fast as possible because we’re seeing our nation’s democracy crumble in real time as it grapples with ongoing disinformation campaigns and anti-voter legislation. 

To smoothly implement a different voting method, you need an organized, established, trusted network of people on the ground to do the important work of voter education. 

Right now, the approval voting website shows zero endorsers. They aren’t prepared to do the work of voter education and they don’t have the trust of the local organizations who are. 

Meanwhile, Ranked-Choice Voting for Seattle has won the endorsement of our local League of Women Voters, the King County Democrats, the Washington Conservation Voters, FUSE Washington, the Transit Riders Union, and over 30 other organizations and community leaders in Washington. 

In fact, this very publication has also endorsed Proposition 1B for ranked-choice voting! 

Our broad base of support shows that RCV advocates know something the approval voting team doesn’t: winning a campaign is just the beginning, and fundamental change requires community partnerships that money just can’t buy. 

The bottom line

Ranked-choice voting is tested and proven. It has evidence-backed benefits and broad, grassroots support. Approval voting is untested, its purported “benefits” are unproven, and it leaves too many questions unanswered. 

If we want candidates who focus on issues, if we want voters to vote their hearts, and if we want a government that answers to us, then Proposition 1B for ranked-choice voting is the first step. 

Vote YES on 1 to upgrade our elections, and then vote for Proposition 1B for ranked-choice voting.

The post Op-ed: Vote Yes on Seattle Prop 1 and 1B for Ranked Choice Voting first appeared on The Urbanist.

To assist with your voting needs, The Urbanist Election Committee has prepared for you a smorgasbord of endorsements, ranging from the Washington Legislature to King County Prosecutor to Seattle City ballot initiatives. We may have moved past smoke season, but this year’s eye searing and throat clogging start to autumn is a reminder that climate change is here. Vote accordingly.

If you would like an audio version of our endorsements, check out the most recent Urbanist Podcast where you can listen to Hannah Sabio-Howell and Rian Watt school me on the endorsement process and the many intriguing races through the Sound Transit funding area. Subscribe to The Urbanist Podcast on your favorite service, or enjoy the episode here:

Seattle’s Two-Part Ballot Initiative

Just a reminder that Seattle has a ballot initiative to decide the future of voting in the city. The main event will decide between Proposition 1A which is Approval Voting and Proposition 1B which is Ranked Choice Voting. However, there is a preliminary question that asks “Should either of these measures be enacted into law?” Make sure you complete both parts.

The Elections Committee endorses answering “YES” on the first question, and then selecting Proposition 1B – Ranked Choice Voting. As the committee notes, “Ranked-choice voting gives voters the power to voice their actual candidate preferences, rather than just the candidate(s) they’d tolerate.”

Where’d All The Polls Go?

Broadcast television and unprotected YouTube are covered in political advertising, so it doesn’t feel that we are too far from normal in the run up to an election. But there may be a little something missing, and that is independent polls. FiveThirtyEight has an interesting piece about the decrease in polls for smaller races in this off-year election. Their take: the trend in fewer polls is real, is probably because fewer legacy media outlets are commissioning them, and results in a lot of House races having little coverage. In short, the media is spending money on what the analytics say is important, the same analytics that FiveThirtyEight created.

Speaking of legacy media, SurveyUSA polled Washington voter sentiment for The Seattle Times and KING 5 TV in conjunction with the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, and Washington State University’s Murrow College of Communication. The coverage really highlighted how a majority of Republicans said US democracy is “weakening and may collapse” while the majority of Democrats said it was “holding firm but threatened.” This is echoed fairly predictably when broken down by how folks voted in 2020, education, and region. But deep in the cross tabs, it does show that 24% of urban residents think democracy is “strong and resilient”, one of the highest totals in the table. Cities are engines of optimism, plus all the other good stuff like wealth, medicine, and progress.

Your Urbanist Voter Guide

And for anyone who can use a colorful and concise voters guide, here ya go:

The post General Election 2022: Notes, Endorsements, and Get Voting! first appeared on The Urbanist.

As we hear from Hannah and Rian, the Elections Committee puts some serious effort into their work. That can be seen in the thoughtful list of candidates they’ve endorsed and some very tough calls between worthy candidates. It’s all to make sure that you have the best list at hand when filling in your ballot. You can thank them by making sure that ballot gets submitted. Folks with non-urbanist agendas are voting in droves, so it’s vital that you make your voice heard.

Of course, we want to know your thoughts, opinions, and methods you are using to get your ballot in by November 8th. Reach out to us at podcast [at] theurbanist.org. As always, you can find The Urbanist podcast on iTunes, Spotify, and other major platforms. 

And if you are enjoying the podcast, be sure to offer a “like” or “thumbs up” on your favorite platform. It’s a great way to spread the word to new listeners. 

The post The Urbanist Podcast: Election Endorsements Edition first appeared on The Urbanist.

Unfortunately, plenty of distractions are out there. Would we rather elect somebody just promising to solve crime and homelessness by doubling down on incarceration and tough rhetoric? Maybe it will work this time like it didn’t in the 80’s, 90’s, or 2000’s? As you may sense by our sarcasm, our analysis is that incarceration-centered approaches will backfire rather than solve the opiate crisis or surge in crime. But we understand the promises of tough-on-crime candidates might sound pretty seductive right now.

