Final faceoff
Also speaking of schools – the primary election results have just been certified, and the Final Two for West Seattle’s school board seat are now official: Steve Sundquist (photo left) got 53.4% of the primary vote (5,624 votes), while Maria Ramirez (photo right) got 23.4% (2,467 votes). Although school board members represent certain districts, in the general election the entire city votes on all seats, so Sundquist and Ramirez (as well as the candidates in the other districts) will have to campaign citywide. Election Day: November 6th.
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Election results update
King County has posted its latest ballot count, and in Seattle School Board District 6, nothing has changed from last night – looks like it will be Steve Sundquist (left) vs. Maria Ramirez (right) for the West/South Seattle school board seat that Irene Stewart is giving up. After today’s count, Sundquist has 51.8% of the vote, Ramirez has 24.1%, with Dan Dempsey at 17%. The unofficial Seattle Public Schools Blog notes that more people voted in our district than in the other district with a primary battle, North Seattle District 2, and also notes that while the primary votes were by district, the entire city votes for all school board races in the fall, so Sundquist and Ramirez (along with other school board candidates) will have to campaign citywide. One other WS note from the election: King County Councilmember Dow Constantine lopsidedly (91%-9%) beat his eclectic fellow Democrat primary challenger Goodspaceguy Nelson, and now goes on to a general-election race against Republican John Potter (who doesn’t seem to have a campaign website).ÂÂ
Tuesday: Happening today & tonight
FREEWAY FRIGHT ’07, FOURTH-TO-LAST WEEKDAY: The I-5 work crews have reached a milestone. (Maybe we’re just punchy; we childishly giggled at the text clump toward the end of that WSDOT page’s full web address: Crewsfinishjoints …) Now they’ve just got some more paving to do — weather permitting. Only two lanes open till they’re done. To check the live cams before your commute, go here.
PRIMARY ELECTION ’07, 7 AM-8 PM FOR IN-PERSON VOTERS: On the ballot you will see City Council races, Port Commission races, the School Board District 6 race, a smattering of county contests, and 2 park levies. All the info you could possibly want, even video voters’ guides, can be found from the list of links here. (We’ll have links to results here tonight.)
HELP FIGHT, AND PREVENT, CRIME, 7 PM TONIGHT: Everyone’s invited to tonight’s meeting of the West Seattle Community Safety Partnership, 7-8:30 pm @ the SW Precinct. Main topic: Protecting your home from burglary. You’ll also hear updates on recent area crime, and neighborhood reports.
Don’t forget Tuesday’s election
If you don’t vote by mail, don’t forget to visit your polling place tomorrow, on our state’s earliest Primary Election Day ever. Two noncontroversial (as far as we can tell) county ballot measures (park-related levies) will be decided. Otherwise, ballot highlights include City Council and County Council races, and most notably for West Seattle, the open Seattle School Board seat for District 6 (incumbent Irene Stewart chose not to re-run). We covered the forum at Pathfinder K-8 two weeks ago including all 4 of the active District 6 hopefuls; there wasn’t enough time at the forum for organizers to ask all the questions submitted by the audience, so they later sent the candidates the full list and invited them to reply. One of the candidates, Dan Dempsey, just sent us a detailed document with his responses to those questions; we uploaded it to our site so you can read for yourself (click here to download it as a Word doc). We haven’t received, and can’t find online, any other candidates’ responses to those same questions, but if you want to check out the District 6 candidates’ websites, besides Dempsey’s site (hotlinked to his name above), Maria Ramirez‘s site is here; Steve Sundquist‘s site is here; Edwin Fruit is siteless. ELECTION DAY VOTING HOURS: 7 am-8 pm tomorrow.
33.3% of the City Council visits WS
(left to right starting with the pink jacket, are Seattle City Council members Jan Drago, Richard McIver, Sally Clark, meeting at High Point Community Center tonight as the Economic Development and Neighborhoods Committee)
We went to tonight’s meeting to make sure we didn’t miss anything earthshattering. A few dozen other people showed up to see what happened with the latest proposals to crack down on nightclub noise and violence; the new noise rules advanced unanimously, the “nightlife premises licensing” proposal got a 2-1 vote (McIver against). The latter proposal has been watered down a bit (potentially affecting far fewer businesses around the city) and didn’t draw much passionate opposition; the only emotional public testimony came from two women who say they got beat up at a Belltown club the other night and couldn’t get the club to care, so they’re for tougher rules, as is Jackie Ramels of the Alki Community Council, who spoke early in the meeting to voice her support. Toward the end of 2 1/2 long hours, the council members heard excellent short presentations by leaders of the High Point redevelopment project, the West Seattle Food Bank, Neighborhood House, and Safe Futures — lots of specifics there for future updates here.
