Time to vote! November 2015 Election Endorsements: Seattle

Last week, Seattle voters received their ballots for one of the most important elections in recent history. With all nine council members up in Seattle’s first-ever district race, every vote counts to help ensure the most business-friendly candidates are elected. 

Your NAIOP Government Affairs Committee has spent countless hours working to help advance these candidates, which are listed below. Remember: For the first time, you will vote on one district candidate (based on your residential address) and two at-large candidates.

NAIOP Washington State's 2015 endorsed candidates for Seattle City Council are:

• District 1: Shannon Braddock shannonford1.com
• District 2: Bruce Harrell electbruceharrell.com
• District 3: Pamela Banks electpamelabanks.com
• District 4: Rob Johnson rob4seattle.com
• District 5: Debora Juarez deborajuarez.org 
• District 6: No endorsement
• District 7: Sally Bagshaw sallybagshaw.com
• At-large Position 8: Tim Burgess electtimburgess.com 
• At-large Position 9: Lorena Gonzalez electlorenagonzalez.com

In addition to candidate races this November, voters face critical decisions on two key issues: a renewal of the city’s transportation levy, and a proposed overhaul of campaign funding laws.

YES on Let’s Move Seattle

With the Let's Move Seattle levy, voters have the important opportunity to renew an expiring levy. The current $930M levy package includes new pedestrian and transit, as well as offering significant funds toward road and bridge maintenance. It will finance seven new transit corridors, creating enormous opportunities for transit-oriented developments that link people quickly and easily to their jobs and more, as well as fund 150 blocks of new sidewalks including routes to schools and key commercial destinations. A full list of projects can be found here. We urge you to vote YES on Let’s Move Seattle.

NO on I-122

The I-122 initiative purports to offer a more fair approach to campaign financing, but in fact would raise property taxes and create a first-come first-served “democracy voucher” cattle-call. I-122 would set up an ineffective and convoluted system that rewards a limited number of registered voters with four $25 vouchers for their preferred candidates. The vouchers give well-organized candidates and activist organizations an advantage. As The Seattle Times wisely notes, the I-122 campaign itself has raised more than $800,000, mostly from a few deep-pocketed, out-of-state donors who want to use Seattle as a testing ground for campaign-finance-reform ideas. You can read more about this flawed initiative here and here. We urge you to vote NO on I-122.