Socialist Sawant wins City Council seat

[Ichingcarpenter]

Seattle City Council candidate Kshama Sawant, a “Socialist Alternative” insurgent, has unseated four-term incumbent Richard Conlin, with the latest batch of mail-in ballots nearly tripling Sawant’s lead to 1,148 votes.

A year ago, Sawant was running against the Legislature’s most powerful Democrat, House Speaker Frank Chopp, charging that the “Democratic Party-majority government” had slashed billions from education programs while bestowing tax exemptions on “rich corporations.”


On Thursday evening, however, the victorious “working class activist” Sawant was headed for a 36th District Democratic fundraiser sponsored by State Sen. Jeanne Kohn-Welles. Sawant’s tireless journalist booster, Stranger news editor Dominic Holden, is appearing on a post-election panel at the event.

The Sawant victory comes exactly 97 years after Seattle voters put their first outspoken radical into office, Seattle School Board member Anna Louise Strong. Strong would write about the Wobblies, oppose U.S. entry into World War I and eventually end her days in China, where she was on friendly terms with Mao Zedong.

While the Occupy Seattle organizer is about to occupy an office in the council chambers, ballots are still being counted in several close races. One big ballot measure is still hanging, while other contests appear narrowly decided.

The $15-an-hour minimum wage proposal in SeaTac, already under legal challenge, leads by exactly 53 votes. The margin was cushioned by 12 votes in Thursday’s count.



http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2013/11/14/sawant-wins-city-council-seat/

[a kennedy]

1. I'd say this calls for a big celebration eh?

[cascadiance]

2. I was pretty impressed with her a month or so ago on Pirate Television on FSTV...

You can see this hour long interview on youtube here... I think I'll also publish this video in video and multimedia as well.

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. This is nationally significant

which shows it is possible for the left to win an uphill battle against odds. I know its Seattle but shows its a beginning trend and example for others to follow.

[cali]

5. not really the beginning. Burlington, Vermont

has had three socialist mayors in the last quarter century- in other words the majority of its mayors over that period have been socialists- and it would be shocking if there weren't self-avowed socialists on the city council.

[Ichingcarpenter]

7. Well as compared to the rest of US history

lately this is something to cheer about.

I know my US history and sure we've had plenty of socialist in office before.


But not lately.

Vermont doesn't count anyway its too close to Canada just like... wait nevermind.......LOL

[MineralMan]

4. Change starts locally. This is a great example of what

local people can do in their own areas. It is the fundamental power we have. While a small group can do little in a national election, that same group can strongly influence their local politics. It is in local politics that change begins, not in national or even state elections. From the city council and county board to state legislatures and House of Representative elections, local activism can make change happen. Each of those elections is a local one, and has a small enough pool of voters to be sharply impacted by local activism.

This is why off-year and mid-term elections are so critically important in US Politics. Local elected offices are the breeding ground for future higher office. This is where change begins.

The United State has massive inertia. It is very difficult to set it in motion or to change its course. Nothing happens quickly with such a massive thing. At the local level, however, change can be made much more quickly, and those changes can accumulate to affect the entire nation, eventually.

Each one of us can impact our local elections, and each one of us should be engaged in doing that.

GOTV 2014 and in every election!

[marmar]

6. k/r