If we can convince you of one candidate this year, make it Leesa Manion, in the King County Prosecutor race. Her opponent, Jim Ferrell, is running a throwback campaign centered on cracking down on the poor and reigniting a failed war on drugs. What impressed us about Manion is that her goals to decrease crime and disorder are supported by policies that have the benefit of actually working. Respecting constitutional rights and following evidence-based practices to reduce crime over the long-term is a winning combination. Somehow violence prevention and diversionary policies have gotten a dirty name, but they remain the most effective way to rehabilitate people and reduce recidivism rates. In short, after interviewing Manion, we’re convinced she’s the real deal and will be the better county prosecutor.

Our endorsement process is an arduous one. We pored over more than 40 questionnaire responses and spent two sunny summer Saturdays and a few evenings indoors, in follow-up candidate virtual interviews. Our Zoom-fatigued brains turned to mush, but we kept the probing and, okay, sometimes meandering, questions coming. After all the work, we debated the merits of the contenders and are confident that the slate we put before you are solid urbanists ready to make a difference.

One measuring stick we used for candidates is whether they support ending exclusionary zoning and building more housing at all income levels. For state legislators, we gauged this willingness by their take on House Bill 1782, the promising statewide missing middle housing bill introduced by Rep. Jessica Bateman but rejected by a handful of suburbanist snob Democrats aligning with sprawl-happy, own-the-libs Republicans. If we say a candidate is for HB 1782, that means they support the state setting a minimum zoning standard to ensure multifamily housing (such as fourplexes, stacked flats, and courtyard apartments) is legal, particularly in transit-rich areas of the state. With housing prices skyrocketing across the state at an alarming rate, more affordable housing options really isn’t too much to ask.

We’ll start with countywide races and ballot measures, and then work our way through our state legislature endorsements roughly from south to north, or Legislative District 22 (LD22) to LD44, as it were. Get your ballot postmarked by 8pm November 8th to ensure it counts. Register to vote or check voter information here. Check out the questionnaires for yourself: LD34, LD36, LD37, and LD46, the South Sound, and Eastside, North Sound, and the rest.

The Urbanist Elections Committee consists of Lizzy Jessup, Ryan Packer, Hannah Sabio-Howell, Jazmine Smith, Doug Trumm, Rian Watt, and Anita Yandle. Smith recused herself from voting on state legislative races due to a work conflict.

The Urbanist Elections Committee Endorsement Overview

Ballot Measures

King County Proposition 1: Yes

Conserving green spaces and natural resource land should be a high priority, which makes the Conservation Future Levy a slam dunk. With climate change bearing down upon us and bringing with it grueling smoke seasons every year, it’s imperative we protect mature forests and do our part to sequester carbon rather than emit it. The measure would also help expand King County’s regional trail network, including the Green River Trail and Eastrail, which will stitch together the Eastside when completed.

“A Yes on KC Prop 1 restores the local Conservation Futures Program to its original rate – less than $2 more per month for the average homeowner,” its backers note. “Executive Constantine launched the Land Conservation Initiative in 2016, convening a regional partnership of communities, cities, farmers, businesses, and environmental leaders to protect 65,000 acres of the highest conservation-value open space. The initiative is off to a strong start, but without adequate funding now, King County and partners will miss the best opportunities to protect open spaces.”

Vote Yes on King County Prop 1 to preserve green space and advance the regional trail network.

King County Charter Amendment 1 – Even Year Elections: Yes

We have two opportunities in Seattle to improve our elections this year. The first one is King County Charter Amendment 1 which would move elections for representatives at the county level to even years instead of odd years. Namely, King County Executive, King County Councilmembers, Director of Elections, and Assessor would move to even years, and would serve a shortened three-year term in their next race in order to accommodate the transition.

Moving local elections to even years would have a huge impact on voter turnout, roughly doubling the electorate based on recent voting patterns. Because our federal officials are elected in even years, turnout is much higher in those years, especially in presidential years. This difference would be particularly pronounced among young people, and Black, Indigenous, and communities of color, which are groups that have very low turnout in odd years. In effect, this is a way to have the most representative democracy possible.

Would the Nikkita Oliver versus Sara Nelson race for City Council race have gone differently if held in an even year? We don’t know for sure, but we have reason to suspect a higher number of younger and more diverse electorate would have helped Oliver, whom we endorsed. Moving County elections won’t immediately impact City Council races, but it could pave the way and mount pressure on Seattle and other cities to do so.

Councilmember Oliver alternate universe aside, this election reform isn’t about helping or hurting any particular candidate. It’s about making elections more representative and fair. To show you the size of the impact even-year elections would have on turnout in King County, young people in 2019 had voter turnout of 7% in the primary and 15% in the general election. Compare that to 2020, when over 35% voted in the primary and 63% voted in the general election. No one should be elected with only 15% of the youth vote. Leaving obstacles to voting in place is an astonishingly bad way to chart a course to a brighter future.

Vote Yes on King County Charter Amendment 1.

Seattle Proposition 1B – Ranked Choice Voting: Yes

Additionally, in Seattle, we have the opportunity to change the way that we do elections: it’s a question in two parts. The first part of the question is, should we change the way we do elections in Seattle? The answer to that is a resounding yes. The second part of the question is, should that change be approval voting or ranked-choice voting? The answer to that question is ranked choice voting. 