Did he mean Metro Market? PCC? Safeway? Or?
Interesting quote from West Seattle’s Most Famous Politician in what The Big Blog says is an Esquire Magazine feature about “stylish” mayors (not available online so far as we can tell). We must admit, a decade and a half in WS but we have yet to find ourselves grocery-shopping at the same place and time as Hizzoner. (Did rub produce-browsing elbows with ex-police chief Norm Stamper once.) 9:47 PM UPDATE: Citizen Rain points us to examples of the mayor’s style in his online photo gallery, which is more up to date than many other parts of the city website – it actually has pix from his KIRO Radio guest appearance today. (And yet we couldn’t get timely, detailed city website updates during Windstorm ’06 …)
It’s a tough job, and some of them are gonna do it
It was about 15 minutes before the end of tonight’s school-board candidates forum on the lawn at Pathfinder K-8 when our internet-attuned ears really perked up.
First, Dan Dempsey (photo left), one of 4 contenders for the West Seattle-centered District 6 seat that Irene Stewart is giving up, declared he has multiple blogs on his campaign website, but isn’t getting much feedback yet. (Reviewing his site, it appears he’s put up more discussion boards than blogs, but nice gesture anyway!)
Then, answering the same audience question about ways the board could improve communication with the public, District 1 candidate Peter Maier (photo right) offered his observation that the official Seattle Public Schools website just isn’t particularly easy to use — tough to access documents, etc.
Understatement of the night, from our quarters (and not just us; a fair amount of those in attendance laughed knowingly). But as she rose next to answer the same communication question, District 2 incumbent Darlene Flynn (photo left) was clearly not amused, retorting sharply, “That website didn’t even HAVE documents on it four years ago.”
Not surprisingly, given the rocky year the school board has had, Flynn and the other incumbent in attendance, Sally Soriano (photo right), spent a lot of their time defending and detailing what they believe to be their key first-term accomplishments. But that was really a small part of a fascinating evening that probably helped clarify a lot of August 21 (and beyond) decisions … much more after the click:Read More
You’ve seen the signs, now see (and hear) the people
Political signs are multiplying along every busy stretch of road in WS (and elsewhere in the city). This is because the primary election, earliest ever, is less than 3 weeks away. The hottest Seattle races are for School Board (including the WS district, whose rep, Irene Stewart, is not re-running) and City Council; we are now just a few days away from your chance to see/hear the School Board candidates in person, at an outdoor forum, Pathfinder K-8 School lawn (Genesee Hill), Monday night, bring a picnic dinner, enjoy free ice-cream treats courtesy of the Pathfinder PTSA –picnicking and mingling with the candidates starts @ 5:30, speeches @ 6:30. One PS on the August 21st election: Two King County ballot measures will be decided, both tax levies — Proposition 1 for regional/rural parks, Proposition 2 for parks, trails, and Woodland Park Zoo.
Mixing politics and treats
If only more political events were set up this way: Two weeks from tonight, as the Aug. 21 primary election approaches, at least 10 Seattle School Board candidates (including 2 incumbents) will be at Pathfinder K-8 for an ice-cream social and moderated forum the evening of Aug. 6 — no, not in the cafeteria, but on the school’s front lawn, atop lovely Genesee Hill. Picnic dinners encouraged. Free ice-cream bars served. So far, forum organizer Eric Baer of the Pathfinder PTSA (co-sponsoring with counterpart PTSAs from 3 other WS elementaries: Alki, Arbor Heights, Sanislo) tells us the confirmed attendees include 4 of the 5 candidates in the WS-centered District 6 race, as well as candidates from the 3 other districts to be decided this year. Don’t just wade frantically through your voters’ pamphlet at the last minute; hear and see candidates in person. Aug. 6; see you there.
Who’s running for what, the final list
The deadline to file for this year’s elections has just passed; here are a few WS-related notes from the final list. No time to rustle up info-links on the new additions at the moment so if anyone can vouch for them, please leave a comment, and we’ll follow up with more info later.
–West Seattle’s King County Councilmember, Dow Constantine, has indeed filed to re-run in District 8, and along with Democrat challenger “Goodspaceguy” Nelson, has a Republican opponent, John Potter.
–Seattle City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, who lives in WS but will be voted on by the entire city (like all the other council positions), is the only council candidate to draw no opposition, so — re-election congratulations already (pending write-ins, we suppose).
–West Seattle’s open seat on the Seattle School Board (Irene Stewart is leaving) has a crowded field of contenders: Two more candidates, Zeinab Ahmed and Edwin Fruit, filed today, joining Steve Sundquist, Dan Dempsey, and Maria Ramirez.
State Senator 
These links will take you to the newest available results:
With our state’s earliest primary election ever (Aug. 21) just 10 weeks away, it’s not too soon to start
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