Big Picture
Today is Election Day.
Like many of you, I’m hopeful about the House and nervous about the Senate, and will be up watching swing states until the wee hours of the morning. I’ve already told my coworkers not to expect to hear from me at any reasonable time tomorrow!
It’s been a brutal two years since I was in Philadelphia knocking doors and watching those devastating election results come in. So many lives lost and so many more ruined in the wake of that terrible election.
My head and my heart have very much shifted to the national picture in the last couple weeks, and I’m cautiously optimistic, if a little scared, as we head into tonight. I’m lost in podcasts and explainers and all the same stuff everyone else helplessly consumes at this point in the cycle.
The polls look astounding, but we are still only a normal polling error away from Democrats failing to gain the Senate because of our insane structural disadvantage in the so-called “upper house.” The fundamentals look very favorable. The betting markets look off the charts. But so much turns now on the shy-MAGA-voter nonresponse problem and voter turnout that there is little left we can do but wait and click refresh.
State/Regional Endorsements
I have written or highlighted many of these things in various public fora, but I wanted to make sure to put a few things on the record in case any of this is helpful to you!
I of course voted against the three MAGA Washington State initiatives (no tax cuts for salaries above a million dollars, “kicking kids out of the closet,” and the ban on trans kids). I voted for Jayapal. I voted against the five MAGA-backed State Supreme Court Candidates, and voted for the progressive politicians and judges, and Mayor Wilson’s excellent transit levy. I voted for my friend Toshiko Hasegawa for County Council (although Rebecca Saldaña is also great). I also voted for Gerry Pollet and Darya Farivar for the House in my home district.
For almost everything, I was able to rely on the Lefty Cheat Sheet, write-ups at the Urbanist, background knowledge, and a friend who works in the judicial system. That said, I had to do a little extra homework to get enough information on one or two local judges and an appeals judge or two, and they all happened to be unopposed, which also isn’t my favorite.
I sure wish I could vote for Nilu Jenks (Seattle City Council District 5), where she is facing a surge of dark-money Republican-style attack ads from former City Council President Sara Nelson. I’d love to vote for Teresa Mosqueda, Jorge Baron, and Claudia Balducci for King County Council in different districts. Though I’m pleased that they are all sure winners tonight! They are three of the best in the region.
I also wish I could vote for the progressive candidates who are challenging incumbents or who are pushing back against other prominent moderates in a series of Seattle races. These include Hannah Sabio-Howell (43rd LD Senate seat), and Imraan Siddiqi and Danica Noble, who are both running for different House seats in the 32nd LD. I’d love to vote for Kelabe Tewolde for House in the 37th LD, and for Jaelynn Scott for the other House seat in that district—who doesn’t have a challenger. (If I was envious of anyone this year, it was Jaelynn!).
But alas, I’ve done all the voting, campaigning, fundraising and writing I can manage to squeeze into a life filled with regular work, parenting, spousing, coaching and friending. Obviously, I wish the wrecking of our progressive paper of record hadn’t derailed the thing I set out to do this year, but I feel genuinely happy and content about my contribution. We all have our own ways of contributing and capacity for doing so, and each of us know best what our own measuring stick should look like. I hope you go into tonight feeling good too!
And I hope to see you on the other side, victorious over in this stage of the fight against the MAGA cancer that afflicts our nation.
I leave you with the motto my Irish maternal family name. Dum Spiro Spero, which means “while I breathe, I hope.”
FORGOT to say - Rob Foxcurran for King County Assessor too!