Northwest now is supported in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.

She helped found the Transit Writers Union and is a proponent of progressive solutions for housing, childcare, minimum wage, and health care.

Katie Wilson facing off against the established Democratic incumbent, Bruce Harrell.

She's our guest tonight.

Political analyst Ben Andrew Stone is here to talk about the mayor's race and some of the other key races you'll be voting on.

And our Steve Kiggins on the battle over vote by mail.

Local auditors say they have a high degree of confidence, despite the Trump administration's concerns.

It may be an off year election, but there are a lot of eyes on the results here in western Washington.

That's the discussion next on Northwest now.

Music.

The Trump administration and the MAGA movement say vote by mail is a recipe for election fraud.

There's been no evidence to support that claim, but a large percentage of the American population has lost faith in elections because of it.

As Steve Kiggins tells us now, local auditors say there are plenty of safeguards in place to make vote by mail both efficient and accurate.

Technicians run a series of test ballots and envelopes through their paces inside the new home for Snohomish County elections.

Located on the third floor of the Admin West building in downtown Everett, Or 17,000f transformed in the summer of 2024 to house the county's brand new election.

We had an opportunity when we were building out this facility to really think about how can we be as transparent as possible.

Federal grants and county savings cover the multimillion dollar budget that transform this floor into the election center once completed, Snohomish County Auditor Garth Powell says.

The election center includes increased security, expanded operational capacity, and improved visibility for observers.

This was a rare opportunity.

Both the space availability here on campus, as well as some additional funding from the federal government.

Phil says the center employs several layers of security and protocols to protect controlled access systems, employees, equipment and ballots.

24/7 surveillance cameras keep watch from up above and provide observers multiple monitors to view all the action.

This hallway curves around the center, providing unobstructed views of election workers and ballots, and up above.

Remove ceiling tiles, expose air ducts and data cables.

As you can tell when you walk through the facility, we have no drop ceiling.

That's something we learned from another jurisdiction and continue to share with others as well.

In August, President Trump called Mail-In ballots corrupt and vowed executive action.

We get rid of Mail-In ballots.

We're going to start with an executive order that's being written right now by the best lawyers in the country to end Mail-In ballots.

The United States Constitution empowers states to choose the time, place, and manner of elections.

Washington's elections have been vote by mail since 2011.

A process after felons has remained secure.

Ultimately, voters have, complete control over, how they return their ballot, whether by mail or by Dropbox.

And they can see that their ballot has been received by going to vote.

Welcome in North Sound, Steve Kiggins, northwest now.

Now let's turn to Seattle, where most races aren't between conservative and liberal, but rather moderate.

Left and further left.

And it's been that way for years.

The big race, of course, is for mayor, and Seattle voters reacted to the excesses of the Trump administration by pushing Socialist Katie Wilson into the November election after getting about 5000 more votes than incumbent Bruce Harrell.

Katie Wilson, thanks so much for coming to northwest.

Now, having a discussion about your bid for the mayor of Seattle.

I think you make it very interesting comment when it comes to the politics of this.

And I think it's a legitimate idea that you really seem to view both Republicans and Democrats as two sides of the same coin.

And and since you do seem to swing left, in that continuum that we're so used to, what are mainstream Democrats not getting right, how is it they have failed Seattle, in your view?

I, I don't I'm not sure I would say that I see Democrats and Republicans as two sides of the same coin.

But I think what we're we're in a moment now where, I think that a certain kind of establishment Democratic Party politics very clearly failed to stop the train wreck that was Trump's election last year.

And I think voters are looking at that situation and they're looking for a new kind of leadership.

We're also right now in an affordability crisis where for working people, working families, the cost of living in cities like Seattle, from rent to childcare to food, let alone the cost of actually buying a home is just so out of reach.

And I think people are looking for real solutions to that problem.

And I think that they feel that they haven't been seeing it from, career politicians like our current mayor.

And I think you make a good point about affordability and some of those things.

I tend to view that on the macroeconomic level.

Great forces that are taking place in American, the American economy with affordability and, and the cost of a loan and permitting and a lot of those kinds of things.

And these great, you know, these great forces in, in world economics, even what can a local government do to bring down the prices of things like childcare or housing or groceries?

How does a mayor or anybody in, in a city administration really impact that?

Yeah, for sure.

