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PaperclipPerfector  9mo ago (text post)   29235 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 19, 2024

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The radical DSA councilwoman retired, and was replaced with the "more conservative" of the two choices

This was due to a redistricting that pretty much guaranteed she would lose, right?

I don't think so? I haven't examined the numbers, but the core of the district is the same, and the borders are more compact. I'd naively give Sawant better than average odds that she could have won again, if she'd run again. It sounded like there was a last-minute push to do something like that, but it got shut down. From the article below:

“We did it. We won fair, legal, equitable, renter-empowered, community-led Seattle City Council district map in the first-ever redistricting process,” the Redistricting Justice for Washington group said in a statement.

https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2022/11/district-3s-new-borders-set-in-seattle-redistricting-commissions-final-map/

However, maybe if you dig you could find something? Halfway down this article is a map overlaying Sawant's performance in the last primary with the district borders in this primary, and it does look like she would have lost some strong areas. (The white area in the NE is the arboretum, and no one (legally) lives there.

https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2023/08/mapping-the-hollingsworth-hudson-primary-victories-in-a-less-polarized-district-3/

But for context, this guy came in third in our jungle primary, and he's about the most conservative possible in the area:

https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2023/08/district-3s-surprise-third-place-finisher-endorses-hollingsworth/

I haven't really dug into the issue, but my recollection is that her recall election was close enough that any loss of supporters due to redistricting would have made reelection unlikely.

But maybe it was more than pendulum swinging back towards the center than the redistricting.

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