Week in Review: August 5, 2022

Follow us on our new Twitter account at @HacksWonks!

Today on the show, Seattle Times politics and communities reporter Daniel Beekman joins Crystal to talk through results from this week’s primary election! They discuss how the often-predicted “red wave” failed to materialize and the various possible factors that might have caused that, as well as results in several legislative districts that were anticipated to be competitive battlegrounds that could potentially flip from Democrats to Republicans. 

They discuss the race for U.S. Representative in the 3rd Congressional District, where Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez finished in first place, while Republican incumbent Jamie Herrera Beutler and Trump-endorsed Republican Joe Kent are in a close battle to determine which one will advance to face Gluesenkamp Perez in the general election. They review the Secretary of State race, where Republicans might end up being absent during the general election this November thanks to nonpartisan candidate Julie Anderson. 

They spend some time looking at the 8th Congressional District race, then Dan discusses where he’s seen a lot of independent money getting spent this election. 

They end the discussion by going over ballot initiatives that voters may get a chance to vote on this November. 

As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com.

Follow us on Twitter at @HacksWonks. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Twitter at @finchfrii and find today’s co-host, Daniel Beekman, at @DBeekman. More info is available at officialhacksandwonks.com.

 

Resources

“Larkin to face Schrier in WA congressional race, as Dunn concedes; Kent closes in on Herrera Beutler” by Jim Brunner from the Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/larkin-will-face-schrier-in-wa-house-race-as-dunn-concedes/ 

 

“How WA’s ‘jungle’ primary may have saved Herrera Beutler” by David Gutman from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/how-was-jungle-primary-may-have-saved-herrera-beutler/ 

 

“Republicans could get shut out of secretary of state race” by Melissa Santos from Axios: https://www.axios.com/local/seattle/2022/08/03/democrat-steve-hobbs-washington-secretary-state 

 

“No red wave in sight after early returns in key legislative race” by Joseph O’Sullivan from Crosscut: https://crosscut.com/politics/2022/08/no-red-wave-sight-after-early-returns-key-legislative-race 

 

“Red wave or blue wall in WA? InSeattle suburbs, this race could be ‘real bellwether’” by Daniel Beekman from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/red-wave-or-blue-wall-in-wa-in-seattle-suburbs-this-race-could-be-real-bellwether/

 

“These are the issues that matter most to Washington state voters, new poll indicates” by Daniel Beekman from The Seattle Times:  https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/these-are-the-issues-that-matter-most-to-washington-state-voters-new-poll-indicates/

 

“Larkin advances, Dunn concedes in 8th Congressional District” by David Hyde from KUOW: https://kuow.org/stories/larkin-advances-dunn-concedes-in-8th-congressional-district 

 

“Key results from WA primaries as control of the Legislature hangs in the balance” by David Kroman from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/wa-legislative-election-results-key-outcomes-for-the-2022-primary/ 

 

“This is where big money is flowing and ads are attacking in the battle for control of WA’s Legislature” by Daniel Beekman from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/this-is-where-big-money-is-flowing-and-ads-are-attacking-in-the-battle-for-control-of-was-legislature/

 

“Democrats declare ‘no red wave’ in legislative swing districts” by Melissa Santos from Axios: https://www.axios.com/local/seattle/2022/08/03/washington-democrats-red-wave-legislative-districts 

 

“With November Ballot in Question, Seattle’s Social Housing Campaign Soldiers On” by Ben Adlin from South Seattle Emerald: https://southseattleemerald.com/2022/08/02/with-november-ballot-in-question-seattles-social-housing-campaign-soldiers-on/ 

 

“Seattle City Council Puts Ranked Choice Voting on the Ballot” by Hannah Krieg from The Stranger: https://www.thestranger.com/news/2022/07/15/76479670/seattle-city-council-puts-ranked-choice-voting-on-ballot 

 

Transcript

[00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington State through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at the recently refreshed officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. You can also follow the show on the new Twitter account @HacksWonks on Twitter. Today, we're continuing our Friday almost-live show where we review the news of the week with a cohost. Welcome back to the program today's cohost: Seattle Times politics and communities reporter, Dan Beekman. Welcome back.

[00:00:59] Daniel Beekman: Thanks for having me again.

[00:01:00] Crystal Fincher: I am excited this week to talk about the results of the primary election that we had. Lots of the results we have are final and conclusive, a few of them aren't. So I guess as we start off looking at the results across the state, what catches your eye as some of the most interesting races and results?

