A quick look at the campaign and PAC financial disclosures

Largely I’ve tried to stay above the fray of the City Council elections, but yesterday was an important milestone: three weeks out from Election Day, the fourteen City Council candidates and the registered PACs all were required to file a campaign finance summary (a “Form C-4” report). I scraped the numbers (well, three important ones), and here’s a glimpse of their fundraising and expenditure numbers — and perhaps more significantly, how much cash they are set to spend over the next 21 days.

Continue reading

Gonzalez floats campaign finance reform legislation, asks Ethics Commission for opinion

On the heels of her announcement that she is running for state Attorney General, Council member Lorena Gonzalez auditioned for the role by announcing that is working on campaign-finance reform legislation “to protect the integrity of Seattle’s democracy.” She sent a draft version of the bill to the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission, which in turn held a discussion on the topic last week.

Continue reading

Burgess explains why the soda tax is being rushed through

This afternoon, Council member Tim Burgess finally responded to my week’s worth of inquiries and explained why the proposed legislation creating a tax on distribution of sweetened beverages is being rushed through the legislative process despite obvious differences of opinion among Council members, the Mayor, community members, and business and labor leaders on major aspects of the legislation and indeed whether the tax should even be levied. It turns out Burgess’s explanation makes some sense, even if it may not fully justify the final sprint to the finish line.

Continue reading