While both methods would change the way that we do elections, only one – ranked choice voting – truly makes Seattle city elections more representative and gives voters more power in a meaningful way. Ranked-choice voting gives voters the chance to rank the candidates they support in order of preference, while approval voting limits voters’ ability to distinguish between candidates. Ranked-choice voting gives voters the power to voice their actual candidate preferences, rather than just the candidate(s) they’d tolerate.

Because of this, and because ranked-choice voting is already a tried-and-true electoral system in a variety of jurisdictions throughout the country, it has the support of a vast, multiracial coalition of Seattle-based community groups, many of whom represent historically disenfranchised people. 

Here at The Urbanist, we’re all for the reforms that would actually move our city toward progress: progress on housing, on transportation, on public safety, on affordability, on creating a more powerful democracy that works better for working people. We endorse ranked-choice voting because it is a smart, visionary voting reform that has demonstrated success across the country at delivering progress. Approval voting has no such track record, no discernable grassroots support, and is bankrolled by questionable out-of-state donors, led by a cryptocurrency billionaire. Seattle voters deserve real solutions.

Ranked choice voting is the best opportunity that we have to make our democracy more representative. Combine that with even-year elections to increase turnout and our elections will be a game changer, and we’re only getting started. Vote yes to change our elections. Vote yes on proposition 1B for RCV.

Bellevue Proposition 1 – Levy for Parks and Open Space: Yes

Bellevue has a nine-year parks levy on the ballot, and voters would be wise to approve it. In addition to expanding Bellevue’s parks and trail system, the measure would also help fund off-leash dog parks, pickleball courts, and cricket fields. Cricket has become a popular sport in the city and region, buoyed in part by the influx of immigrants from India. This seems like a great way to make the park system most useful to all Bellevue residents. And even if you don’t like sports, the levy also makes wildlife corridors and water quality investments that improve the environment for everyone. Vote yes.

Tukwila Initiative 1 – Raise the Minimum Wage: Yes

Spearheaded by our friends at Transit Riders Union, Tukwila’s minimum wage hike initiative would be a major boon to low-wage workers in the city. Home to the Southcenter Mall, Tukwila is a major job center with quite a few workers making close to city’s minimum wage, which has lagged behind its neighbors. Tukwila’s minimum wage workers would see about a $3 raise, plus the measure adds a cost-of-living adjustment to ensure wages continue to climb in future years. “Right now, a person working a full-time minimum wage job in Tukwila must spend over 60% of their income to rent a modest 1-bedroom apartment in King County,” the campaign notes. Businesses with fewer than 15 employees and less than $2 million in annual revenue are exempt, pouring cold water on worries that mom and pop shops would be put out of business. With inflation and skyrocketing housing prices, workers deserve a pay bump. Vote yes on Prop 1, Tukwila.

King County Prosecutor: Leesa Manion

The King County Prosecutor handles — perhaps surprisingly, considering the title — both civil and criminal cases in King County. The choice in this race is shockingly easy: Leesa Manion. Manion is an insider who says that she understands that mass incarceration does not create safe communities; services do. She has three decades of experience in the prosecutor’s office, which presents the opportunity for a seamless transition.

Meanwhile, she is up against conservative, tough-on-crime Federal Way Mayor Jim Farrell, who is about as far away from The Urbanist’s ideals for safe, happy, healthy communities as one can be. Farrell is likely to follow in Ann Davison’s footsteps trying to ratchet up sentencing and fill up the county jail, which by the way has no running water right now, at least that is not brown in color. It’s not clear what the end game is to loading people up with fines and prison time, but providing little means for them to get back on their feet. Needing to build a bigger jail, we guess?

Given Manion’s emphasis on repairing the broken legal system to a place where it can be at least somewhat more just, she is the obvious choice for this position. Vote Leesa Manion.

LD22-1: Jessica Bateman

We endorsed Bateman in 2020, and boy were we right. The former Olympia City Councilmember solidified her grip on our hearts when she spearheaded an effort to deliver statewide missing middle housing through HB 1782, which would have created the land use framework for large amounts of additional housing near transit and in areas now dedicated to single-family detached housing. She ran functionally unopposed this year (her primary opponents, against whom she took a commanding 62% of the vote, were a Republican and a Democrat who reported raising $0), so this endorsement was never really in doubt, but it is nonetheless delivered with conviction on the strength of 1782, which we expect to return in 2023 and which would unlock opportunities for the housing Washington sorely needs. Vote for Jessica Bateman.

LD22-2: Beth Doglio

We loved Doglio when she previously held this seat (well, technically speaking, Position 1) from 2017 to 2021 and we loved her when she ran for Congress in 2020. We see no reason the voters of the 22nd should fail to return her to the legislature this year, and apparently they agree: she took 50% of the vote in a six-person primary in August and we expect her to handily defeat her Republican opponent in the general election. Doglio’s ability to translate clear climate vision into strong climate policy is hard to equal among other candidates for this seat (or, indeed, in the rest of the state), and we love her increasing commitment to other key planks of The Urbanist’s policy agenda, including missing middle housing and statewide rent stabilization legislation. By sending Doglio back to the legislature to join Representative Bateman, LD22’s voters will likely create perhaps the most consistently effective progressive pairing of State Representatives outside of Seattle. We strongly encourage them to do so. Vote for Beth Doglio.

