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Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant's appeal to dismiss the recall effort against her will head to the Washington State Supreme Court in January 2021 where it is expected to be decided without oral arguments. Back in September, King County Superior Judge Jim Rogers allowed four of the six charges alleged in the petition to go forward, saying in his order that the petitioner had proved "knowledge of facts indicating that the Councilmember intended to commit an unlawful act." The charges filed by petitioner Ernest Lou and certified by the lower courts alleged Sawant "used her position in violation of the...

Big business, the right wing, and now the courts have rung the bell on what is now the fourth round of the fight to expel socialists from Seattle City Hall. The corporate elite are determined to do so by hook or by crook. They failed in the first three rounds to buy this city council seat, the last time with unprecedented corporate cash from Amazon. The latest effort, a right-wing recall campaign, is perhaps the most serious threat so far, seeking now to use the courts and four trumped-up charges to overturn my reelection last year. It’s not for nothing....

Following a King County Superior Court ruling last month, a right-wing recall petition is now in motion to remove Socialist Alternative member Kshama Sawant from her position on the Seattle City Council. Though nominally “grassroots” and “independent,” the initiative was launched by the Democratic Party and has attracted the support of Republicans and far-right forces. The Socialist Equality Party opposes the right-wing campaign to remove Sawant on the basis of trumped-up charges and overturn the result of democratic elections. Notwithstanding our fundamental political differences with Socialist Alternative, we maintain that Sawant has a right to serve in the office to...

A King County Superior Court judge has ruled that a recall effort against Socialist Seattle City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant can move forward, which spells trouble for the firebrand municipal politician who is seen by many critics as one of the movers behind the city’s summer-long protests and efforts to defund the police department

In the wake of a judge allowing a recall petition against Seattle Councilmember Kshama Sawant to move into the signature gathering phase, Sawant has filed an appeal in hopes of overturning the ruling. Sawant filed the appeal with the Washington State Supreme Court on Oct. 2. King County Judge Jim Rogers had ruled on Sept. 17 that a recall petition filed by Ernest Lou could move forward, upholding four of six charges levied by Lou. Judge Rogers dismissed two charges, which had claimed that Sawant encouraged the occupation of the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct, and that she helped to...

On September 17, a King County Superior Court Judge ruled in favor of four articles of recall brought against Seattle’s socialist city councilmember Kshama Sawant. The recall campaign represents an attempt by the right wing and big business to overturn Kshama’s re-election last year and drive socialist politics out of Seattle City Hall. **SNIP** While the recall petition was officially filed by an individual resident of Kshama’s district, the language in it is notably all but identical to a public statement from Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan calling for the City Council to expel Kshama. **SNIP** This recall effort is above...

The court has cleared the Kshama Sawant recall effort and now they can actually move forward with collecting enough signatures to get a recall vote against her. The citizen behind the effort is Ernie Lou, and he joined the Jason Rantz Show to discuss his reaction and next steps. Lou discussed the four of six charges that were approved by the judge. “The fact that she has ceded her hiring and firing authority to this Socialist Alternative party - that was one that was definitely accepted by the court. The use of city resources to promote the Amazon tax ballot...

The Seattle City Council will hold a special meeting Tuesday afternoon over whether the city should pay the legal bills of District 3 representative Kshama Sawant as she fights the recall effort being organized against her by a group of Capitol Hill and Central District-area residents and business owners. The proposed ordinance would cover “the legal representation of Councilmember Kshama Sawant in judicial proceedings concerning a recall charge; paying expenses necessary to defend Councilmember Sawant in those proceedings,” according to the text of the bill posted as part of the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting. Sawant, the council’s longest serving member...

It didn’t take long. “Seattle Councilwoman Kshama Sawant, said the Black Lives Matter movement ‘has been nothing short of an earthquake in American politics, exposing the endemic racism and police violence of US capitalism’…Sawant, 46, is a native of India, called for the overthrow of capitalism, including the seizure of Fortune 500 companies. In a tweet she declared her desire to ‘…overthrow the racist, sexist, violent, utterly bankrupt system of capitalism.’” So, Sawant inadvertently acknowledges that the riots in Seattle – and New York, Chicago, Portland, et al – are and never have been about racism or George Floyd. This...

SEATTLE - A Seattle man claims he was fired for launching a recall effort against City Councilmember Kshama Sawant. Ernie Lou said was "crushed" after he was fired from his contractor job with Three Dollar Bill Cinema after putting together a website and raising money for a Sawant recall effort earlier this month. "She is the leftist version of the right-wing version of Trump," he said. "She's a cancer in Seattle." Lou said he was fed up after recent demonstrations, which included a sit-in at City Hall and march to the home of Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan. Those are just...

