Politics

Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant and challenger Egan Orion clashed Thursday over corporate taxes, rent control and whether Sawant’s combative political style amounts to counterproductive grandstanding or a grit necessary to win progress for working people in the city. In the District 3 council debate before hundreds at Town Hall, Sawant, a Socialist Alternative member seeking election to a third term, returned again and again to demands for higher taxes for wealthy corporations such as Amazon to pay for services including public housing. Sawant called Orion the “poster child” for big business, citing corporate-backed PAC expenditures on his behalf. “They are trying to flip City Hall and reverse our victories,” she said. Orion, a first-time candidate, cited his work as an LGBTQ and neighborhood business leader, including as an organizer of PrideFest Capitol Hill, saying he’d bring a “collaborative style of leadership” to the … [Read more...] about Sawant, Orion battle over taxes, rent control and political style in District 3 Seattle City Council debate

So Jay Inslee is going instead for a third term as governor, which means Dow Constantine is probably headed for a fourth term as King County Executive and Bob Ferguson for a third term as attorney general, which in turn means state Rep. Drew Hansen will stay on for a sixth term in the state House and M. Lorena González will stay on the Seattle City Council and Hilary Franz will stay … zzzzzz. Politics is like the Politburo around here. It’s as if we have a standing committee with strict hierarchical lines of succession, made up solely of Democrats of course (the local Republicans are all but extinct due to their party going off the deep end at the national level). The Democrats’ deference to this polite pecking order was on display this past week at a news conference. Inslee, Ferguson and Constantine all feigned surprise at talk they might be rivals and instead gushed about how much they love their current jobs, and each other. “This is a great team pulling … [Read more...] about ‘It’s going to be a long four years’: Our state’s pecking-order politics needs a shake-up

LIMA, Peru — One Peruvian ex-president shot himself dead as the police arrived at his door. The head of the opposition sits in jail, under investigation herself. And for about a day this week, the president and vice president both claimed to rightfully lead Peru. Long an anchor of stability in Latin America, Peru looked close to ungovernable. The turmoil that has roiled the country for more than a year was on full display this week, as a clash between the current president, Martín Vizcarra, and the opposition ended with the president dissolving Congress. The opposition-led legislature had none of it, calling the vote illegal and swearing in the vice president to take over as confused Peruvians looked on. Peru would seem an unlikely candidate for the kind of upheaval it has faced in recent years. It has been at peace since 2000, when a civil war that claimed about 69,000 lives over two decades ended with the defeat of the Shining Path, a Maoist guerrilla group. That same … [Read more...] about How a Political Crisis Seized Peru: Boom Times, Corruption and Chaos at the Top

The south side of the Agua Hedionda Lagoon in Carlsbad. / Photo by Jamie Scott Lytle Carlsbad Mayor Matt Hall kicked off his re-election campaign this week paying homage to the most “active residents who selflessly give to our community.” He said he was “committed to including people with different points of view and treating everyone with respect.” In 2015, Hall and other Carlsbad officials approved plans for a shopping mall on the shores of the Agua Hedionda Lagoon, allowing the developer, Rick Caruso, to bypass environmental review. Residents rebelled. And when they killed the project through a referendum, Hall apologized. Then he hired the same political consultant, Tom Shepard, who helped kill the Caruso project to run his re-election bid. A former professional surfer, Cori Schumacher, rode a wave of resentment over the mall onto the Council in 2016, and she’s now challenging Hall. Although the Caruso project is no longer a point of contention, she … [Read more...] about Politics Report: Caruso Mall Haunts Carlsbad Mayoral Race

Bill Clark/ZUMA Looking for news you can trust?Subscribe to our free newsletters. On Capitol Hill on Friday evening, I ran into Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), who has earned the moniker “Putin’s favorite congressman.”  In recent days, he has been linked in news reports to Maria Butina, the 29-year-old Russian woman who had spent years cozying up to the National Rifle Association and other conservative outfits and who has been accused by federal prosecutors of being a spy for Moscow. “Some week, eh?” I said to him. He shot me a quizzical look. “Why?” he asked.  I thought it was obvious, and noted that his connection to Butina had made the headlines. ABC News reported that Rohrabacher was at a dinner in 2017 in Washington that Butina attended and that two years earlier, Butina had set up a meeting in St. Petersburg for him with Alexander Torshin, a Kremlin-connected banker and senior member of Vladimir Putin’s political … [Read more...] about Dana Rohrabacher Says Anyone “In This Town” Would Meet With Russians Peddling Political Dirt