Sticking up for Kshama Sawant … sort of

Relationships are getting dicey between councilwomen Sally Bagshaw and Kshama Sawant and it has everything to do with last week’s rent control meeting at City Hall.

As you’ll recall, Sawant, along with city council member Nick Licata, is pushing for rent control as a means to tackle what they claim are skyrocketing rents throughout Seattle.

Now, rent control is an awful idea. Mainly, because it doesn’t work. It actually pushes prices up and discourages landlords and developers from putting housing units on the market. It’s why we see 31,000 units open in San Francisco where rents are astronomically high.

Related: Push for rent control in Seattle is all about politics

But at last week’s rent control meeting, a lot of folks took issue with Sawant, in particular, for using the city hall because it looked more like a campaign event than an actual town hall.

Indeed, the state has a ban on rent control so all of what was being discussed mostly had to do with politics. Sawant, since she’s running for re-election, wants to further develop her brand. Before, she defined herself as a Socialist all about the minimum wage. And now she wants to brand herself all about affordable housing.

And I don’t blame her for that &#8212 she’s a politician. Politicians do political things. I do happen to think she believes in what she’s pushing, which is oddly refreshing, but it doesn’t mean she’s not doing this for political gain.

Councilwoman Sally Bagshaw isn’t happy. In fact, according to The Seattle Times, she’s filed an ethics complaint, arguing that the rent control meeting was really a “political rally designed to inflame emotions and get one council member re-elected.”

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 to run for re-election, and to recruit other volunteers.

“I called (SEEC Executive Director) Wayne Barnett myself Thursday night and told him I thought the use of city hall by one council member for political purposes was entirely inappropriate and violated both the spirit and letter of our ethics rules,” Bagshaw wrote in an email to the Times.

Bagshaw isn’t the only one complaining. The city apparently also received an anonymous complaint. An investigation is underway.

Sawant’s campaign said it didn’t do anything wrong and that it checked with the proper people to make sure everything was Kosher and it believed it was.

The campaign claims that this event wasn’t a political rally.

“The real story Thursday was the massive, unprecedented turnout at city hall,” said Phillip Locker, spokesperson with her campaign.

But Bagshaw tells the Times, yeah… no I’m not buying that.

“City Hall should be a place where ideas and information are shared in a healthy and open way. That was not what happened,” she said.

“What happened last Thursday was a political rally designed to inflame emotions and get one council member re-elected and push a one-sided agenda. This is unfair and unjust, and statements made at the rally inside city hall wronged many good and thoughtful people who quietly live in our city.”

For Bagshaw to get this upset, tells me something. Council member Bagshaw is one of the nicest politicians I’ve spoken to &#8212 and I don’t mean that to demean her, but she’s so incredibly nice. For her to be ticked off is pretty telling.

On Sawant’s handling of the new appointee to the city council (replacing Sally Clark), Bagshaw told Publicola: “More than frustrated, I am sad about how Sawant is acting. I perceive her as intentionally creating class differences for her own gain, whereas we could be shaking everyone’s hands and working together to solve this problem. There is no one right answer. There are many answers.”

But ultimately I gotta say &#8212 as weird as this is &#8212 everything every politician does is “political” and meant to further their brand, especially if they’re running for re-election.

When Sally Bagshaw delivers a speech, she’s doing it as a politician, not just as someone who cares about the community. I have zero doubts she cares deeply about Seattle.

But she’s a politician and politicians grand stand, take positions they hope will get picked up and championed by the media, and ultimately, they hope they’re branded by these beliefs or programs they champion. I’m okay with that.

Democrats do it. Socialists do it. Republicans do it.

Every rally any politician is a part of is for a campaign for re-election and if it’s not, it’s a campaign for history. They want to be remembered.

I guess I’m okay with this, unless some blatant violation occurred.