Pop quiz: What do Bruce Harrell and Lorena Gonzalez have in common? Hint: It's something they also share with both Tammy Morales and Tanya Woo, as well as Ann Davison and Nichole Thomas-Kennedy, Cathy Moore and ChrisTiana ObeySumner, Dan Strauss and Heidi Wills, and many others besides.
These candidates are mostly on opposite sides of Seattle's political spectrum. Each pair of competitors comprises one Seattle Times editorially endorsed candidate and one from the Stranger.
So what's the common denominator? Democracy Vouchers.
All these candidates (plus many more) took part in the city's innovative Democracy Voucher Program when they ran for office. Of the 42 eligible city candidates (for mayor, city council, or city attorney) who made it to the general election between 2017 and 2023, all but five used the program.
Only two non-democracy voucher candidates have won office over those years, and they also don't share a lot of overlapping political space: Sara Nelson, the council's current pro-business, anti-tax president, and prior socialist firebrand councilmember Kshama Sawant. Both Nelson and Sawant have expressed support for the program though, and have offered varied reasons for not participating. (For Nelson, concerns about door-knocking during COVID and other logistics; for Sawant, that opposing corporate PAC funds would swamp what she'd be allowed to spend as a democracy voucher candidate.
What does this mean for Seattle politics? Democracy vouchers are position-neutral, good for all kinds of candidates, and especially powerful for the voters of Seattle.
Seattle voters have a chance to renew this popular, fruitful, and inexpensive program on the ballot this August. In the words of Council President Nelson:
it's an "investment in democracy, the currency of your voice."
Seattle's elections are nonpartisan, so they don't exhibit the same type of partisan polarization that threatens to overwhelm current state and US federal elections. But the city still has political sides - moderate vs. progressive, centrist vs. lefty, preservationist vs. YIMBY.
Endorsements from the city's leading media outlets are a decent proxy for these lines of competition in Seattle politics. On one end is the Seattle Times, the city's moderate, largest news source. On the other side is the Stranger, Seattle's irreverent and unapologetically progressive alternative paper.
The Seattle Times and the Stranger have only endorsed the same general election candidate in one city race since 2017 (plus one other contest where the Seattle Times didn't choose a candidate). Every other time, they've supported opposite sides of the local political options. Politicos might wonder then, whether a program like democracy vouchers benefits one side more than another.
The answer? Nope!
Those political distinctions melt away when examining who has benefited from democracy vouchers. Seattle Times-endorsed candidates have won using the program. Stranger-endorsed candidates have won using the program. And the two candidates who gained office without the program are from opposite political camps. What's more, vouchers fund a similar portion of candidates' campaigns, making up 32 to 88 percent of contributions to Seattle Times candidates and 35 to 88 percent of contributions to Stranger candidates.
In 2023, all general election candidates used democracy vouchers. Mayor Bruce Harrell and councilmembers Rob Saka, Joy Hollingsworth, Maritza Rivera, Cathy Moore, and Bob Kettle all won with Seattle Times backing; Tammy Morales and Dan Strauss with a Stranger endorsement. In prior years the breakdown was inverted, and more Stranger-endorsed candidates have won; but they and their competitors have almost always also taken part in the voucher program. Even Ann Davison, who won election as Seattle's city attorney in 2021 while identifying as a Republican, used the program.
Instead of advantaging one political group over another, the program has benefited a more important stakeholder...