Socialist City Council Candidate Scores Big!

In an otherwise ho-hum primary election, the campaign of socialist, feminist, bus-driving unionist Linda Averill stood out like the Space Needle on the Seattle horizon. Latest returns show that Averill’s second run as a Freedom Socialist Party candidate scored an impressive 18 percent, (nearly 16,000 votes), placing third in a four-way race for Seattle City Council Position #4.

The Averill campaign addressed local concerns with bold solutions that focused attention on the injustices of a city where concentrated poverty coexists with Microsoft billionaires and the immense wealth of corporate giants like Amazon.com, Starbucks and Boeing. Rather than running on platitudes and personality, Averill offered concrete anti-capitalist solutions to poverty, discrimination, homelessness, and other ills of the profit-driven economy, and she educated about the need for socialism. Her forthright approach at union meetings, community centers, and candidates’ forums turned skeptics into supporters.

Even the city’s iconoclastic weekly, The Stranger, endorsed Averill as "smart," "independent," and with an "on-message obsession with taxing corporations to support the city's general fund, rather than using the general fund to support big business." Though The Stranger also urged Averill to give up socialism and "run as a Democrat … grow up and join the mainstream," the endorsement is a sign of how much Averill’s message resonated with many who had never before considered voting socialist.

At the election night party at Averill’s headquarters, volunteers and supporters recalled some of the campaign highlights. Nancy Rising, a delegate to the King County Labor Council, told how the labor council came within one vote of endorsing Averill. Part-time Metro driver Joe Kadushin became a volunteer for the campaign after hearing the candidate speak at a meeting of the Amalgamated Transit Union 587. Kaaren Mills, antiwar and disability rights activist, recounted how seniors at a retirement home were turned off by other contenders’ glib assurances and off-base admonitions to questions about how the city would handle a major disaster such as Hurricane Katrina. She said Averill gained the residents’ respect by confirming the need for bus drivers and other city workers to be trained in evacuation procedures and emergency measures.

The campaign inspired homeless advocate and journalist Ray Murphy to write a song to a Monkees’ tune renamed "Please Listen to Linda."

A platform with a difference

Averill raised issues that hit home to local inhabitants, and connected them to the larger national and international scene. She called for city leadership in opposing the Iraq war and contrasted U.S. capitalism’s racist, inept response to Hurricane Katrina with that of Cuba, where islanders are safely evacuated every hurricane season.

"We talked about real needs and the inability of the Democrats that rule our city to meet those needs," she says. The campaign called for rent control, reinstatement of affirmative action, and raising the minimum wage from $7.35 to $17.00 an hour—an amount shown to be the wage needed for a woman with two children to live in the city. She raised the issues of employer-funded childcare, an elected civilian review board over police, outlawing police use of Tasers, banning military recruiters from schools, expanding youth job opportunities, and nationalizing major industries under workers control. To fund such programs, Averill called for taxing "freeloading corporations and billionaires" and revoking handouts to wealthy developers, while relieving the tax burden on small businesses, homeowners, workers and the poor.

A missed opportunity

While Averill sees the primary election results as a significant victory, she points out that divisiveness on the Left led to a missed opportunity to make headline news by sending a socialist to November’s general election. Activists such as anarchist editor of Eat the State, Geov Parrish, the Green Party of Seattle, Dorli Rainey with ANSWER, and Cuba supporter Tom Warner backed one of her opponents, Ángel Bolaños, a Democrat. Bolaños jumped from the position 8 race to run against Averill in position 4 two months after she had filed. Bolaños finished last at 14%. With Averill only 7% points behind the second contender, Casey Corr, it is likely that a united Left effort would have put her in second place.

"It’s sad," Averill commented, "that while 15,900 Seattlelites were excited to vote socialist, some supposedly ‘progressive’ community activists moved to ensure the Left vote would be divided. Their backing of Mr. Bolaños gave him a radical veneer and helped to split the vote. It also helped guarantee a primary victory for the big money Democrats, Drago and Corr. Without Left collaboration it’s going to be difficult for us to break the lock the major parties have on our ballot box," she concluded.

Ironically, one week after the election, Bolaños, who ran on a slogan of "transparency," was exposed by The Stranger and Seattle Times for plagiarizing whole paragraphs of his platform from the website of a candidate in San Diego—complete with references to the San Diego Chargers football team!

But many voters, community leaders, and labor unions rallied to Averill for raising issues none of the other candidates were willing to talk about, and motivating the need for building movements to challenge unjust laws, rather than simply accepting the status quo. As a result, her campaign gave hope and voice to many voters whose issues are never addressed or even acknowledged by Democrats like Bolaños.

Many milestones

The campaign started off with a victory when the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission (SEEC), in a marked turnaround from Averill’s 2003 campaign, unanimously upheld First Amendment privacy protections for Averill’s donors. The city’s public disclosure law offers such protection to minor parties that can show confidentiality is needed to prevent political harassment of supporters.

With the privacy issue settled, the campaign went full throttle on outreach. Averill ultimately won the endorsements of 21 organizations including eight unions, three women’s groups, and eight socialist or Left groups, including Socialist Alternative, Socialist Action, and Peace and Freedom Party. Ninety-eight individuals endorsed included Naomi Finkelstein, Community Council President of the embattled Yesler Terrace Housing Project; Mark Cook, prisoner rights advocate and former Black Panther; Christina López, Chicana activist and organizer for Seattle Radical Women; Robert Free of the Puget Sound Indian AIDS Taskforce; and 38 rank-and-file unionists.

