Story and photos by Torin Record-Sand
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
This month’s meeting of the 34th District Democrats offered a preview of what lies ahead in August 4’s rapidly approaching primary for state and county elections, and the subsequent November 3 general. Many topics were in the spotlight Wednesday, but most of the candidates who spoke set their sights on two things: More progressive reforms for existing institutions, and opposition to the federal overreach of the past year and a half. Candidates came seeking the 34th’s endorsement for positions on the Washington State Supreme Court, Seattle Municipal Court, King County Council, King County Prosecutor, and King County Assessor. Around 50 people were in attendance in person at The Hall at Fauntleroy, but given the stakes, it seemed almost half of them were candidates.
Ian Birk and Sean O’Donnell were there running for the fourth position on the Washington State Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is drawing more attention than usual this year, as five of the nine seats on the court are up for election. Both candidates touted long-running service in the legal system: Birk had 20 years as a private lawyer before being appointed to the Washington State Court of Appeals in 2022, and O’Donnell worked as a prosecutor for 12 years prior to becoming a King County Superior Court judge in 2013.
The core of Birk’s pitch was that he would bring a voice to the Supreme Court to defend the little guy, something he said he learned a lot about in his years as a private lawyer. He told a story about defending and winning a case for a retired public -school teacher who had been defrauded by their district’s group life insurance policy. “You would think you could resolve that by writing a sternly worded letter but that’s not the society we live in – that’s the kind of fight that I have, and it’s the kind of voice I think we need in public court.” said Birk.
O’Donnell, on the other hand, focused more on the results of his career as a prosecutor and judge as signs of his aptitude for higher office. He highlighted a long and consistent career he described as giving voice to women’s rights, working on cases including sexual violence and human trafficking, and even time spent on the Green River Killer task force. He also pointed toward recent work to make courthouses safer and more equitable, such as working to expand funding for court interpreters and better security in smaller courts. He said he hopes to bring that systems forward-thinking with him to higher office.
Katharine Edwards appeared, asking for the 34th’s endorsement for a position as judge on Seattle’s Municipal Court. Even though she is currently unopposed, she said the 34th’s endorsement would mean a lot to her: “I would be over the moon if you all would endorse me.” (She also said she is a resident of the 34th, living in West Seattle, with her son even going to school right where the meeting was held – at Fauntleroy Children’s Center at the other end of the historic schoolhouse.) She highlighted her career of 15 years as a public defender, saying she took each case with a lens of social justice. “Real accountability is that the court does its part too: that it offers programs that address root causes of behavior, services that actually redirect people away from the legal system, holding people to clear expectations and giving them a genuine path to meet them, tracking outcomes using real data, and being honest about what works and does not.” If elected, she hopes to bring that same lens to her work as a judge.
Teresa Mosqueda and Leesa Manion both came to pitch their re-election campaigns. Mosqueda is looking for re-election to the King County Council as the representative for the 8th District, which she has been since 2024, and Manion is running for re-election as King County Prosecutor, which she has been since 2023.
Mosqueda said she will continue to work on her same social-services-oriented agenda: “With your support, I will continue to focus on health, housing, and human services.”
Manion listed results of her efforts on gun violence, sex trafficking, and making sure there were equitable salaries by gender in the prosecutor’s office. She also emphasized that she will remain a staunch opponent of federal overreach: “I will absolutely keep fighting the Trump administration, through every legal means, against the unlawful and illegal overreach it presents.”
Chris Roberts and Rob Foxcurran spoke of their campaigns for King County Assessor. The assessor’s office deals mainly with property taxes, relief for those taxes, and property value appraisal.
Roberts is a veteran of politics, having served the city of Shoreline as both a councilmember and mayor at various points continuously since 2009.
Foxcurran, in his own words, was coming as a relative newcomer – although he currently serves as a City of Seattle Senior Appraiser. Roberts focused more on using the office as a way to lower the pressure of property taxes on families and individuals to prevent escalating the ongoing housing crisis, whereas Foxcurran saw the office as having the opportunity to come down harder on corporations for evading property taxes. Both shared the same concerns about the current system of property taxes reliance being highly inequitable.
After the presentations by the candidates, there was also a special presentation on the state of King County election services by King County Elections Director Julie Wise. She kept a lively tone throughout, recognizing the difficulty elections seemed to be undergoing with ongoing federal threats to change the system. “In times like these, it’s better to laugh than to cry.” she said.
She said that despite the uncertainty, especially regarding the upcoming midterms, she wanted to offer a message of hope. “[King County elections] is a dedicated group of election administrators who are passionate about it like none other.” She began by highlighting the strength King County has in terms of turnout: for this year, they are expecting 45% of registered voters for the August primary, and 75% for the November general election. “We have the highest voter turnout in the nation along with Oregon, Colorado, due to accessibility.” she said.
She moved on to highlighting the security and the accountability that mail-in voting has, despite recent aspersions cast toward it from the federal government. “Vote-by-mail elections are accurate and secure. Period.” she said. She said that King County elections in general has one of the most secure processes in the nation, if not the world, with their elections facility having state-of-the-art physical and cybersecurity. (Dramatically, she added, this had been done in consultation with firms well-versed in creating casino security systems.)
In the Q&A portion of her presentation, many audience questions were about how the office would handle possible election interference, whether from independent actors, or from federal actors such as ICE agents. “We are working with local law enforcement and the prosecuting attorney’s office, to be proactive and be prepared. […] We are doubling down on ordinances about where are federal agents being allowed to be – and working with local law enforcement to do plainclothes and non-plainclothes at the drop boxes to prevent voter intimidation.” She also noted threats about the federal government canceling USPS deliveries of ballots. “He does not have the authority to do a lot of things he does, but he especially does not have the authority to do that.” she said. She said if it did come to that scenario, the office is looking at other potential partners to deliver and pick up ballots. She also said that there is the potential for the elections office to expand in-person voting sites, if need be.
Wise closed her presentation with a reminder that things are not as bleak as they might seem. “Since 2016 there have been threats about voting security, personal threats to me, even. Sometimes, it is a really awful job, but you have to step back and remind yourself: there are really just a very few awful people. That is not the vast majority of people, who are appreciative and thankful of the work we do.”
Other business for the 34th included debate over their current budget (with their fiscal year for 2025 ending as of May), and further amendments to the platform they’ll be taking to the state convention later this year. For the former, concerns arose over the price of meeting in person, though there are no plans to cut the number of remaining in-person meetings for this year. For the latter, the amendments focused on creating a Democratic platform for AI regulation in the arts, environment and energy use, and the government. The amendments seemed to highlight anxieties about the current administration kowtowing to current tech companies at the neglect of civil and environmental rights. Other amendments also focused on a further emphasis on social health care, labor rights, and immigration rights.
The April pre-meeting program was a “civics mini-jam” led by the West Seattle Joiners, with attendees invited to circulate between and learn about the organizations in attendance WS Walking, the West Seattle Timebank, West Seattle Democratic Women, West Seattle Indivisible, representatives from the Defend Democracy sign campaign, and West Seattle Bike Connections. (The Joiners have another Jamboree coming up, too, on May 16 in White Center.)
The meeting closed with reminders of upcoming events for the 34th. They will be holding a pop-up social at Jules Maes Saloon in Georgetown on April 24th between 5:30 PM and 8:30 PM. Their big annual fundraiser, “Your Voice Our Future,” will be held on May 30th, at the newly opened White Center HUB. For more information, you can visit the 34th on their website here.