Who's Out (and In) in Local Elections, and What Will Happen if the City Weakens Conflict-of-Interest Rules?
Today's Afternoon Fizz.
1. Takayo Ederer, who registered as a candidate for Seattle City Council District 2 in March, reportedly will not file as a candidate for the position next week. Ederer—whose personal wealth, as we reported, eclipses that of the entire current city council—has raised about $27,000, mostly in $650 contributions, the limit for candidates who opt out of the city's democracy voucher public campaign finance program.
Candidates have to register in order to raise money, but a campaign isn't official until filing week, when candidates must declare their candidacy. Filing week is next week, and the filing deadline is next Friday, May 9.
2. Earlier this week, we reported that we'd heard 2009 mayoral candidate Joe Mallahan was calling around to local political insiders about challenging Mayor Bruce Harrell. We have an update: Mallahan is definitely calling around, but he seems to be having trouble finding a political consultant who will rep him against the mayor—and that includes the firm that represented him back in 2009 .
Back then, Mallahan was challenging an unpopular two-term mayor, Greg Nickels, who got knocked out in a primary. He lost the general election to Mike McGinn, who became the first in a series of mayors who served one term or less (Ed Murray resigned in his fourth year after five men accused him of sexual assault). If Harrell is reelected, he'll be the first two-term mayor in 15 years.
3. As the Seattle Times reported yesterday, City Councilmember Cathy Moore is proposing legislation that would remove the requirement that council members = recuse themselves from votes when they have a potential financial conflict of interest. Instead, council members would merely have to disclose their conflict.
The changes, drafted by the Ethics and Elections Commission last year, would remove a standard tool designed to prevent financial conflicts and corruption. Historically, however, it has been vanishingly rare for city council members to actually abstain from votes because of real or perceived conflicts of interest, according to a look at the minutes of every full council meeting over the last five years. (Anecdotally, council members often say they're abstaining because they need more information, which can be code for not wanting to take an unpopular vote).
Recently, Tanya Woo abstained from voting in committee on a proposal to reduce the minimum wage for delivery workers because she and her husband own a restaurant that uses these services; after widespread opposition, the measure never made it to full council.
Moore will soon introduce legislation rolling back a number of landlord-tenant laws, including a prohibition on adding roommates who are not on a lease, moratoria on winter and school-year evictions, and a law that lowered the minimum fee for late rent to a nominal $10. If the recusal requirement remains in effect, it's possible that the two council members who each own rental property—Maritza Rivera and Mark Solomon—would face pressure to recuse themselves.
However, history suggests otherwise. Rivera and Solomon each own one small rental apartment, and make less than $30,000 a year from rent (campaign finance disclosures include a range from $0 to $29,999), which makes their potential conflict much smaller than, say, a real estate developer or the owner of multiple apartment buildings.
Smaller, say, than former councilmember Mike O'Brien, who owned three properties that he used as Airbnbs but did not recuse himself from legislation (which he sponsored) limiting the number of Airbnbs a single property owner could operate.