Seattle Election 2025 / Public Safety
By Krist Novoselić (February 11, 2025)
The 2019 Seattle election produced an activist Progressive council majority. Unexpectedly, the big issue propelling Seattle's Left to victory turned out to be campaign finance. That year, Amazon mailed campaign ads supporting moderates for the council. A populist narrative that, "Amazon was buying elections" in the city, captured the minds of voters. Like a millstone hung around their necks, candidates supported by the online retail behemoth were tagged as bought by the big, bad corporations, to lose their races.
To make a long story short, the 2019 council majority drove Seattle into squalor. Seattle looked like every other major West Coast city run by Progressives; devolving into a wasteland of crime, along with the human tragedy of homelessness and drug addiction. Starting in 2021, enough Seattle voters were informed by their own eyes regarding the public safety crisis, to pivot from the Progressive vision. In 2023, a solid bloc of moderates were elected to create a new council majority.
Amazon no longer spends money on independent expenditures in Seattle. One reason is the lesson of 2019; it is a case of “once bitten, twice shy”. Another is the activist council created campaign finance rules which prohibit companies like Amazon from speaking in elections.
Progressives can no longer rely on the luck that provided the dominant narrative of 2019. They’re attempting to manufacture consent in a way which avoids their greatest liability — voters’ concern over public safety.
Progressives are flimsy on livability, so they are pulling national issues into the 2025 Seattle election.
That said, the tenets of progressivism still can enter the political discourse. Rory O'Sullivan is a candidate running to lead Seattle's City Attorney's Office (CAO). In a December 19, 2024 interview for The Urbanist, O'Sullivan is candid espousing the Progressive vision. The article states:
“O’Sullivan talked about how other cities have addressed problems of open air drug markets by engaging in a deep and extended on-the-ground effort that includes getting to know all the people involved and impacted, getting the community involved, and offering better opportunities to people. He said this kind of long-term approach leads to a lasting impact on improving the environment.
‘The problem is that our current city council, our current [city attorney's] office, is not willing to engage in that kind of deep, lasting work that requires consistent, long-term engagement.’ O’Sullivan said.”
"Long-term engagement", reminds me that nobody lives forever! It's as if we're patient, and wait long enough, the good times will eventually come. Don't hold your breath, as going back to policies fashionable in 2022 — rock bottom of Seattle’s public safety crisis — is not progressing.
We have already thrown massive financial resources at policy proposals advocated by Seattle ideologues. And, here they go again, asking for more money — and time!
Another Progressive candidate for leading the CAO is Nathan Rouse. In a February 4, 2025 The Stranger article, Rouse vows to bring national issues into the CAO, "one lawsuit at a time". He also pledges to not enforce the Stay Out of Drug Area (SODA) and Stay Out of Area of Prostitution (SOAP) zones. And speaking of allowing absolutely anyone to dominate our public spaces, Rouse also thinks parks should be funded and maintained so people can squat them.
Both Progressive CAO candidates, in the articles I cite, have nothing to say about Gov. Ferguson's support for SB 5060; a bi-partisan bill currently in Olympia proposing $100 million to local governments for recruiting more police officers. Thanks to its current moderate leadership, Seattle is working on hiring more officers to improve public safety. Seattle taxpayers are entitled to their fair share of SB 5060's funds.
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Regardless of glowing articles in Seattle's Progressive press; activist city attorneys are no longer en vogue. Look at how "other" major West Coast cities have ultimately dealt with crime such as open air drug markets. Voters in California and Oregon have recently replaced incumbent, crusading progressive prosecutors with moderates.
Progressives voted out of office:
❌ Multnomah County Prosecutor Mike Schmidt
❌ Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón
❌ San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin (Recalled)
❌ Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price (Recalled).
Voters in these jurisdictions simply got tired of the gaslighting.
Of course Seattle Progressive candidates, and the political elites who support them, will have to run on national issues in 2025 — because they can’t run on public safety.
Krist Novoselić is a Cascade Party board Member, currently serving as Chair, and representing one of the at-large positions.
(Image: Robert K. Chin / Alamy Stock Photo)
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