LD26-2: Matthew Macklin

Democrat Matthew Macklin is looking to unseat Republican Michelle Caldier in the 26th. He’s not the most seasoned candidate we’ve ever seen, but he is an enthusiastic transit supporter and would make a heckuva improvement over a do-nothing Republican. Macklin gets that adding more car lanes generally means adding car traffic, despite greenwashing attempts to sell highway expansion as climate action. Troublingly, Macklin suggests repealing the Growth Management Act, which suggests he is a novice on land use policy, something that hardly makes him unique in the legislature and could be rectified. On a positive note, he supports statewide zoning reform and expanding housing options in all neighborhoods.

Believe us when we say Caldier is a dud. She’s a climate-denying gun nut who has opposed much-needed common-sense reforms like a ghost gun ban, expanded background checks, baseline police accountability measures, clean fuels, and just about every piece of climate legislation to come her way. Nonetheless, she grabbed almost 55% of the vote in the primary so maybe the 26th finds her endearing. Macklin might not be perfect, but he’d be a big improvement. Vote Matthew Macklin.

LD29-2: Sharlett Mena

Sharlett Mena scared an incumbent into retiring, an iconic and timeless move in the world of progressive politics. She is running to represent the 29th Legislative District, a majority-minority, working class district that deserves representation by people who will advocate for affordable, liveable communities. We strongly believe that Mena will advocate for affordability, given her support for passing the HB 1782, expanding emergency housing and shelters, and lifting the ban on rent control. It is also clear that she will advocate for climate-conscious policies, not just due to her background at the Department of Ecology but also because she expressly calls out the effects of environmental racism on the 29th LD and has enumerated specific efforts to reduce carbon emissions that she supports.

Mena is also clearly thoughtful about creating safe communities. She recognizes that public safety comes from preventing dangerous incidents in the first instance, such as through keeping people stably housed and expanding public services.

Through the expansion of public transit and walkable, visible pedestrian routes, Mena believes we can reduce traffic fatalities, and through public advocacy campaigns, she believes we can encourage safe driving behavior. She was herself the victim of a serious road rage incident earlier this year. 

Mena made it through a three-way primary with 42.5% of the vote. Her Republican opponent Figuracion had just over 41%, but Mena is likely to take the lion’s share of votes from the Democrat who was eliminated. We believe Mena is the right fit for this position, and will be a strong pro-housing, pro-transit, pro-environment legislator. Vote for Sharlett Mena.

LD27 Senate: Yasmin Trudeau

Sen. Yasmin Trudeau has been a progressive voice and housing champion and deserves another term. She supported the push to end exclusionary zoning and promote denser sustainable housing in transit-rich areas via HB 1782 and HB 1099. Trudeau has been an advocate for upstream solutions to public safety and of increasing police accountability. She noted she has family members who are disabled and some who prefer not to drive, so she understands the need for improving transit and multimodal options at a personal level. She grabbed a whopping 70% of the vote in the primary and will face a Republican by the name of Ashley Ray. This is a no-brainer. Vote Yasmin Trudeau.

LD30 Senate: Claire Wilson

The 30th Legislative District trading fundamentalist Republican Mark Miloscia for Senator Claire Wilson in 2018 may be one of the biggest upgrades in Washington State Legislature history. Wilson has done a great job distinguishing herself during a tumultuous first term. She prime sponsored numerous bills around education, childcare, and other urgent issues impacting her district. We’re enthusiastic to be endorsing Senator Wilson for a second term, and particularly glad to see Wilson working on the issue of traffic safety. It’s an issue many legislators leave to local cities but which is truly a statewide crisis. In 2022, Wilson worked with the Washington Traffic Safety Commission to pass a bill granting cities new tools to be able to make their streets safer. We can’t wait to see what Wilson can accomplish in her next term. Vote Claire Wilson.

LD47-2: Shukri Olow

We endorsed Shukri Olow in the primary because we liked her platform and thoughtful answers to our questions. She advanced to the general election along with fellow Democrat Chris Stearns, as the pair edged out three Republican contenders in this traditionally swing-y district. Stearns starts with a lead, as he pulled in 33% of the vote to Olow’s 20%.

We’ve tried to get to know Stearns better, but unfortunately he’s rebuffed our efforts. He declined to answer our questionnaire or sit for an interview. Stearns doesn’t have an issues page on his sparse website, and, while he has scored some big-name establishment endorsements, we are very hesitant to endorse somebody who hasn’t articulated what specifically they aim to focus on and accomplish in Olympia. Stearns said his top priorities will be housing affordability, behavioral health, and supporting small business, but without more details it’s hard to say how he would hope to achieve that. Perhaps this is a strategy to court Republican voters who will have nowhere to go with their candidates eliminated. Do we want to hasten the day when nobody has a campaign platform and everybody runs on vibes alone? Voters should not reward such a strategy.

In contrast, Olow has been very clear about her approach, and she has the progressive endorsements to match her progressive vision. With her background working at King County’s Best Starts for Kids Initiative, she has stressed affordable childcare and investing in youth through education. Moreover, Olow has emphasized both investment in affordable housing and reforming zoning to encourage homebuilding at all income levels. She is not afraid to draw attention to the impacts of exclusionary zoning within the Puget Sound region. In her questionnaire, Olow namedropped zoning mastermind Harland Bartholomew as she expertly traced single-family zoning’s racist roots to modern-day housing inequities. Needless to say, she supports statewide zoning reform. With Stearns who knows. Vote Shukri Olow.

