With all the media attention focused on the divisive campaign being carried out by Gore supporters against Nader supporters in the final two weeks of the election campaign, it is worth remembering that public high school teacher Joe Szwaja is running for Congress in Seattle against incumbent Representative Jim McDermott. It is worth remembering, because there is no viable right-wing opposition in the race, as the Republicans haven't even bothered to challenge McDermott.

McDermott represents everything that sucks about electoral politics in Seattle. Here is a guy who has spouted every pleasant liberal sound bite there is for nearly three decades and he doesn't have much of a record to show for all his years in office. There isn't one progressive cause, like, say, single payer health care, that this six term House incumbent has gone to the mat for as a U.S. Representative. Meanwhile, McDermott has been happy to accept contributions from the big drug companies and do their bidding for them.

McDermott is also a shill for "free trade." He has sponsored and flacked for the badly misnamed and recently passed "African Growth and Opportunity Act." AGOA requires African nations that sign on to it to reduce social spending in order to reduce trade tariffs with the U.S. This can only cause more misery and death for a continent that has suffered enough under the foot of European colonial repression. In short, McDermott is an out of touch Beltway politician who has never seen a wealthy campaign contributor he hasn't liked.

With the Green Party candidate Joe Szwaja, you have a teacher and a long time community activist. Szwaja teaches at the alternative high school NOVA and, while McDermott was rolling out the red carpet for the WTO last year, he and his students were actively involved in the WTO protests. Szwaja served four terms as a member of the Madison (WI) City Council from 1986-93 as a member of the Green Party-affiliated Labor-Farm Party, where he compiled an impressive progressive record, instead of a trail of broken promises. For example, while former '60s anti-war radical Mayor Paul Soglin was shilling for yet another goddamn convention center scam, Szwaja was actively involved in the campaign to defeat it. In Szwaja we have a trusted ally who we know won't betray us once he's elected to office. If you are at all interested in taking the moribund political process in Seattle in a more progressive and humane direction, then vote for Joe Szwaja on November 7!