Seattle Moderates’ Voters Guide, 2023
Update, October 25, 2023: The Seattle Times Editorial Board has endorsed each of the seven candidates below. Their opponents were not endorsed by the Seattle Times; that is, there were no dual endorsements this year. A link to the Seattle Times’ endorsements for 2023 is at the bottom of this piece.
Seattle has a very big election coming up on November 7th, 2023. Seven of nine city councilmembers are up for election. In addition, if Progressive incumbent Teresa Mosqueda wins elevation to King County Council as she may well, the remaining Seattle City Council members will, by statute, vote in her replacement.
So in effect, in November, eight of nine Seattle City Council seats are up for election. This is potentially a very large swing. Should we swing hard left, or tack to the center? Which way, Seattle?
How Should Sensible Moderates Vote?
Would you describe yourself as a political moderate? An independent voter? A centrist Democrat? A centrist/moderate Republican? Maybe you’re just a normie voter who doesn’t follow city elections super-closely.
You’re a moderate if most or all of these things are true:
- You’re not on the extreme left or right, but the political middle.
- You’re a self-described liberal, independent or centrist.
- You’d like change from the often circus-like activist atmosphere you’ve seen at City Council.
- You think the needs of all stakeholders in Seattle’s 722,000 should be considered, not just the activists with the loudest voices or coziest connections.
- You think outcomes of programs matter far more than inputs or virtuous-sounding words.
I’m a moderate. I’ve been following Seattle City Council fairly closely for a decade. Here are my recommendations for moderate voters.
The Moderate Slate, Seattle 2023
| District 1 West Seattle | Rob Saka |
| District 2 South Seattle | Tanya Woo |
| District 3 Capitol Hill etc. | Joy Hollingsworth |
| District 4 Northeast Seattle | Maritza Rivera |
| District 5 North Seattle | Cathy Moore |
| District 6 Ballard, Magnolia | Pete Hanning |
| District 7 Downtown | Bob Kettle |
Back to Basics
The term “moderate” means someone who occupies a middle position in the left-right spectrum. Keep in mind that “moderate” is both subjective (i.e., it is the opinion of the person declaring it) and also relative (i.e., compared to their opponents.)
To help you calibrate if you and I see things similarly… to me, the current political moderates in Seattle’s city governance are Councilmembers Sara Nelson, Alex Pedersen and Debra Juarez. They are all registered Democrats. Neither Pedersen nor Jaurez are running for re-election, so two moderates will no longer be on Council. (Democrat) Mayor Bruce Harrell is also a moderate in my view, as is (Republican) City Attorney Ann Davison. Yes, she’s moderate.
The hard-left’s most-used (and least honest) tactic is to try to paint all moderates as “far right.” But if you’re worried about right-wingers, don’t be. There is not a single “far right” or even nominally “conservative” or even registered Republican running for City Council. All candidates are either registered Democrats or independents.
If you consider yourself a hard leftist (that is, an adamant, West Coast 2020’s Progressive), better guides for you are probably The Stranger or the Progressive Voters Guide. Over the years, many of their recommendations have been extreme leftists. Many of their picks aren’t even liberal anymore. For instance, in the most recent major election (2021), they strongly wanted you to vote for a City Attorney candidate who believed “property destruction is a moral imperative,” who wanted to literally abolish the police (and long-term, the concept of jail altogether), and who celebrated when activists tried to set police stations alight. And she almost won. Both The Stranger and Progressive Voters Guide recommended that you vote for this candidate. So did Publicola. And so did centrist-sounding organizations like the King County Democrats and Young Democrats at UW. I’ve put links to their past endorsements are at the bottom of this article, if you’re a “trust-but-verify” voter like me. These endorsement organizations are solidly leftist at this point.
City Council Election, November 7th 2023
By charter, the Seattle City Council consists of 9 members. Council members write the laws of the city and approve the budget. They are highly influential in deciding which service providers get millions of taxpayer dollars and attention. They approve zoning – i.e., what can be built where. In other words, City Councilmembers set the policy for the city we live in.