LD33-2: Mia Gregerson

“I support HB 1782 in its most bold and progressive form,” Rep. Mia Gregerson told us, and we swooned. She has been a leader on housing and homelessness, and we also appreciated her introducing even year elections reform last session. She’s unabashedly for implementing a state income tax and other forms of progressive tax reform. She is critical of criminalizing poverty, and backs HB 1099, the climate bill which will likely be coming back next session. One critique we will offer: She wrote she supports SR-509 highway expansion because she thinks it will lead to less idling and therefore less pollution in communities of color along the route, which sounds like highway lobby greenwashing. In actuality, the relationship typically goes more lanes leads to more cars and more pollution. Idling is not a magic wand. Still, she is a proponent of making transit free for all, and overall she’s been a great progressive voice. She is running unopposed. Vote Mia Gregerson.

LD11-1: David Hackney

Rep. David Hackney had the audacity to challenge a sitting centrist Democrat from the left and win in 2020. This cycle has seen almost no progressive challenges of Democratic incumbents, so we didn’t realize how lucky we were in 2020. As billed, Hackney has been a reliable progressive, and he deserves another term. Hackney has advocated for fully funding transit and improving service reliability. In his first year, Rep. Hackney partnered with Seattle Subway on a bill to increase light rail funding options, and that push bore fruit this year with passage of a similar measure. Hackney wants to increase missing middle housing, but he backed a compromise version of HB 1782 that would give municipalities more options to customize where denser housing would go. He still wants the missing middle requirement to be mandatory at the municipal level, so this could be workable, but we worry that many cities would use the wiggle room to channel growth away from wealthy segregated enclaves areas and into diverse working class neighborhoods, as opposed to the opposite. He opposes highway widening and backs an income tax and other progressive tax reform. He faces an obscure Republican. Vote David Hackney.

LD34 Senate: Joe Nguyen

Senator Joe Nguyen is a progressive stalwart in the state Senate and he deserves a second term to keep doing us proud. A child of Vietnamese refugees, he brings his lived experience making ends meet when times were tough to the work he does: advocating for tax reform that better serves working families, climate policy that addresses the burden of environmental degradation borne by communities of color, and educational and career opportunity for all. In his roles as a member of the Senate Transportation committee and the Environment and Human Services committees, as well as assistant floor leader, Nguyen has proven himself to be an effective, urbanist, progressive voice in Olympia. Voters seem to agree, as he grabbed 83% of the primary vote. His opponent is some Republican named John Potter, who got 10%. We’ve endorsed Nguyen before and we’re proud to endorse again. Vote Joe Nguyen. 

LD34-1: Leah Griffin

This was a hard choice for the committee — because the 34th will be well represented with either Leah Griffin or Emily Alvarado in the legislature. Griffin is a longtime victims’ advocate who has shown she has the chops to create and pass laws. Alvarado was the Director of the City of Seattle Office of Housing and has built her career on housing people. This has created quite the conundrum: who to pick between two great candidates?

During the primary, Alvarado came out on top with 54% of the vote. Alvarado is smart on all of the issues that make The Urbanist tick: safe, healthy, affordable communities, brought together through smart and sustainable policies. She knows that adding highway lanes increases traffic while destroying the planet and endangering commuters. She knows that rent has skyrocketed and if left unchecked, will only result in more people losing their homes, livelihoods, and lives. In short, she is and will continue to be a great advocate.

Meanwhile, Griffin comes from the public safety side. A sexual violence victim, she saw the failings of the criminal legal system and chose to take action to change it, successfully advocating to pass bills to better protect survivors. Her housing platform puts too much emphasis on home ownership for our tastes, but she clearly is a vote for missing middle reform. She, like Alvarado, is supportive of efforts to expand housing, protect renters, increase transit, and improve ferry service, which is important in the 34th. Additionally, she has not only indicated that she is against adding highway miles, but that she would support efforts to remove particularly harmful highways.

Both candidates had excellent interviews. Both had excellent questionnaires. The committee does not make it a habit to dual endorse, unfortunately. As such, we have given the slight edge to Leah Griffin and endorsed her. We were impressed by her unwavering passion to create laws that are more just and accessible to the people who will be navigating them — often people in crisis. We can only hope to see more of this energy.

LD34-2: Joe Fitzgibbon

Representative Fitzgibbon, a climate and land use champion since arriving in Olympia in 2011, is opposed in this race only by a Republican whose website asks voters to “take [their] life back from the radical left” by voting him into office. Suffice it to say we will not be taking that advice, and will instead endorse Fitzgibbon with conviction and in expectation of his continued leadership on a range of key urbanist priorities (voters agree: Fitzgibbon got 84% of the vote in the primary). In particular, we welcome his leadership on building decarbonization, allocation of revenues arriving in the wake of the Climate Commitment Act, and a renewed effort to get HB 1099, Futurewise’s climate and land use bill, over the final finish line this year. The 34th is fortunate to have Fitzgibbon’s brand of wonky vision in its corner in Olympia, and so are we. Vote for Joe Fitzgibbon.

