Primary Election Results
After a long and way too expensive primary season, the results are in (at least most of them). While it appears that each of the three incumbents up for reelection made the runoff, none of them received 50% or more of the vote, which has to be somewhat disappointing for their campaigns. Here’s who we believe will be moving on to the November General Election (check the official site for up-to-date results):
DISTRICT 7: [Downtown, SLU, Magnolia]:
Andrew Lewis - 29%
Jim Pugel - 26%
It is interesting to note that the candidate backed by $150,000 of out-of-state Union money is narrowly leading, and current Council member Sally Bagshaw’s handpicked successor, Michael George, ran poorly with less than 10% of the vote.
DISTRICT 1: [West Seattle]:
Lisa Herbold - 48%
Phillip Tavel - 34%
DISTRICT 2 [Southeast Seattle/Georgetown]:
Tammy Morales - 45%
Mark Solomon - 25%
DISTRICT 3: [Capitol Hill/Central District]:
Kshama Sawant - 33%
Egan Orion - 24%
DISTRICT 4: [Northeast Seattle]:
Alex Pedersen - 45%
Shaun Scott - 19%
DISTRICT 5: [North Seattle]:
Debora Juarez - 42%
Ann Davison Sattler - 28%
DISTRICT 6: [Northwest Seattle]:
Dan Strauss - 31%
Heidi Wills- - 23%
What have we learned so far about the likely composition of the 2020 Seattle City Council?
It’s unlikely that we will see as dramatic a change in the Council as we would have liked. Still, there will be at least four newcomers (not running for reelection) and maybe at least one incumbent (Sawant) who will be unseated.
What can we do now to elect the best candidates in the runoff?
Once the Primary Results are finalized, and we know for sure the two candidates in the runoff for each district, we will be examining all of them carefully to determine which ones we can support. For our Downtown District 7, we not only need a strong supporter of our major concerns/priorities to win, but we also need a Council member who can put together a coalition of at least four others who will recognize and support the importance of a strong/vibrant downtown to our city’s future.
We will post our recommendations in a future post between now and election day in November.