This year is a DISTRICT year. Meaning, you can only vote for one of two candidates in your DISTRICT.
Stances on Public Safety, Addiction and Homelessness
Many surveys indicate Seattle voters’ top issues are around public safety and crime, addiction, and homelessness. So I’m focused on those, here.
Where Do The Candidates Stand?
The Seattle Times asked each candidates a series of questions in July, 2023. Here’s where they stand:
District 1
| Key positions | Rob Saka (Recommended) | Maren Costa |
| Do you support Mayor Bruce Harrell’s plan to increase Seattle Police staffing to 1,400 officers? | Yes | Yes |
| Should Seattle prosecute for public drug use? | Maybe | No |
| Should Seattle reduce the police department budget | No | Maybe |
| Do you support Seattle’s current enforcement of unsheltered homelessness through RV towing and encampment clearings? | Yes | No |
District 2
| Key positions | Tanya Woo (Recommended) | Tammy Morales (incumbent) |
| Do you support Mayor Bruce Harrell’s plan to increase Seattle Police staffing to 1,400 officers? | *No she states we may need more and need to identify the right total # needed, first. | Maybe |
| Should Seattle prosecute for public drug use? | Maybe | No |
| Should Seattle reduce the police department budget | No | Maybe |
| Do you support Seattle’s current enforcement of unsheltered homelessness through RV towing and encampment clearings? | Yes | No |
District 3
| Key positions | Joy Hollingsworth (Recommended) | Alex Hudson |
| Do you support Mayor Bruce Harrell’s plan to increase Seattle Police staffing to 1,400 officers? | Maybe | Maybe |
| Should Seattle prosecute for public drug use? | No | No answer via Seattle Times |
| Should Seattle reduce the police department budget | No | Maybe |
| Do you support Seattle’s current enforcement of unsheltered homelessness through RV towing and encampment clearings? | Maybe | Maybe |
District 4
| Key positions | Maritza Rivera (Recommended) | Ron Davis |
| Do you support Mayor Bruce Harrell’s plan to increase Seattle Police staffing to 1,400 officers? | Yes | No |
| Should Seattle prosecute for public drug use? | Maybe | No |
| Should Seattle reduce the police department budget | No | No |
| Do you support Seattle’s current enforcement of unsheltered homelessness through RV towing and encampment clearings? | Yes | No |
District 5
| Key positions | Cathy Moore (Recommended) | ChrisTiana ObeySumner |
| Do you support Mayor Bruce Harrell’s plan to increase Seattle Police staffing to 1,400 officers? | Yes | No |
| Should Seattle prosecute for public drug use? | No | No |
| Should Seattle reduce the police department budget | No | Maybe |
| Do you support Seattle’s current enforcement of unsheltered homelessness through RV towing and encampment clearings? | Maybe | No |
District 6
| Key positions | Pete Hanning (Recommended) | Dan Strauss (incumbent) |
| Do you support Mayor Bruce Harrell’s plan to increase Seattle Police staffing to 1,400 officers? | Yes | *Yes, but voted to defund the police during his current term |
| Should Seattle prosecute for public drug use? | Yes | Maybe |
| Should Seattle reduce the police department budget | No | No |
| Do you support Seattle’s current enforcement of unsheltered homelessness through RV towing and encampment clearings? | Yes | Yes |
District 7
| Key positions | Bob Kettle (Recommended) | Andrew Lewis (incumbent) |
| Do you support Mayor Bruce Harrell’s plan to increase Seattle Police staffing to 1,400 officers? | Yes | *Yes, but also voted to defund police during his current term |
| Should Seattle prosecute for public drug use? | Yes | Yes *but voted No on legislation this year to address this |
| Should Seattle reduce the police department budget | No | No |
| Do you support Seattle’s current enforcement of unsheltered homelessness through RV towing and encampment clearings? | Yes | Yes |
Just One Moderate’s Perspective.