LD36 Senate: Noel Frame

​​Since 2016, we have been lucky enough to have Noel Frame represent the 36th in the State Legislature. In her service as the House Finance Chair, she’s been a champion for progressive tax reform. Now she is making a State Senate run following Sen. Reuven Carlyle’s announcement that he would not be seeking reelection. We expect Rep. Frame to make a seamless transition from the House to the Senate. Wealth tax, income tax, inheritance tax, you name it — Rep. Frame is our local expert. Throughout the interview process, countless candidates quoted Frame and their intent to follow her lead on progressive taxation in the upcoming session. As Rep Frame said, “we are morally bankrupt in the state of Washington when it comes to our tax code.” We look forward to seeing Rep. Frame make the jump to the senate and (*hopefully*) getting a wealth tax passed. This endorsement is essentially a no-brainer as Frame’s opponent, Kate Martin, is a “former” Republican and a supporter of “gentle density” according to their LinkedIn. In contrast, Frame is a strong proponent of missing middle housing reform and pledged to back legislation like Rep. Jessica Bateman’s 1782 that would guarantee greater housing choices in cities statewide. Vote Frame as our best hope of finally easing the burden on the working class by making progressive tax reform a reality in Washington State. Vote for Noel Frame.

LD36-1: Julia Reed

Julia Reed is an e-bike commuter! She is unafraid to call out that it was lack of Democratic support that caused the failure of the missing middle housing bill. She cares deeply about the climate and supports transit-oriented solutions to reducing carbon emission. And, she knows that the key to safe communities is through providing people the housing, services, and other support they need. 

Jeff Manson made it through the primary a distant second and is Reed’s challenger for the general. Even in a strong field, we were especially impressed with Reed. She seems to be a pragmatist going into Olympia with her eyes wide open, while being willing to hold the line on climate-friendly, community-centered policies. Her priorities appear to be our priorities, and we hope to see her work some magic in Olympia. Vote Julia Reed.

LD36-2: Liz Berry

Representative Berry, who took this open seat convincingly two years ago, has worn her incumbency well, joining with colleagues to pass major progressive legislation. She has consistently supported the efforts of her seatmate and soon-to-be State Senator, Rep. Noel Frame, to advance the cause of progressive revenue in Washington State, and also sought out under-covered and technical issue areas to build consensus around, such as model legislation to ban toxic PFSA chemicals last year. Plus, she serves on the transportation committee and helped broker multimodal improvements to the Move Ahead Washington that included $50 million to improve safety on crash-prone Aurora Avenue in North Seattle. We are delighted to support her for re-election this year and, should she assume the chairmanship of the House Labor Committee (for which she is a contender), we expect her strong labor credentials will continue to build bridges between the urbanist and labor movements that are beneficial to both. Vote Liz Berry!

LD37-2: Chipalo Street

The retirement of Rep. Kirsten Harris-Talley after just one term brought several new contenders into the fold. Plenty of progressives scrambled into the race, but Chipalo Street appears the most prepared to be a progressive urbanist standard-bearer in Olympia. In his interview, he impressed us with his firm grip of the issues, from housing abundance to transportation to police accountability, and how he could best apply his skills in Olympia.

Emijah Smith is an intriguing candidate in her own right. She is a longtime community advocate who has extensive organizing experience with the Washington Children’s Alliance, Solid Ground, and King County Equity Now. She centered the need for racial equity in her questionnaire (submitted after the primary) and her subsequent interview, but took a cautious approach to housing growth, which appears likely to backfire in a region adding residents as quickly as ours. Her platform emphasizes turning back the tide of displacement and ending predatory real estate practices, but we didn’t get a sense in our interview of how she’d turn those broad goals into actionable legislation that achieve them. 

Street is a Microsoft tech manager and a landlord, which might turn off some voters at first glance. But Street’s housing answers were on point from his support of rent control to rental assistance and missing middle housing. His experiences navigating the bureaucratic maze as a homebuilder have sharpened his understanding of what zoning and housing policies need fixing to boost housing production. He’s a strong supporter of HB 1782 and of further police reform efforts. In college, he experienced police brutality firsthand; Street got beat up and sent to the hospital by campus cops who mistook him for a suspect and quickly escalated the situation. He said the traumatic incident drove home the need for de-escalation training and real police accountability. Vote Chipalo Street.

LD37 Senate: Rebecca Saldaña

Senator Rebecca Saldaña is our hero (seriously) for her work to build a more inclusive democracy, advance solutions to environmental racism experienced by communities of color, empower workers, and – most recently – to shape a greener Move Ahead Washington transportation package. Our state will see bigger investments in mass transit and safer roads for vulnerable road users in large part thanks to her leadership. Saldaña’s commitment to building healthier, more livable communities for all of us makes her undoubtedly the best choice for the 37th, and – as we’ve been in the past – we’re proud to give her our endorsement. 

LD43-1: Nicole Macri

We’ve endorsed Nicole Macri in three straight runs and we see no reason to stop now. Macri moved into caucus leadership over the past term and we hope that greater role can help pull the Democratic caucus along on key initiatives like passing missing middle housing reform and writing climate action into the Growth Management Act. Macri is a trusted housing leader on the frontlines of the homelessness crisis at her day job at the Downtown Emergency Services Center. Addressing homelessness remains Macri’s top priority and she’s uniquely qualified to make headway; she understands that exclusionary zoning has driven up housing prices and exacerbated the crisis, and was an early co-sponsor of HB 1782 to tackle the problem. She has fought to increase investments in the state affordable housing trust fund, and was the author of the last attempt to repeal the state ban on residential rent control. She puts in the work, as evidenced by showing up to our endorsement interview despite running unopposed. Vote Nicole Macri and hope we get more like her.

