Kshama Sawant the target of new city ethics rule

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and some councilmembers don’t like Kshama Sawant too much and it’s become even more clear with proposed legislation that would prohibit the kind of election activities she has engaged in during city-sponsored events.

As I reported on April 29, Sawant (and councilmember Nick Licata) held a rent control rally at City Hall that blended her call for policy prescriptions to tackle high rents in Seattle with campaigning for her re-election bid. In fact, Sawant campaign workers set up shop at the City Hall event to solicit signatures for a petition to put the councilwoman back on the ballot, and to recruit other volunteers. I explain here why I didn’t have much of a problem with it.

This new rule says:

No elected official, nor the official’s agent, shall engage in campaign activities at, or adjacent to, any official city public event that is organized by that elected official or any employee of the official’s office.

This is an obvious reaction to Sawant’s event, though they’re not admitting so. And Sawant is speaking out via a statement in The Seattle Times:

Seattleites expect elected officials to be focusing on the housing crisis facing our city, as was seen by the huge turnout of 550 people at the (town hall meeting) demanding rent control,” she said in a statement.

Instead, some politicians are prioritizing legislation to effectively silence free-speech activity of volunteers in grass-roots campaigns,” Sawant added. “I also have serious concerns that this ill-conceived and politically motivated ordinance is an unconstitutional restriction of free speech of ordinary people, as distinct from the activities of elected officials and their staff, which is currently regulated.

I disagree with her free speech argument (it’s not unconstitutional), but I agree with the spirit of her argument.

As I said here, to pretend politicians aren’t always politicking is naive. Mayor Ed Murray’s push for this ordinance has everything to do with his political ambitions. Sawant has taken the spotlight (and credit) away from him on the minimum wage battle and Murray needs to make sure the electorate views him as the progressive choice to keep in the Mayor’s office (it’s why some believe he tried to take the spotlight and credit away from Councilmember Mike O’Brien over the Shell Oil protests).

Whether the rule is a good idea or not, that’s subjective – I can see both sides. But let’s not pretend this isn’t political, ok? What do you think?