And there's no doubt that, you know, people's experience on the ground of the cost of living is a combination of these big macroeconomic forces, things going on at a national level, at a global level.

But it's also really about the policies that we pursue right here in the city.

On the housing crisis, there are a number of things that we can do better.

One is around our land use and zoning laws and making sure that we are allowing the private market to build more housing in great neighborhoods around the city.

That's one of the reasons for our housing crisis is that, our housing production has not nearly kept up with the growth of our city.

And our region.

But it's also about public investment.

And, you know, one of the reasons why I jumped into this race is because, here in Seattle, we have a new Seattle social housing developer, which Seattle voters have twice overwhelmingly told us that they want, to succeed.

They want the city to build publicly owned, permanently affordable mixed income housing.

And this is a model which has been successful in many other places in the world.

And our current mayor, unfortunately, was the face of the opposition campaign funded by Amazon and Microsoft and the Chamber of Commerce.

Right.

You're talking about really need you're talking about propositions.

I just want to bring people in on this discussion.

Propositions one A and one B, one AA exactly one AA having passed and funding this, I just wanted to catch people up.

Yeah.

Yes.

Exactly, exactly.

And so the upshot, I mean, just to talk about childcare for a moment, too, right.

Childcare is something which really needs to be viewed as a public good.

Right?

And that means that we publicly subsidize it because we recognize that, it is unrealistic to expect the people who need the childcare right now to always be able to afford to pay for it.

It's a huge expense.

And this is something we need to tackle at the local level, at the state level, at the national level.

And we need to move toward a model which again, is very common, in many other places around the world, where you're not having to pay, you know, $2000 or $2500 a month for one, you know, one child care, which is just unaffordable.

Okay, so here comes the big push back.

I'm going to channel a devil's advocate question.

Why should the average taxpayer have to pay for your child in your affordable house?

Why are we taking such a hard swing towards socialism here?

I don't want to pay for that stuff.

Go ahead.

I think we're we're not talking about hard swing here.

And, and really, I mean, one thing to recognize about our city and our state is that we have one of the most regressive tax systems in the whole country.

What that means is that working people, poor people, middle income people, right, are paying far too much of their income already in state and local taxes.

The wealthiest households, the wealthiest corporations are getting something pretty close to a free ride in terms of what they're paying.

In our city and in our state.

And so that's what needs to change, right?

Ideally, we are not adding to the tax burden on those middle class households, those working, working households.

And, you know, for example, in our state, we now have a capital gains tax rate, which, basically asks those who are making over a quarter million dollars a year in, capital gains from and Jeff Bezos moved away and moved to Florida to flee it arguable why he moved.

But the fact is that that's bringing in a lot of revenue.

And here locally in Seattle, we could pass a, small capital gains tax on top of that to raise some money locally.

So that's the kind of solution that we're looking at where, we're really trying to require those who already have a lot to contribute a little more.

And this is kind of how taxes work, right?

I mean, we pay for our roads, we pay for all these things.

That is just unrealistic to expect the individual user to pay for.

That's why we tax and then we're able to fund those public goods.

So that's just kind of how it works.

And there are just areas of our life like childcare where we're not doing that.

Yeah.

And we really need to because the fact is that when childcare is unaffordable, we all suffer, right?

Becomes a societal problem because now we have more homelessness, now we have more kids who are neglected.

Now we have more kids who get in trouble and, you know, get into the criminal legal system, because they haven't had that, care and support because their parents are working three jobs.

And I would say I have, I would say you have a workforce issue, which is inflationary on wages.

You have less supply in the labor market.

And, and I think that's another way that folks can look at that.

You talked a little bit about homelessness here.

And I we continue on that vein.

Two thoughts.

One is hit or miss on the King County Regional Homeless Authority.

In the experience we've had with that organization.

And two, I notice you, you know, the affordable middle is something that you've talked about, but I think your shorter term plan is, is to bring about 4000 shelter spaces to hopefully ameliorate and take the sharp edges off the off the crisis, off the emergent problem.

Talk a little bit about, your take on King County homelessness, authority and your plan for 4000 shelters.

Sure.

Yeah.

I mean, I would say that the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, unfortunately so far is a big swing and a miss.

Right.

I think that there was a lot of talk leading up to the creation of that agency around the need for a regional solution to our homelessness crisis, which is absolutely correct, right.

This is a regional crisis.