LD46 Senate: Javier Valdez

In our conversation with Rep. Javier Valdez, his years of experience as a legislator and the equity lens through which he views legislation made him a standout choice for the 46th district’s next senator. We especially appreciated his clear support of policies that would expand housing density and affordability and protect communities from displacement. During his tenure as a representative, he has been an effective leader on firearm safety and hate crime legislation, and we expect that he will continue his work to create safer, healthier communities as senator. Vote Javier Valdez. 

LD46-2: Darya Farivar

Presented with an open seat, several great candidates stepped forward in the 46th. Darya Farivar emerged the champion in the primary despite her opponents outspending her considerably. We can see why. Farivar wowed us with her policy chops and experience leading in Olympia as an policy director for Disability Rights Washington, a powerhouse organization advocating for street safety and mobility justice. Faced with defeat, her former opponents — Mellisa Taylor, Nancy Connelly, and Nina Martinez — all endorsed Farivar, showing the progressive consensus in the race. 

Lelach Rave made it through the primary to face Farivar in the general. Rave skipped our endorsement process and seems to be running a milquetoast centrist campaign. While the other candidates all backed HB 1782, stressing the need for statewide zoning reform to spur more housing growth, Rave dodged the issue. Farivar is the clear progressive choice and she’s poised to hit the ground running thanks to the relationships she’s already built in Olympia. Vote Darya Farivar.

LD48 Senate: Patty Kuderer

Senator Patty Kuderer brings an incisive eye and deep experience to her work as chair of the Senate Housing & Local Government committee and we’re excited to see her keep at it. Renters in our state are directly better off because of Kuderer’s leadership. Our neighbors experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity, and particularly youth, are better served and better protected with Kuderer in the Senate fighting for us. And we’re all a lot safer thanks to her effective advocacy for gun safety legislation that keeps deadly weapons away from public demonstrations and our state capitol. We’d be proud to endorse as is, but we’re extra eager to endorse her considering that her challenger is a Republican whose approach (tough-on-crime and anti-transit) has proven time and again to fail people. Vote Patty Kuderer. 

LD48-2 Amy Walen

Rep. Amy Walen is running unopposed and she has done enough to earn our endorsement. Walen said her top priority in her next term would be to get her bill, HB 2020, across the finish line after it came up short this year. Writing an affordable housing requirement and enforcement mechanism in the Growth Management Act (GMA) is a worthy cause and we support it. We’re glad she’s embraced the Washington Can’t Wait campaign to reform the GMA, including climate-focused HB 1099. That said, we urge even bolder reforms to solve the housing crisis. She opposed rent stabilization because she believes it “disguises a supply problem.” Nonetheless, she clings to the idea that some neighborhoods, even in rapidly growing Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, and Seattle, still need to have single family zoning and aren’t appropriate for growth. We’d hope that the former Kirkland mayor and councilmember would have seen the folly of appeasement and incrementalism and embraced full-bore reform. Building our way out of an affordability crisis won’t work with a timid approach. Though she and her husband own and operate a car dealership, she took an unequivocal stand against adding new highway lane miles, which certainly impressed us. A car dealer may seem an odd pick for an urbanist endorsement, but her voting record and her questionnaire shows her to be solidly progressive. Vote Amy Walen.

LD45 Senate: Manka Dhingra

It is within scarily recent memory that the 45th LD Senate seat was held by a Republican. But because Senator Manka Dhingra ran for it and won in a 2017 special election, allowing Democrats to narrowly take control of the Senate, Washington state became a nationwide leader on voting accessibility, abortion protections, and LGBTQ healthcare access. While not always the most vocal and outfront on our issues, she has voted in favor of some key urbanist priorities and supports creating housing options at all price points with high density housing near transit, and believes the state should step in to make that possible. She also supports her colleagues’ climate protection policies, progressive tax reform policies, and Growth Management Act reform policies. Senator Manka Dhingra has earned our endorsement once again.

LD32-1: Cindy Ryu

Since 2011, Rep. Cindy Ryu has been a solid voice in the state legislature. Running for reelection this year with no serious challenger, Ryu is successfully representing the interests and voices of her district, as evidenced by her 83% support in the primary. With her tenure, Ryu is well versed on the inner workings of state government and her veteran experience shouldn’t be discounted. She has shown a penchant to dive into technical issues and get legislation across the finish line, as she did with her bill deterring catalytic converter theft. While rendering cars unuseable does speak to our urbanist souls, we believe mode shift should happen through legitimate means and give kudos to Ryu. She’s pledged to tackle organized retail theft rings as her top priority this upcoming term.

Over the years, we’ve seen Ryu grow into urbanist positions. Ryu is anti highway widening, pro income tax, and a cosponsor of HB 1782. We wish she took a stronger stance on repealing the rent control ban in Washington, but Ryu expressed concerns about impacts on smaller landlords, lost rental homes, and gentrification. She did leave open the possibility of voting for rent stabilization (like Oregon passed statewide in 2019) if those concerns are assuaged. We encourage her colleagues to get assuaging. Vote Cindy Ryu!

