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Title : On Elections and Candidates
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On Elections and Candidates
Just a heads up on a candidate for King County Council - Girmay Zahilay - who is challenging incumbent Larry Gossett. I have talked with Mr. Zahilay who is all the things you might want for the Council. I have found Gossett to be equally compelling so I don't envy those who are voting for that race.However, I did find out that Mr. Zahilay served on a charter school board in NYC, starting sometime in 2017. It's unclear to me if he still serves (I would think not).
As well, in a photo at Crosscut, he is joined in a photo with former school board candidate Omar Vasquez as well as Dexter Tang, both local ed reformers. This information certainly gives me pause and I wish I had learned it sooner because I would have asked Zahilay about it when I spoke with him. I do have a message out to him.
The ratings for candidates, including for Seattle School Board, are out from SEAMEC.
Seattle Metropolitan Elections Committee (SEAMEC) is a non-partisan civic organization that rates candidates running for political and judicial office in Seattle, King County, and the State of Washington. SEAMEC evaluates candidates on their knowledge of, record of proven activism for, and commitment to the concerns of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (GLBT) communities.Way out front for LGBTQ folks for "fairness" is Eric Blumhagen in District 1 with "exceeds expectations." Liza Rankin received a "meets expectations." For interview questions, Blumhagen received straight As across the board. Rankin received a grade of D. Blumhagen received the best ratings of any candidate.
District 2 - Lisa Rivera Smith received a "meets expectations" for fairness and Cs for her interview answers.
District 3 - Chandra Hampson received the same grade as Blumhagen as well as straight As. Interestingly, Rebeca Muñiz, who is LGBTQ, received a "meets expectations" for fairness and a D for interview questions.
District 6 - Leslie Harris received a "meets expectations" for fairness while for Molly Mitchell they had "insufficient evidence" to give a rating. Both received Ds for their interview answers.
I do wonder about all these Ds but that may be because of candidates not answering fully or in a timely manner. I have a call out to SEAMEC.
Endorsements
District 1 - Both Rankin and Blumhagen have strong levels of endorsement. Rankin has more union ones while Blumhagen has more legislative districts.
What stands out to me is that Rankin puts up an endorsements from Sebrena Burr, Tracy Castro-Gill and Kate Eads who are noted flamethrowers in the district. So you know what you will be getting with Rankin, that's clear. (Of course, Blumhagen has my endorsement on his page and I might be considered a flamethrower as well except that I don't yell or name-call. Tone can mean a lot when you are on the Board.)
Also, Castro-Gill says that Rankin has "volunteered time to help develop our ethnic studies program in SPS!" I didn't know that Ethics Studies was taking volunteers for this important work but do ring her up if you would like to volunteer as well.
District 3 - Chandra Hampson's endorsement list is quite large.
She also has an interesting quote:
I do not believe the "cost" is in fact high. I believe careful and transparent financial analysis will tell us that racial equity is, over time, cost neutral, if not less operationally expensive. This means budget cannot and should never be a hurdle or barrier to equity work."There is a LOT to unpack there. Maybe a bit of a throwdown to Superintendent Juneau. It's one thing if the Superintendent and the Board are all for the equity work. It's HOW you get there that could become sticky if there is not agreement AND the Board has the power of the purse.
As well, that "operationally expensive" could include scaling back many programs if the Board believes the money is needed for the equity work.
Muñiz does have a smaller, yet very powerful list. She's got two City Council members, Lorena Gonzálezand Teresa Mosqueda AND the one of the two people you know for certain she will work with if elected - Director Eden Mack. For someone not as well-known in SPS circles, she certainly has a lot of connections.
District 6 - Director Leslie Harris has a huge number of endorsements from across the spectrum including both of the directors who will be remaining on the Board - Eden Mack and Zachary DeWolfe. I do find it interesting that DeWolfe endorses both Rankin and Hampson but not Mitchell.
Mitchell's endorsements are slight compared to all the other candidates.
District 2 - Lisa Rivera Smith. If just Smith and her friends/colleagues/supporters vote for her, she will win as there is no other candidate in this race (unless there is a huge write-in vote for someone else which I greatly doubt).
Smith has a respectable number of endorsements for someone who didn't really have to go after them.
I want to note that Smith really didn't have to try during this race but she has. At event after event, both election related or not, she has shown up to listen and meet people. This is a very good sign for the kind of Board director she will be.
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