We need a regional solution.

Unfortunately, various things about the way that that agency was stood up and some of the leadership decisions, that were made, including leadership decisions that our current mayor made, have meant that that agency has not so far, been effective.

And so I think we're going to need to look very carefully moving forward about how we change course, and open to also deciding that that experiment just did not work.

So, there's a lot of work there to be done in terms of our response to the homelessness crisis.

Yes, absolutely.

I've talked about creating 4000 emergency housing or shelter units in my first term.

So that's over four years.

And, you know, right now what we're seeing is that we have more people sleeping unsheltered on our streets than ever before.

And that number just keeps going up.

It's, you know, our current mayor has been in office first as a council member, now as the mayor for, you know, 16 out of the last 18 years.

So he's presided over this just massive increase in our homeless population, and especially in the folks who are sleeping unsheltered.

And, you know, we have actually lost shelter capacity every single year that he's been in office, in the office of mayor.

I was this is horrible.

I was interested to hear your comments, too, about sweeps.

I really expected you to come down hard against sweeps.

But you do acknowledge the importance of public spaces and livability in the city.

So.

So where do you how do you when people say, but, Katie, what about sweeps?

What's your answer to that?

Yeah, I mean, right now sweeps are kind of the way that this administration is dealing with homelessness and what that means is that they're making people move, but they're not actually providing those that meaningful, place to go inside with the support that people need.

So we are sweeping people around the city from one neighborhood to the next.

And honestly, I've been out talking with folks downtown and Capitol Hill and Mount Baker in all of these neighborhoods, which, you know, Little Saigon, which are in many ways bearing the brunt of the homelessness crisis.

And people realized as people, you know, neighbors, business owners, they're like, you know what?

There's all these tents and I know the city's going to come and move them, you know, in a couple of weeks, but they're going to be back and they're just going to go to the next neighborhood.

So that model does not work.

And, you know, we do know what does work, right?

So during the pandemic, there was a program called, Just Care, which a few nonprofits set up that was very successful in resolving encampments, moving people inside with the support that they need.

And that program wound down due to lack, loss of funding.

But it was continued.

That model was continued by the Washington State Department of Transportation in their right of way program.

And, so we know like that model works and that is what we need to do, right?

We need to open the shelter, the shelter that works for people.

That can be tiny house villages, that can be, you know, inside 24 hour shelter with that treatment and support.

And we need to get people inside.

So that's the model that we're going to be moving towards.

I think you bring up a good point to on the on the on the treatment.

You know, there has been some suggestion that treatment should be mandatory.

What are your thoughts about that.

Is that is that is that the next step in this.

And nobody wants to force somebody into something.

Have you contemplated that?

Does that idea have any merit?

I mean, honestly, that is something that would need to be tackled at the state level anyway, right?

We have very, strict kind of involuntary commitment laws at the state level.

So that's not something the city can decide to do.

But the fact is that treatment works best when people go into it voluntarily, that now there's a spectrum.

Right?

So we also have diversion programs where if someone who's involved in, illegal activity related to drug use, which, you know, many people who are addicted to drugs often engage in illegal activity as part of getting those drugs.

If someone's arrested, instead of booking them into jail and doing that whole thing, which, you know, honestly doesn't often help, they can be diverted into a service model with treatment, that models prove very successful.

And so that's, you know, not totally voluntary, right?

It's like, well, if you don't want to go down this arrest route, you have to do this.

Yeah.

And so we can do a lot more of that.

And, you know, frankly, what's the big thing that's missing now is not forcing people, because the fact is that even if we were forcing people, we simply don't have the high quality treatment with the shelter.

And housing, with the wraparound services and that long term support case management that many folks need.

And so that is the big thing that's missing in our last 30s I'm going to ask you the stock question, just so you can, give me 30s of your elevator speech.

What is the real reason?

What what is where are you in terms of why it is you want to become mayor?

Yeah.

I mean, and honestly, I've been a coalition builder, a community organizer for 14 years, and that has not been my ambition to run for public office.

So this is really for me about being in a moment where what we are doing is not working.

The status quo is not working.

And I believe I know, based on all the work that I've done over the years, the relationships that I have built up.

But I know we can do better.

And I'm very excited for, you know, the opportunity, having gotten over 50% of the vote in the primary to, hopefully step into the mayor's office and be able to help to lead our city in a better direction, and one that really makes Seattle a place where you do not need a six figure income to feel at home.