The Recording Academy's  Seattle City Council Candidates Forum
This non-partisan forum, which was brought to you by the fine folks at The Recording Academy, was an opportunity for the candidates to address specific concerns from the music community.

    Although the format was a little clunky at times (it’s difficult when you have so many candidates onstage), overall it was highly informative and really gave a feel for where each candidate stands with regard to issues such as Nightlife Laws and Issues, Economic Impact, and Development.

    Our panel of community members was comprised of Kate Becker (longtime all-ages activist and Interim Executive Director of the Vera Project), Josh Feit (News Editor, The Stranger), and Glenn Lorbecki (Recording Academy Trustee and owner of Glenn Sound Studio).  They did an excellent job of crafting pertinent questions and presenting them to the candidates.

    We had 10 of the 12 candidates participate last night and the full house at Neumo’s did an excellent job of voicing approval and disapproval on their positions.  It was inspiring to see so many people out on a warm summer evening.  Although it is early in the season (the official filing period begins July 25), last night’s forum was proof that the concerns of a community can and will make a difference in the outcome of this Fall’s election.

    Major kudos to Josh Ayala, Ben London, and Michael Stevens of the Recording Academy for organizing this event and to Dave Meinert for all of his hard work.  DJ El Toro did a great job of providing a soundtrack and kept the candidates on their toes with screeching sound effects when they ran over their allotted 2 minute response time.  As your MC for the evening, I managed to not swear once and refrained from asking the assembled candidates to name three local bands that they have partied with.

    For those of you that were unable to attend, a listing of the participating candidates and their websites appear below, along with a summary of the questions presented last night.  I encourage you to check out where they stand and what they will bring to the Council if elected this Fall.  Your participation in local politics is vital to the future of this city.  Who we elect and what those candidates stand for is extremely important in maintaining the dynamic community we live in.

    Finally, big thanks to Marcus Charles, Jason Lajeunesse, and the staff at Neumo’s for their hospitality and to Miller High Life for continuing to support the Seattle music community. Stay tuned for another forum in the Fall and remember that your vote, your voice, and your concerns are the tools that make our lives better.

PARTICIPATING CANDIDATES

Linda Averill  http://www.socialism.com/elections/averill2005/news.html
Angel Bolanos  http://www.electbolanos.org/
Richard Conlin (incumbent) http://www.richardconlin.com/
Casey Corr  http://www.caseycorr.com/
Jan Drago (incumbent)  http://www.jandrago.com/
Nick Licata (incumbent)  http://www.nicklicata.com/
Darlene Madenwald  http://www.electdarlene.com/
Richard McIver (incumbent)  http://www.richardmciver.com/
Dwight Pelz  http://www.dwightpelz.com/
Robert Rosencrantz   http://www.robertrosencrantz.com/

MUSIC COMMUNITY FORUM QUESTIONS

1. The Mayor has stated he wants Seattle to have more urban density downtown, be a music city, and a 24-hour city. In that context, I want to present this scenario - A club which has been in business for 15 years in a Seattle neighborhood, with little or no noise complaint issues, starts being surrounded by new condos and residential housing. Noise complaints from the new neighbors become more frequent. Several
neighbors and the club approach you with these issues. What specific solutions would you propose, and would you favor new laws to deal with this and similar issues?
 
2. Mayor Nickels has been promoting the idea of Seattle as a great live music city.  The City of Seattle recently released an Economic Impact Study on the Music Industry showing that the Music Industry is in the top economic clusters in the City and generates over $1.3 Billion in economic activity yearly.  Other industries receive tax breaks and incentives and specifically the film industry gets filming permits for only $25.
But, to put on a music festival in Seattle, the permits alone are thousands of dollars.  In regard to the Mayor's idea of becoming a great music city, and the music industry's impact on our local economy, what would you do to change barriers to doing music business in Seattle such as the cost of festival permits and what would you do to encourage growth in the music industry? Do you believe it is important to create an environment where music festivals and live music is far more welcome and less of a financial burden?
 
3. As you're well aware, Seattle property values have increased exponentially over the last 25 years. As late as the mid-eighties, Belltown and Pioneer Square were relatively undeveloped, with many vacant buildings and only a few high-dollar condominiums starting to take root.  Rehearsal spaces, galleries and musical venues flourished in these neighborhoods and elsewhere in the city.  The economic barriers to starting a band, opening a venue, building a rehearsal space or putting on a show were very low, and which helped to create the climate within which Seattle musicians brewed and fermented what was to become one of the great worldwide pop culture phenomena of the last thirty years, commonly referred to as "grunge."
 
Current property values preclude this scenario from being repeated anytime soon. Musicians who need cheap, abundant space to develop their work are fleeing town for Tacoma, Portland and other less expensive places. What happens to our city if we price out all the musicians? What role, if any, should the city play in making sure musicians have places to create, perform and display their work without intense financial pressure?

Lightening Round 1.  All ages show are currently legal at all hours.  Do you think there should be age limits for concerts/shows that go past 10 pm?

Lightening Round 2  The partially city funded all ages Venue The Vera Project has a capital campaign to raise over $300,000 to move into a new space, would you support  this during the budget process?

Lightening Round 3.  Would you support tax breaks for music related businesses?