Are you like me? I’ve lived in Seattle for three decades. Raised a family here. I consider myself a political moderate. I am not paid or compensated by any campaign or political entity. I simply want a more rational city with better leaders. I have liberal views on issues like the environment, freedom of expression, responsible gun ownership laws, a woman’s right to choose, social safety nets for those truly in need, the importance of solid public education, civil rights and more. I also have centrist perspectives on issues like public safety, public health, addiction, and accountability on budgetary matters. I’ve voted for a fairly equal number of D’s and R’s in my life.
Above all, I think our policies need to start working better for all 722,000 Seattleites.
Survey after survey suggest that most of us are not at the extreme. Since turnout is low in City Council elections (just 4 in 10 of us vote in any given year), extremists tend to get outsized voice, especially in the District-by-District election years like 2023. Then, craziness happens like “defund the police” votes and repeat offenders cycling through the system, and soaring overdose deaths, and we complain on Nextdoor about the dysfunction we voted for.
Can we elect a better slate this year?
After years of seeing the results of West Coast Progressive policymaking, I have decided the results do not justify largely-unsupervised investment in nice-sounding but completely ineffective approaches. I am very frustrated with city leaders’ unwillingness to circle back and ask the question “OK, how well is this program working?” and I don’t mean anecdotal storytelling.
I consider the results of 2010’s-2020’s West Coast Progressivism a clear empirical failure on addiction, homelessness, public safety and public education.
Overdose deaths, crime, encampment fires and more have risen far too rapidly. The Seattle Fire Departmnet responded to 1,538 encampment fires in 2022 — that’s more than four per day. Defund the Police was a disaster. Stories of corruption and shuffling money to cozy activist organizations for little in return are all too common. Public safety, public health, and public education outcomes have all declined noticeably, yet we continue to spend ever-higher numbers in our budget, and new taxes are being pushed ever higher. Prolonged closure of public schools and inattention to encampments near schools, parks and hospitals have been a disaster. Leftist decriminalization measures have not had positive impacts on public safety.
Look at the direction of overdoses in our county (as of September 17, 2023):
We need moderates, at the very least, in significant enough numbers at the table, to ask some tough questions. Some balance.
Seattle is in zero danger of becoming “conservative” or Republican. More than 80% of us vote regularly for Democrat candidates in every election. There hasn’t even been one Republican on City Council in the 30+ years I’ve lived in the city, and none are running in 2023.
Finally, here’s one thing you should know about endorsements. Regrettably, there has been hard-line ideological capture of some formerly moderate organizations (e.g., Young Democrats of King County, the various ‘XYth District Democrats’ orgs, even the harmless-sounding “Progressive Voters Guide.”)
Moderate candidates are regularly shunned and expelled, and typically, only the most extreme candidates earn endorsements from these once more-centrist organizations. Beware. The Stranger will generally always endorse the most leftward candidate in any race; The Seattle Times will generally endorse the more business and public-safety-friendly Democrats and liberals.
What You Can Do
Share this post. Can you please try to reach at least three other Seattle voters you know?
Use email, or share it to Facebook, Twitter, Slack, Nextdoor, Reddit, LinkedIn, wherever. Start with your own household. Got young people? At least encourage them to ask questions about The Stranger’s picks. Support the moderate candidate in your district. Meet them. Ask them questions. Grab a yard sign if you’d like. Consider sending them your Democracy Vouchers or money donation if they accept that. Volunteer for the campaign. Just 40% of Seattle voters vote in City Council elections — resolve to be one of them this year and get your neighbors to do so as well.
You grab a corner, and I’ll grab a corner. Let’s flip this wonderful jewel of a city back to common sense.
Related: The Stranger’s Political Endorsements Have Been Disastrous for Seattle, from 2019
Related: Okay, West Coast Progressives, it’s time to show your work. September 2023
Related: 2021 Endorsements of extremist defund-the-police candidate Nicole Thomas Kennedy from The Progressive Voters Guide, The Stranger, King County Democrats, and Young Democrats of UW.
Related: 2023 Seattle Times Endorsements: Seattle Times editorial board endorsements: Nov. 7, 2023, general election | The Seattle Times
Here’s a QR Code link to this guide for any printed flyers or invitations:
