And so it begins. With the first election weeks away, exterior conservative pursuits began throwing money on the 2024 race for the citywide metropolis council seat. Large enterprise gained all however one seat on the council in 2023 as a result of they outspent the labor foyer 5 fold. If labor desires extra representatives in Metropolis Corridor, then they could not need to take such a hands-off method this go-round.
Washington Realtors Political Motion Committee (WRPAC) spent $60,000 on promoting to advertise incumbent Tanya Woo, in accordance with a July 16 Public Disclosure Fee submitting. Of the $60,000, WRPAC spent $16,000 on video advertisements delivered through streaming companies, $6,500 on different on-line video promoting, $4,000 on show advertisements like banners on web sites, and one other $5,000 to “retarget” these show advertisements, presumably to maximise their attain and efficacy.
Any person inform Tanya Woo’s that ballots haven’t even dropped but. Perceive how she may be confused since she didn’t trouble to vote in metropolis elections till 2021. #seaelex https://t.co/ttnrgR4ekH pic.twitter.com/aQVAfBEvvj
— Heather Weiner (@hlweiner) July 17, 2024
WRPAC calls itself one of many largest PACs in Washington that funds and endorses each Democratic and Republican candidates who help coverage that favors the true property business. I requested WRPAC which insurance policies they need to see enacted on the town stage, however they didn’t reply.
You may suppose {that a} realtor PAC would help the candidate who would maximize housing manufacturing, however on the identical time, realtors revenue from the sale of housing, so the upper the price of housing the higher. Furthermore, the PAC principally represents brokers and brokers who promote single-family homes, so density isn’t actually their factor. All of meaning they could decide the candidate who’s most definitely to defend exclusionary zoning and restrict provide, which retains housing costly. The Nationwide Affiliation of Realtors, a unique PAC with the identical curiosity, backed Council Members Pleasure Hollingsworth, Bob Kettle, Maritza Rivera, and Woo of their 2023 campaigns in opposition to a lot stronger pro-density candidates.
“Realtors earn commissions on the gross sales of houses; they revenue from the damaged established order in Seattle that produces ever-rising housing prices,” stated Suresh Chanmugam, organizer at Tech 4 Housing, which endorsed Woo’s competitor, Alexis Mercedes Rinck. “They’re nervous that [Rinck] will enact insurance policies that can make Seattle extra inexpensive, comparable to reforming our racist land use legal guidelines, funding Social Housing with progressive income, and defending renters in opposition to worth gouging.”
When requested about what WRPAC’s help says about her marketing campaign, Woo reminded The Stranger that Impartial expenditure committees are separate from the candidate’s marketing campaign they usually can not coordinate.
Woo reiterated her efforts to protect the Chinatown Worldwide District.
“I’ve additionally been, and proceed, to battle gentrification and displacement in a neighborhood that is called one of many nation’s most endangered neighborhoods,” Woo stated in an e-mail. “These racist land use insurance policies sure, I’ve been affected by them.”
She stated she’s presently engaged on laws that she stated “is not going to solely construct extra housing however construct inexpensive housing citywide.”
No matter what WRPAC’s help says about Woo or Rinck, cash is cash. And cash issues. Final yr, the better-funded council marketing campaign gained in each race aside from one. Importantly, that one exception was Woo’s race. She outraised her opponent between her marketing campaign and outdoors spending, however she nonetheless misplaced.
Simply because Woo is a loser doesn’t imply the left shouldn’t take her critically. She misplaced by just a few hundred votes in essentially the most progressive district within the metropolis. She might have a better time interesting to the entire metropolis, which appears on common extra conservative in odd years than District 2 voters. That’s particularly the case now that she has identify recognition because the consolation-prize council member.
Up to now, Fuse Votes has spent $183 on Rinck. Fuse Votes takes the whole value of their labor for his or her voter information, about $35,000, and divides it among the many candidates featured in it. Labor didn’t spend almost as a lot in 2023 as they did to safe a progressive majority in 2019. Now, their coalition is paying for it. As a substitute of preventing for brand spanking new pro-worker insurance policies, they’re busy working protection for the gig employee minimal wage. In the meantime, rollbacks to the phrases of the Struggle for $15 minimal wage and different points employees care about are on the horizon.
Rinck has racked up labor endorsements, but it surely’s unclear what their PAC technique will likely be.