Katie Wilson, thanks so much for coming to northwest.

Now.

Thank you.

Just in case you're wondering, Bruce Harrell's team declined the opportunity to appear here on this program.

So now let's talk about the important races in this year's election with political consultant and returning guest Ben Anders Stone.

Ben, thanks so much for coming to northwest now.

And I want to be very transparent from the outset here.

Ben does work as a political consultant.

It is very active in election season, but he's also done a great job over the years, taking off his consultant hat and putting on his analyst hat for northwest now.

So welcome back here for another round in this year, a, an off year election, but still pretty interesting though.

Yes, some spicy results, especially out of the city of Seattle.

And, a few key legislative races to watch as well.

Tom, let's start with the the big picture in the progressives sailing through the primary, this seems like a strong repudiation of Trump is that I feel like my analysis possibly too simple.

No, I think that that is definitely a big component of it.

We look at the opinion polling in Seattle and we haven't seen a huge change in how people tend to think about local issues.

And while local leaders are mixed in their popularity, there isn't a hugely anti-incumbent environment, but the sort of restlessness that the national stage is causing and how it's making people feel about local leadership does seem to have made a big difference in the saddle races.

Is Katie Wilson possibly Seattle's Zofran mandate?

Me I mean, could we have a socialist as the mayor of Seattle?

I mean, it's an interesting situation.

Certainly many ways she'd she'd like to be, Mondale me is a uniquely charismatic candidate who drove, pretty strong youth turnout in a primary election.

Now, Wilson did quite well.

She didn't kind of boost turnout to quite the same degree, but she is carrying some of that progressive excitement that also, critically, is also more palatable to more moderate voters.

In 2021, a lot of the Seattle candidates were defund the police supporters this year around candidates like Wilson a lot more tempered on that issue.

So some more moderate Democrats coming around to those progressives, it makes me smile a little bit to think of the self-proclaimed socialist as being the moderate in the race.

In the mayor's race.

Yeah.

No.

Yeah.

I mean the moderate only by comparison.

The 2021 candidates who run in the left, right, right.

Yeah.

You talked a little bit about turnout with that said and how politically active western Washington in particular Seattle is.

I was very surprised by how low the turnout is.

Why, yeah, turnout ended up in Seattle a notch under 40%.

That's not the worst primary election turnout we've had, but it doesn't reflect a particularly high level of excitement.

And part of that is that local races, just a lot of folks don't show up in any cycle.

And in Seattle, the cycles that we've had that have been the most contentious have had really knocked down, drag out huge fundraising, mayoral and council races.

And while these were competitive races, the really tough primary results came as a bit of a surprise, considering that, the races, especially Bruce Harrell as mayor.

I was just going to ask you, what did he get so wrong?

Well, I think that a lot of people in Seattle were somewhat surprised by the intensity of the environment, the restlessness among voters.

Bruce Harold came out a relatively scandal free mayor.

So a lot of his term, well, you look at the national stage.

Yeah, yeah.

The in part, perhaps a little baroque here, but, candidate like him was the conventional wisdom was that he was going to sail to reelection in support of labor as a kind of a crossover support.

But it appears that all three of the sort of moderate leaning incumbents on the ballot all lost about the same percentage of the vote.

But it was a big chunk of the vote.

Yeah.

City attorney, why do people in Seattle not think crime is the issue, that people who live outside of Seattle do?

This is an interesting question time because during the last few cycles, you asked voters in Seattle and they said that crime and in order was a big issue by their account.

But you can kind of tap into those opinions and there is some complexity, drug treatment polls very, very well, there is some modicum of distrust in Seattle Police Department.

They may have just gotten out of their federal consent decree, but it still is with Seattle voters.

A lot of mistrust around, for instance, a young woman who was run over by a Seattle police officer in a fairly callous city.

And so Erica Evans represents an outsider.

Basically, Erica Evans represents an outsider who is progressive in a way that's not unlike the previous candidate, Lefty Khan, in the race four years ago, a defund the police type activist, but at the same time, alternatives to prosecutors to prosecute.

Yeah.

So that does appear to be what Seattle's gravitating a little bit more.

Back to Seattle City Council Sarah Nelson from position nine facing Diane Foster, who's had a 14% edge in the primary.

Foster supported by council's progressive members.