The push to recall Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan is based on a policy disagreement, not a violation of any law or standard, and the petitioners leading the recall haven’t identified what steps Durkan should have taken in the wake of June’s widespread protests, Durkan argued in appealing her case to the state Supreme Court. Durkan’s argument, filed Monday, reprises some of the arguments she made in King County Superior Court, where a judge ruled that the recall effort could move forward, but also adds some new ones. “Following the most widespread civil unrest Seattle has seen in decades, Petitioners submitted,...

Amazon is gauging how employees feel about moving away from the company's Seattle campus, largely because of the Covid-19 pandemic and Seattle’s new payroll tax. Amazon sent an email to workers asking if they’d be willing to work in Seattle’s suburbs and outlying areas, including Redmond and Tacoma. The story was reported by Bloomberg on Friday. **SNIP** Amazon employs about 50,000 workers at its Seattle headquarters, which includes more than 40 buildings - including the company’s landmark, greenhouse-like glass Spheres - sprawling across several blocks. **SNIP** Amazon has had a rocky relationship with the Seattle City Council since at least...

SEATTLE - On Thursday, Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant released a statement in response to Seattle police Chief Carmen Best’s retirement announcement Tuesday. **SNIP** “Best was never a reformer. This is clear in her failure to fight for serious policy changes in the department, her consistent refusal to hold officers accountable, and perhaps most of all in her choice to retire now rather than to carry out the reforms demanded by the Black Lives Matter movement." “Best’s actions were guided at all times by her loyalty to the status quo and willingness to carry out the role of the police...

The Seattle City Council voted with some compromise in an ongoing budget battle with Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan. It came a day after widespread criticism of the council for its handling of the police department budget, which was cited by Chief Carmen Best as a reason for her sudden resignation. Councilmember Andrew Lewis noted that there was a real friction between the council and mayor, and it was spilling into everything the elected leaders do. It was the precursor for a discussion over whether to overturn a mayoral veto on spending $86 million on city reserves. Durkan vetoed the legislation,...

Following an investigative report the paper of record has revealed that business owners who were stuck in the Capitol Hill Organised Protest ‘aren’t so sure about abolishing the police’. No sh*t Sherlock. The New York Times has done something distinctly out of character and actually produced some decent journalism. Taking a break from getting editors sacked for allowing Republican senators to write op-eds and forcing out the few remaining sane people on their staff for not quaffing the identity politics Cool-Aid enthusiastically enough, they dispatched a reporter to Seattle to pick through the remnants of the CHOP, a month after...

The Seattle Police Department will not see a 50 percent budget cut this year following a Wednesday vote by the Seattle City Council, despite seeing a number of cuts across the board. A proposal by Seattle City Council member and Socialist Alternative member Kshama Sawant sought to immediately cut $54 million from the Seattle police budget and another $34 million for affordable housing. The proposal saw seven council members voting against, with Sawant being the sole vote in favor. Another council member abstained. The department's proposed 2020 budget is over $400 million total. A number of other police budget cuts...

Seattle City Councilmembers on Thursday shot back at criticism from city officials that their proposals to cut funding from the Seattle Police Department were "irresponsible" and "reckless." During a meeting Thursday, members of the council talked about their plans to slash funding to SPD in response to months of calls from thousands of residents to defund the department and reinvest in the community. The council's discussion came after a news conference earlier this week where Mayor Jenny Durkan and Police Chief Carmen Best called the proposals "unattainable and unworkable." "It is unfortunate that we are faced with the reality that...

SEATTLE, WA - Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant introduced a budget amendment Monday, seeking to limit officers' annual compensation, including overtime pay, to $150,000. Sawant's amendment is among dozens of others being debated at the council, as members near a committee vote on changes to the mayor's proposed 2020 rebalanced budget. The council launched a budget inquest into police department spending in early June, amid calls from protesters and community leaders to cut SPD's budget in half, redirecting funds to community-led services and public safety programs. Seven of nine councilmembers have publicly voiced support for the 50 percent reduction goal,...

Councilmember Kshama Sawant laid out the specifics of her proposal Thursday to cut the Seattle Police Department’s remaining 2020 budget by 50%. Sawant introduced her plan in the form of upcoming amendments to the city budget, making it the first instance of the “defund SPD” movement taking official legislative form. Her proposal would cut $85 million, totaling 50% from SPD’s remaining $170 million budget in 2020. That would include the original $16 million in cuts Mayor Jenny Durkan proposed in late June, which would encompass a freeze on the hiring of new officers, and limits on new equipment and training....

Seattle city councilmember Kshama Sawant decried “the brutality of capitalism” after a judge blocked the city’s ban on police crowd-control tools such as tear gas and pepper spray, declaring that the Friday ruling threatened “peaceful protesters.” “Rather than ensure that peaceful protestors are kept safe from federal agents, this court ruling reveals the brutality of American capitalism readying its full arsenal of weapons to attempt to violently suppress demonstrations,” said Ms. Sawant in a Saturday press release. **SNIP** Seattle has been billed as the first U.S. city to prohibit a wide array of crowd-control methods under the ordinance, which passed...