Endorsement: Girmay Zahilay for King County Executive

The King County executive race offers a rare embarrassment of electoral riches - two earnest, brilliant candidates with impressive accomplishments in government, running against one another–both clearly qualified for the job. 

But in this race, only one emerges as the clear progressive choice - and that’s Girmay Zahilay. 

I happen to admire much of the work done both by Girmay Zahily and Claudia Balducci, two highly accomplished ivy-league-law-school-educated politicians vying for the job. 

Girmay Zahilay has mobilized immigrants, acted as kind of a one-man city council for long neglected communities in unincorporated neighborhoods just south of Seattle, and led on gun violence prevention. He shook the County Council out of its long slumber and this got us the groundbreaking Crisis Care Levy on the ballot, which heralds one of the most significant investments in behavioral health in this region’s living memory. And he looks like he may do it again with his workforce housing initiative. 

Balducci has long been a housing, biking and transit stalwart on the reticent eastside of the county. When I was on the Sound Transit Citizen Oversight Panel, we always knew she was the board member we could sit down with that would prioritize the rider and the region’s needs and not just the momentary conveniences of her elected office. Her command of the details and the big picture is legendary. Her leadership in these areas has rightly earned her the difficult-to-say monniker of “Badass-ucci” among many transit nerds. 

On a personal level, I happen to be fond of both of them as well. Which makes writing this less than fun.

But I’m doing it anyway because it matters. There are real differences and it is time to wake from the fever dream love-fest many of us progressive urbanists have for these two, cry a little bit, and make a decision about who should lead us into our future in this role. 

My guy is Girmay (pronounced grr-my if you don’t know), and not just because that rhymes although it is super cool that it does. 

Not only is Zahilay brilliant and bighearted, earnest and charismatic, but his life is grounded in a story of international immigration that starts in Sudan and ends in Seattle with a worldview and vocation that ceaselessly pushes the envelope on behalf of others. He’s a generational talent in Washington State politics, and the only progressive in the race.

I want more of that in our leadership! 

As the Stranger said in their endorsement 

Aside from Zahilay’s progressive zeal and résumé, we need someone in the executive's chair who . . . will continue to face South toward the people and places this county has long neglected. At a time the federal government is literally rounding up immigrants and refugees and saying they don’t belong, electing Zahilay is one way we can show all King County residents know they belong and they matter. And we trust he’ll do right by us all. Vote Zahilay.

On the other hand, when the Seattle Times endorsed Balducci, they emphasized “getting back to the basics” which for them usually means cutting spending that is focused on improving the lives of poor people. 

Those were their words, not hers, but she seems to have convinced them that this is where she is headed. In doing so, she has settled closer to the centrist lane, a departure from what I would have said was a more mainstream Democrat, or moderate lane. 

Her interview quotes were tough to swallow: 

“I’m the only one (in the race) who has cut programs. In Bellevue, we cut programs when we had budget shortfalls and people don’t love it. It’s politically unpopular. People actually support tax increases over and over and over again rather than (taking) cuts.”

That the instinct is to cut—even when the people of this insanely rich and undertaxed county would prefer to tax–is a red flag.  

Balducci emphasized efficiencies - something all dedicated public servants should look for, of course.  

“If I were the county executive, I would expect that while we have contracts with people that they are living to their contracts, that they are safe, that they’re performing and that they’re showing results,” Balducci said. “And if they are not, we’re going to move on.”

But I fully expect that Zahilay will do exactly the same thing. 

What I don’t expect is that he would use this kind of rhetoric in defense of not raising taxes through the means available (levies). Despite Balducci’s command of the details, even her examples of potential efficiencies (e.g., coordinating Pubic Health with UW - which also happens to be facing a calamitous financing crisis), there is nothing near the scale of savings that will be needed to keep from just straight-up cuts to vital support. The county has been living with tight budgets for a long time—the notion that there is much fat to cut is hardly credible.

Balducci’s tax-averse instinct apparently extends to the state as well. Earlier this year, a letter was circulated by local leaders from all over the state asking the legislature to tax the rich more to fill in gaps in government revenue, but Balducci didn’t sign it.

Friendly reminder - as I have said elsewhere::

(Small correction, Washington is tied for 28th/29th).

Many other moderates signed it—like Dow Constantine, the current King County Executive, or Sam Cho, from the Port (who also works for Harrell), Seattle City Councilmember Dan Strauss, Rod Dembowski on the County Council, or Shoreline Council Member Keith Scully. And of course progressives signed it–Teresa Mosqueda, Jorge Baron on the county council, Alexis Mercedes Rinck on the Seattle City Council, most of the Bothell City Council, dozens of others from suburbs, smaller cities, towns, and counties around the state. 

Girmay Zahilay signed it, surprising no one.

But Balducci’s name was notably absent, reinforcing my concern that she’s more of corporate centrist than a mainstream moderate.  

We all know where this thinking goes. When revenue gets tight and there is a refusal to tax the rich to raise revenue, we end up with the rich getting richer, the middle class getting crappier services, and the poorest among us suffering greatly. 

Which leaves me with a big question: what is Balducci going to cut?

Public Health? When our national network is crumbing and we have to worry about measles and polio again, and when we are just finally breaking the peak fever of the fentanyl crisis? Gun violence prevention? Access to buses? Housing for the homeless? Juvenile treatment? Cops? Courts? There’s not a lot of wiggle room here. 

Yes, of course it is possible that in the age of Trump that either of them will be forced to make some real, deep cuts somewhere. But I trust that Zahilay is going to walk over hot coals and forge frigid streams trying to get his hands on new revenue before that happens. The fact that he has already managed to find so much money by breaking the mold and pushing for a voter-approved levy for crisis care centers, and may pull it off again with the workforce housing initiative–tells me his first instinct is to fight to find every way to avoid cutting critical services, even expanding them when it seems impossible. 

It tells me that in the midst of a crisis, he’s going to hold the line, and that if there is a way to actually move forward during that crisis, he’s going to find it.

And the rest of his career tells me that when he is making decisions, he’s going to prioritize those among us who are the most overlooked. 

One thing of note, although they both have significant support, Zahilay’s coalition is comprised of a staggering ideological breadth of politicians. Despite his unabashed history as a progressive, his endorsements run from Pramilla Jayapal on the left, plus Attorney General, 25 state legislators, the entire Port Commision, 15 unions, to our Governor and to some genuinely conservative Dems like Adam Smith. That’s the whole Democratic party gamut!

They all know who he is, and his politics, and plenty will disagree with him on the details, but they are all supporting him. That’s because they see in him what so many of us see–a leader with great values and (at least at the state level) generational talent. 

I know some of my fellow urbanists may struggle with my endorsement. It is tough to find someone who has won or made it to so close to winning in Seattle that is as diehard about housing and transit as I am. It is true, Balducci has been a regional leader in those areas. I look up to her for that and will continue to look to learn from her on that. 

But Girmay is an urbanist ally too, and I was a progressive long before I knew I loved cities. Most important, my attachment to abundant housing and large scale affordable housing, walkability, transit, trees, parks, and well funded schools is not just an aesthetic preference–although I do very much like them! 

My urbanism is in service of a deeper and more important set of values–rooted in what my religious tradition demands from me–that I stand up for the widow, the orphan, the immigrant and the poor–the people Jesus called “the least of these.”  

Girmay Zahilay has made this the mission of his work. 

Vote Girmay.

(Photo Credit - Converge Media)