Sawant settles ethics charge, admitting violation

On Monday, the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission will hold a special meeting at which it will vote on whether to approve a negotiated settlement with Councilmember Kshama Sawant over an ethics charge stemming from last year’s “Tax Amazon” ballot proposition campaign. The ethics charge is the basis for one of the three charges in the recall petition against Sawant.

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What happens to voter initiatives during a pandemic?

You don’t have to read very far in the Washington State Constitution to understand the priority given to grassroots democracy. The second sentence in the Constitution reads: “All political power is inherent in the people, and governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and are established to protect and maintain individual rights.”  Article II doubles down on this idea, in an amendment adopted in 1911: The legislative authority of the state of Washington shall be vested in the legislature, consisting of a senate and house of representatives, which shall be called the legislature of the state …

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