LD01-1: Davina Duerr

As the prime sponsor of HB 1099, which would have fully equipped the Growth Management Act to handle the era of climate change and set Washington cities up for smarter growth over the coming decades, we named Duerr our #1 hero of the 2022 legislative session. When 1099 defied the odds and made it to the end of the session, only to be killed for fear of a Republican filibuster by leadership, Duerr didn’t rest. She pushed cities to implement the requirements of the bill on their own, most recently appearing at Seattle’s Land Use Committee to bolster the case for a council resolution on the topic. 

With her background advocating with Bothellites for People-Oriented Places (BoPOP), Duerr has been fighting for issues urbanists care about for a long time, and that experience is invaluable in the legislature, where convincing suburban-minded legislators to embrace bold ideas is the name of the game. She has experience on the Bothell City Council, where she recently resigned her seat. Duerr’s opponent is a Republican who mustered 29% of the vote in the primary to her strong 71% haul. From designing safe streets to preserving open space to enacting tax reform, we know Duerr’s vote in the legislature is one we can count on. Vote Davina Duerr.

LD21-1: Strom Peterson

Rep. Strom Peterson said housing would be his priority in his next term, and his leadership on housing and tenant issues has been much appreciated. He co-sponsored HB 1782 and understands the need to add more affordable “missing middle” housing types in every urban and suburban neighborhood. He supports repealing the rent control ban, and appeared open to a Oregon-style statewide rent stabilization. He sees HB 1099 climate measures as a needed reform to the Growth Management Act, and pledged to only support highway widening if public transit took an even greater share of investment. It’s not a full “no new highways” pledge, but we do appreciate the prioritization of transit and support for free fares for youth. Peterson is also an income tax and progressive tax reform supporter. He faces one poorly-funded Republican challenger. Vote Strom Peterson.

LD44 Senate: John Lovick

John Lovick had probably the shortest answers to our questionnaire that we received. And yet, sometimes brevity is king. Lovick supports the missing middle housing, is open to discussions on lifting the ban on rent control, and is enthusiastic about expanding transit, building housing near transit, and free transit for youth.

We will note that Lovick does not support a statewide income tax, which is unfortunate; we hope he will come back around on that issue and be open to conversations on creating a better tax structure. Even so, Lovick is the right choice for this race. He faces a Republican in the general election. Vote John Lovick.

LD44-1: Brandy Donaghy

Brandy Donaghy has been the beneficiary of musical chairs. The Snohomish County Council appointed her to fill the vacancy created when John Lovick filled Steve Hobbs’ senate seat after the governor promoted Hobbs to fill a Secretary of State vacancy when Kim Wyman joined the Biden administration. [whew!] While not technically a full-blown incumbent yet, Donaghy was already dancing around questions like a seasoned politician in our questionnaire. Nonetheless, we were able to see enough substance there to confirm she would indeed be better than Republican retread Mark Harmsworth, who is the sole challenger for the seat. Harmworth spent his legislative retirement pedaling Republican propaganda with the Washington Policy Center, a conservative think tank. Some people just can’t give it a rest. While Donaghy led in the primary by seven points, that margin is a bit close for comfort.

Donaghy is a far better choice, despite some waffling. A yes or no would have sufficed when asked if she supports HB 1782. Instead Donaghy talked around the question and brought up the need for concurrent infrastructure upgrades “to allow for growth.” Meanwhile, the best part of her answer on rent control was when she said “I am not an expert on rent control.” At least that shows self awareness. That said, her support of a lower blood alcohol limit to decrease deadly drunk driving crashes is commendable, as is her promise to be a proactive legislator — if not questionnaire answerer. She brings a valuable perspective as a Black woman and a Navy vet, and she was generally a reliable vote this session on progressive legislation. In the 44th, that is more than enough to punch your return ticket. Vote Brandy Donaghy.

The post 2022 General Election Endorsements first appeared on The Urbanist.

Farivar faces off with Lelach Rave, a doctor who is running in the centrist lane. Housing policy is a differentiator in this race. Farivar supports expanding missing middle housing in the district and endorsed the effort led by Rep. Jessica Bateman (D – Olympia) to set a statewide minimum zoning standard near frequent transit, which took the form of HB 1782. That bill that didn’t make it out of the house this year, but might fare better with more firm supporters like Farivar in the legislature. Rave, in contrast, has avoided taking a stance on HB 1782 or missing middle housing reform and skipped The Urbanist’s endorsement process.

“As the daughter of Iranian immigrants, Darya Farivar understands the incredible promise of America. She also understands that we only reach that promise when we treat our most vulnerable right,” her website states. “Darya started her career working with children who have communication disorders. From there, she advocated for immigrant and refugee youth with developmental disabilities.”

Farivar’s work at Disability Rights Washington, meanwhile, puts her on the frontlines of efforts to expand transit access, mobility justice, and climate action across the state.

We’re excited to talk about her campaign platform and what she hopes to accomplish in Olympia. If you’d like to learn more or get involved, check out Farivar’s webpage.

The meetup will start with organization updates and announcements and Farivar will give a brief talk at 6:30pm before taking questions from our moderator, including those selected from the registration form and the chat. We hope you can join us!

Watch the video of the talk:

The post Meet LD46 Candidate Darya Farivar Tuesday at The Urbanist’s October Meetup first appeared on The Urbanist.