This morning’s news includes talk of all the new faces in local political offices and more speculation on who might run for Jim McDermott’s seat in the US House of Representatives. Plus concerns over property crime, and the revival of the Amazon alley vacation request.
The Seattle P-I and Capitol Hill Times both have articles highlighting all the new faces in elected offices, including the four new City Council members.
The Stranger, the P-I, and Seattle Met report that Brady Walkinshaw, the first announced candidate for Jim McDermott’s soon-to-be-vacated House seat, picked up key endorsements from Council members Tim Burgess and Lorena Gonzalez, as well as Michael Maddux (who unsuccessfully ran for City Council against Rob Johnson). This is interesting as a defensive move, probably discouraging other potential strong contenders from throwing their hats in the elections ring. It’s particularly true of Gonzalez’s endorsement, who is known to be close to State Senator Pramila Jayapal; Jayapal is rumored to be contemplating a run for the House seat.
Seattle Met also reports that King County Executive has chosen new Council member Rob Johnson to replace Mike O’Brien on the Sound Transit Board. It was reported earlier this week that both Johnson and O’Brien were angling to get the position. Johnson was formerly the executive director of the pro-transit Transportation Choices Coalition and is known to be close to Constantine. O’Brien, however, chairs the City Council’s Sustainability and Transportation committee (Johnson is vice-chair).
Seattle Weekly reports on a piece of carry-over legislation from last month (and the last council): approving an alley vacation for a pending Amazon office building project. The legislation has been held up over concerns that Amazon was not living up to its responsibilities for “privately owned public space” as far as unfettered public access and free speech were concerned. Apparently Amazon has conceded some points and an amendment to reinforce those public access rights will be added to the legislation to allow it to go forward.
MyNorthwest covers concerns about local property and drug crimes centered around RV’s parked on residential streets. Also on the crime front, West Seattle Blog reports that Council member Lorena Gonzalez had a bicycle stolen from her garage this week.