Saul Spady wants you to prepare for Seattle’s 2019 elections

Saul Spady was not shocked to discover that Seattle Councilmember Lorena González felt voters were “privileged” when it came to the recent head tax issue, and that opposition to the tax was “nauseating” to her.

“I wasn’t surprised at all,” Spady told KTTH Radio’s Jason Rantz. “This is a continuation of what they actually said publicly to the voters when they repealed the head tax.”

“I am very appreciative of Councilmember González because she has given the citizens of the city an idea of what the politicians you elect think of you,” he said. “Maybe you can call Trump voters – and you shouldn’t – baskets of deplorables, but she literally called Seattle voters, her neighbors, deplorable.”

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The Seattle Times report detailing text messages from Gonzales and other city leaders before the council killed its own head tax feature the council member’s comments about city voters. It’s just further proof for Spady that Seattle leadership needs to change; that it does not care to listen to residents.

“I live in the Central District, there’s a lot of people who live there who voted for Kshama Sawant,” he said. “I’m not going to victimize them, I’m not going to attack them. I’m going to go to my coffee shop, get a coffee, and have a good conversation to build bridges.”

The head tax issue pushed Spady — grandson of Dick’s Drive-In founder Dick Spady — into the public spotlight. He helped lead the effort to overturn the tax before the council repealed it. Since then, he has continued to speak publicly, converting his anti-head tax momentum into 21st Century Seattle. The group aims to find common ground and civil solutions to the city’s problems. Spady hopes this will be a contrast to what he sees as a city leadership that ignores and bullies.

Saul Spady: Seattle resistance

While he promotes 21st Century Seattle as a common ground space, Spady frequently focuses on the 2019 elections and the potential to vote out council members.

“In 2019, we have an opportunity to flip this council and to push a regional solution … it’s time for us to stop ignoring our friends, have conversations with them, bridging that gap,” he said. “We aren’t Lorena Gonzalez, we aren’t Nick Hanauer. We are actually neighbors. We have the ability to have tough conversations. We have the ability to get through this.”

Spady references venture capitalist Hanauer because he was one of two people (the other being an SEIU union boss), who was texting with Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan before the head tax was repealed. Spady doesn’t spare words for the mayor, either.

“We take a business like Dick’s Drive-In that chooses to give best in the industry wages, that gives college scholarships, that gives health care, and when my sister – who is going to be the future executive of the drive-in – asks Mayor Durkan for a meeting in the lead up to the head tax, she doesn’t get a response,” Spady said. “Nick Hanauer does. As does the head of the SEIU, the Service Employee’s Industry Union.”

“I’d say, to a certain degree, it’s more nauseating that the city council blames the voters instead of looking at their own polices and taking responsibility for their part in this crisis,” Spady said. “When you create an environment when property crimes are hard to enforce … People’s cars are being stolen and found filled with needles inside. You look to the council to respect the 99.9 percent of citizens in this city who work hard, who work two jobs, who have the side hustle, and maybe think about how you can make their lives easier instead of putting the blame on them.”

Spady has been asked if he plans to run for city council in 2019. His answer has been vague, but says he has two startups he is dedicated to. He has said he is working to support new candidates.

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