The Big Sleep

Most primary elections force us to hold our noses. This time, try stifling yawns instead.

Seattle is a one-party city. Republican developers and bankers are content to buy off whichever corporate-friendly Democrat is in office; the Greens and Labor Party have (so far) failed to mount candidacies; the usual alphabet-soup left is, despite the charming quaintness of their campaigns, generally not a serious factor. In this state of affairs, all offices are decided in the Democratic primaries in September, and suspense comes strictly from intra-party squabbles that spill over into the ballot box.

The September 15 election features competitive races for the state legislature in only two of Seattle's districts; the winners in each, as with the unopposed incumbents in other districts, will get their November coronation as a mere formality. There are a few other races on the ballot, but the big-ticket ones--minimum wage, affirmative action, anti-abortion, medical marijuana, transportation, Seattle's library--are all November ballot measures.

You'd think that with utterly safe seats in liberal Seattle, these incumbents would be out busting their butts for other candidates, in an effort to take advantage of the very real opportunity the Democrats have to retake the state Senate. You'd be wrong. They're also generally missing in action on the initiatives, even though items like livable wages and reproductive rights should be core issues for these folks. Seattle's incumbent Democrats are a major reason that the Republican onslaught of regressive, mean-spirited initiatives in the last two years has met with so little organized, effective opposition--despite the Democrats having the Governor's mansion and nearly 50% of the legislative seats.

These are our elected representatives, and they're the politicians in a position to take risks and rally the public on important issues: saving health care reform, protecting the environment, youth rights, funding for public education. They've been invisible much of the time instead.

As such, we're taking a little space in this issue's primary preview to list the unopposed candidates as well, and why some of them need some healthy opposition to keep them honest, or at least engaged with the public. At the moment, holding a Democratic legislative seat in Seattle is a job for as long as the incumbent wants it, regardless of what she or he does--and that's a situation that's bad for everyone.