by Staff Writer (Featured Photo Courtesy of Alex Garland)
This past Wednesday, October 7th, city councilmember Bruce Harrell debated food policy analyst Tammy Morales in Seattle City Council’s District 2 Candidates Forum.
November’s city council election, which sees all nine council seats up for grabs, will be the first time city representatives are determined by geographic location.
Both Harrell and Morales seek to become District 2’s first representative. The district is commonly referred to as the “South District” as it encompasses a majority of the South End.
The event , which took place at the Rainier Valley Cultural Center in Columbia City, was co-moderated by Marcus Harrison Green, editor-in-chief of the South Seattle Emerald, Michael Wolfe, board member of the Rainier Chamber of Commerce, Rebecca Saldana, executive director of Puget Sound Sage, and Benjamin Hunter, founder of Community Arts Create.
You can view the sometimes contentious debate below:
It’s was contentious because Morales is one of the nastiest candidates Seattle has ever experienced. Ive been at several of the forums and she constantly goes negative instead of outlining what she will do. Hell, watch the debate. She cant even find something nice to say about Harrell. Its foxnews style politics right here in seattle.
All I can judge is the performance of the City Council for that past few years.
Road diets have made our traffic problems worse.
Bertha has not moved a foot in a couple of years and it predicted to never complete the job.
How may million have been wasted.
The seawall project is some 71 million over budget.
The street cars on Broadway are two years late.
If the City Council is not supervising the city, what are we paying them for.
As they say, if you do the same thing again and again and expect a different outcome; it is the first sign of insanity.
It is insanity to vote for incumbents if you like the way Seattle has been governed in the last 2 to 4 years.
Why has Bruce not called for a new vote in the endorsement process of the 37th district? There are questions as to how people were purchased to vote who were not in the district and whose dues were paid by consecutively numbered bank money orders
Ethics commission found no wrong doing. The complaint was filed by someone who has donated to Morales and Sawant. It was nothing but a drummed up political attack.
http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/10/09/22987453/ethics-commission-drops-complaint-alleging-bruce-harrell-bought-an-endorsement
I wrote the following to the 37th district Democratics.
To whom it may concern;
I am a member in good standing of the 37th District Democrats. I apologize for not being at the meeting Oct. 12, 2015. This meeting came to my attention at 8 PM the evening of Oct. 11, 2015. This simply is not adequate time to announce a meeting and expect a fair representation of those of the 37th District. I protest this very late announcement. The 12th is my 75th Birthday, while I am a life long Democrat, this is an important day for me. My grandchildren would not appreciate that I was not there to blow out the candles.
I am very disappointed in the 37th District. There are very serious allegations that there were voting irregularities at our recent endorsement meeting.
The SEEC director Wayne Barnett claims this does not fall under his area of responsibility.
This smacks of Chicago “Vote early and often.” “Register those names found on tombstones. Had they been alive, they would have voted for me.”
Was the election rigged? We may never know. However, if there is any chance that it was rigged, the Candidates, in the interest of a fair and honest vote, should all call for a new vote. To not do so, suggests to me that there were discrepancies in the registration of 15 new members with consecutively numbered money orders and they may have affected the results. This reflects badly on said candidate’s credibility, morals and ethics.
I have discussed this issue with Ms. Patricia Murakami. She knows my feelings on this matter and I have authorized her to cast my vote at this meeting for any issue that comes to a vote on October 12, 2015
Sincerely yours,
Fred C. Quarnstrom