Do you feel like even though it's we're not seeing quite as the progressives being quite this far left, we're still going to maybe the pendulum is swinging back a little bit toward a more progressive council.

What do we how do we read that?

Yeah, it's there is a client and what I've told her, and pretty much everybody that's running this year is right now there is a pretty strong thirst for someone who is going to not be complacent in the political environment, both because of the national environment and also because in Seattle, candidly, the pace of change hasn't been as fast as a lot of people would want.

There are still major issues around public safety.

Encampments have improved, but are an entrenched issue.

So there is a sense which voters want people who are willing to push fairly hard.

So what I'm telling Sarah, and what all incumbents need to do is show that they're really part of that pushing, because if they're seen as complacent at all, that's the last thing Seattle voters seem to want right now.

Another big race, King County council does that was not the that's news right there.

That was not the county executive.

But you've got tens.

Yeah, yeah.

You've got, city council, person Jamais Zahavi and Claudia Balducci, both progressives.

Yeah.

It's is there any daylight between those two?

Yeah.

This is an interesting race that has divided a little bit along that kind of center lane versus left lane division that you see in so many of these races.

With Claudia Bell, Dooce is more of the center lane Seattle Times candidate.

Goodbye.

As more of the kind of left lane candidate.

That having been said, both candidates are going to struggle especially grim.

I probably with a lot of accounts were eliminated during the primary who got support from some of the more moderate and conservative parts of King County.

Germann has a pretty darn strong lead after the primary low 40s.

You know, you can kind of stumble over 50% at a point.

Yeah, but given how close the two candidates are on 90, 95% of issues, you know, it could be a confusing race in the general for a lot of voters.

Washington State legislature doesn't appear to be any tectonic shifts taking place.

But, down in district 26 on the Kitsap Peninsula, Michelle Collier's talking is selling herself as being somebody to prevent a Democratic supermajority.

Right.

Is a supermajority in play.

And how do you look at that race?

Theoretically, it's in play.

It depends a quite a bit on what the environment is like in a couple of years, especially, this race is in a district that spans between Gig Harbor and Port Orchard.

It is a pretty heavily white, traditionally working class but increasingly college educated commuter district.

And because of that, it has become gradually more democratic.

Yeah.

It's shifting.

It is shifting.

Yeah.

And, while historically this is one has been always a coin flip through every race, Republicans are increasingly facing a slightly tough uphill climb.

It'll be close, but that will be there will be a building block.

District five is also shifted over time.

Used to be far.

You know, I grew up out of that.

I grew up in district five.

And so, you know, yes, very Republican, but now not so much.

So we've got, Victoria Hunte and, Republican, Chad, deads.

Yeah.

How do you see that one going?

Chad's run a couple times before.

He's a big guy on data.

Yep.

And, does that does that play?

Yeah.

Margin does is a moderate and fairly pragmatic Republican.

The challenge is this is a district that at this point voted for Kamala Harris by about 17 percentage points.

As you pointed out, it's the the foothills of the mountain in King County, essentially, and this area has become a commuter area, provides some kind of college educated workers pretty darn Democratic at this point.

It's going to be a hard one for Republicans to pull off.

So big picture the Trump administration is not helping.

Not one bit.

Not the fifth, not here in western Washington, not here in Washington, and certainly not in the fifth.

What are you if you were to change hats and become a consultant for the Republican side, is there any hope for the Republican Party in Washington state long term?

And if so, give me a 20s of what you think the keys are.

It's been a long winter in the suburbs for Republicans, but distancing themselves from the National Party, taking a tact that is much more focused on local issues is probably going to be helpful.

But at the end of the day, you are always subject to the national wins.

And Washington State Republicans know that better than almost anybody.

Yeah.

Ben Anderson, thanks so much for coming to northwest now.

Thanks so much, Tom.

off year elections are always a bit of a snooze, but the bottom line is that there's a lot at stake in Seattle and the progressive backlash against even moderate candidates, who are viewed to be aligned with corporate or establishment interests, may well serve as yet another glaring example of just how far politically underwater this state's conservative or even left center minority truly is.

I hope this program got you thinking and talking.

You can find this program on the web at kbtc dot org.

Stream it through the PBS app or listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

That's going to do it for this edition of northwest.

Now, until next time, I'm Tom Layson.

Thanks for watching.

Music.