Week in review

This is a special election results post from the Week In Review! Not all of the results are in yet, so you’ll be stuck with some of our crackpot theories about what will happen. Enjoy!

Meet your new overlords!

The new Associated Student Council has been elected, or chosen as the case may be. ASC is the “official student government body of the Seattle Central College, Health Education Center, Seattle Maritime Academy, and Wood Technology Center representing student interests to the college administration.” according to the release. The Collegian interviewed then Executive of Administration Camila Christensen at the beginning of the quarter. She laid out a list of lofty goals set by the Council for the coming year. If you would like to find out more, ASC hosts weekly open meetings on Mondays from 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm in the conference room (SAC 362) over in Student Leadership.

The new board will be comprised of; Camila Christensen, Executive of Administration; Sophia Tekola, Executive of Communication; Vukasin Nikolic, Executive of Finance;
Chuyi Lui, Associate of Finance; Jung Ha Yoo, Executive of Legislative Affairs; Mike Harris, Executive of Issues & Concerns; and Angela Blodgett, Executive of Student Success. The Associate board is; Ya-Chi Hsia (Charlotte), Associate of Administration; Yuh Sun (Cindy), Associate of Communication; Ivan Kudin, Associate of Student Success; Hao Zheng (Claire), Associate of Issues & Concerns.

We wish them all the best of luck and would like to respectfully request that we change the school mascot to the newsroom dog Rosa.

Referendum 88

The oddly numbered referendum is both a brief history lesson and a ballot initiative all rolled into one. In 1998, voters in the state of WA elected to ban “affirmative action” across the state. This controversial piece of legislation is based on the premise that those belonging to historically disenfranchised groups -namely people of color and women- should be given an opportunity in employment, education and housing to move beyond that historical disenfranchisement. According to advocates for Affirmative Action in this round, WA Fairness Coalition, that ruling in 1998 was largely due to “right wing activists”. The repeal of that ban, originally called Initiative 1000, and currently named Referendum 88, “aims to boost diversity in public education, employment and contracting”.

Active members of the far right, including defamed Proud Boy Zac Staggs openly campaigned against Referendum 88 (which must have been numerically confusing for him). While members of Seattle’s Chinese Immigrant community, themselves foes of affirmative-action, fought the legislation based on their concerns about racial quota systems and the effect it would have on their communities. As of late Thursday evening Referendum 88 was still behind, 48.8% to 51.2%, but had made a slight jump as of Wednesday night.

I-Hate-Transit-Eyman

Everyone’s favorite maybe chair thief, Tim Eyman has pulled off a major upset with his initiative 976. I-976 will limit the amount that the city can charge you for car-tabs to $30 and limit the ability of the city to increase car-tab fees to fund city infrastructure. These fees, while we all grumble at the numbers (and for some rightfully so in the regressive nature of them), pay for things like student Orca cards, bus service and… roads.

According to Heidi Groover at the Seattle Times “Seattle expected to raise about $33 million from car-tab fees next year, with about $25 million to support bus service and transit passes and $8 million for pothole repair, bike lanes and other city projects.” Which is no small amount of money. Mayor Durkan’s office has vowed to sue to stop this initiative from moving forward. “We respect the right of voters in other communities to decide what is best for their communities,” Durkan said, “but the state should not override the will of Seattle voters and tell us how to invest our tax dollars.” I-976 was passed at the state level, but according to the votes inside King County, people were not having it. The showdown with Eyman is bound to take center stage of the news cycle over the next few weeks, along with the massive cuts to public transportation that will go into effect on Dec 5^th if an injunction is not granted. Several community groups and labor organizations have been raising a large amount of stink on social media about the effects this will have on the poor and working people of King county. Everything from fare strikes to collective labor action have been proposed.

Lions and tigers and threepers oh my!

The Eatonville school district is small but boasts a 96% graduation rate over it’s 6 schools. In this most recent election local Conservative militia leader, Matthew Marshall, won a seat to the school board that oversees those 6 schools. Marshall is not just the President of the Washington chapter of the National militia group the 3%, he’s also a member. Marshall, who was endorsed by the Pierce County Republicans back in June, is also the vice chair of Pierce County Republicans Legislative District 2. The 3%s are a controversial group known for a few things, protesting the “Drag Queen Story Hours” being held at regional libraries, denouncing Initiative 1639, a law that makes it illegal for anyone under 21 to purchase or sell a firearm, as well as being prominent fixtures alongside the likes of other far right conservatives Joey Gibson and his group Patriot Prayer. Marshall has three children in the district and is excited to bring the conservatism that the area so clearly desires to his local school board. This has worried those at the Western States Center, a local anti-racist organizing group and long-standing research organization. In an article from the News Tribune, Western States Center spokeswoman Lindsay Schubiner described the 3%s as a violent militia group: “They’re a militia group and many of them are armed, and what we’ve noticed in their work recently is there have been multiple threats to elected leaders, government staff (and) people who are just doing their jobs,” Marshall says he is there to talk about school lunches and trimming the budget, only time will tell what his effect may actually be.

Egan Orion is a what?

There are still several city council district races that are too close to call. And as the old saying goes, old money votes early, slacker socialists vote last so it’s still anyone’s guess in district 3. Kshama Sawant was early on getting thoroughly trounced by an Amazon/Corporate PAC money candidate named Egan Orion. But as the day turned to night, Sawant began to gain. As of this writing the race was down to less than 900 votes between them. We expect a result by Friday.