[00:01:23] Daniel Beekman: I think there's just the sweep or the totality of the results and trying to watch - even though in many state legislative races was a foregone conclusion who would advance, though not all, in those and in the congressional races. And the Senate race - trying to get a grip on is there a cliche red wave coming predicted by many or not - and maybe a takeaway in the totality that we don't see major evidence of that at this point. So that's one thing. And then just some of the races that are still up in the air from the 3rd Congressional District down in southwest Washington to the the 47th Legislative District and trying to wait and see which Democrat is gonna go through to the general election there in south King County. Those are some of the big ones. I think people are still waiting on - also Secretary of State, which we could find out about today. Obviously, the incumbent - appointed incumbent - Steve Hobbs through easily, but the possibility that the general election could feature no Republican after the state's voters had elected a Republican to the office every 4 years for almost 60 years or something like that.

[00:03:00] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, those are certainly some that are catching my eye. Just going - the 3rd Congressional District is the race where Jaime Herrera Beutler is the incumbent. Lots of talk leading up to this because Jaime Herrera Beutler was one of the Republicans who voted to impeach Trump - drew a number of primary challengers. Primarily, they cited primarily that reason - that she was not supportive enough of Trump, and that is one of their litmus test issues for a lot of them. And so drew a few different challengers - one of whom, Joe Kent - endorsed by Trump, frequent guest on Hannity, just really extreme, does not care about any of the norms or anything even for the Republican Party, and is just really one of those far right-wing extremist Republicans - and he's proud of it. So a lot of lead up, a lot of independent spending going in that race, a lot of money raised by those campaigns. And so on election night - looked like Gluesenkamp Perez, who is the Democratic candidate, consolidated the Democratic vote and so those all went there. And then the Republicans split the vote amongst themselves. And Jaime Herrera Beutler was up more on election night, but as each day has passed, her lead has whittled down and whittled down. And looking at the percentage of vote the Joe Kent is bringing in, especially yesterday - looking and projecting that today with the amount of ballots left, it can be a very close race and certainly too close to call who is ultimately going to make it through.

[00:04:46] Daniel Beekman: My coworker went down there and wrote a story about how the "jungle" primary might save Jaime Herrera Beutler, which was interesting and it might still be the case. And she might be in even more trouble if we didn't have our different kind of primary system.

[00:05:04] Crystal Fincher: I think that's gonna be an interesting race. Lots of people are waiting on today's results to see how that shakes out. Certainly, as you talked about, the Secretary of State race, which that has been - one, basically the only statewide wide race that Republicans have been able to win in recent years. And a Republican previously held that until going on - resigning in the middle of the term - to work for the Biden administration. And Governor Inslee, as you said, appointed Steve Hobbs in there. And it - right now - it looks like Julie Anderson has the edge - again, very close and still waiting to see if she's going to make it over the Republican. But yesterday her lead widened and that suggests that that trend will probably continue today as we see how the late ballots are composed and splitting. And so today will be another day that we look to see - does that race look more conclusive in favor of Julie Anderson getting through or not? And then that - whether or not Julie Anderson as an Independent or the Republican gets through - changes the dimension of that race. I think, as we've seen across the state that, as you said, the red waves certainly did not appear. And Steve Hobbs would absolutely seem to have the advantage over a Republican challenger. I don't know that that's the case with an Independent challenger. And so it just changes the dimension of that race in ways that are interesting. Lots of people will be paying attention to that to see - in some ways, people may think - okay, Julie Anderson is gonna have an easier time consolidating both a Republican vote and maybe drawing away some Democrats to be competitive. In another way, she may face some challenges raising the campaign funds necessary to execute a general election campaign not being attached to either one of the parties. So that's gonna be an interesting race to see.

Legislatively - my goodness, the 47th Legislative District, which is here in my backyard - it's the eastern half of Kent, Covington, some of Auburn. And really close results. Both parties have said that this is one of their top targets for Democrats to defend, for Republicans - they thought that this was basically their number one takeover opportunity in the State Legislature with two open seats. One after Senator Mona Das decided not to run again in the seat that before her was held by Republican Joe Fain, before that was held by Claudia Kauffman. And so this time for this Senate seat, you have a Republican who's a city Councilmember - Bill Boyce - running as a Republican in that seat. And then you have two Democrats - Satwinder Kaur who's a Kent City Councilmember and Claudia Kauffman, who is a former State Senator in that seat. And a hotly contested primary among Democrats. And that is still too close to call - with Claudia Kaufman, I think, widened her lead a little bit yesterday. And so we'll see if that continues today.

But when you look at the percentage that Democrats got in all of those races, they're hovering around 55% of the vote, which is certainly very encouraging for Democrats saying that, especially heading into the general, that it looks like they have a definite advantage moving in there. And some of the support that Republicans thought was going to materialize just did not. And in fact, in the House seat, one of - the open House seat - where it looks like two Democrats are actually making it through and all of the Republicans, including the party-picked Republican Carmen Goers who raised like $200,000, isn't even making it to the general election. And Chris Stearns and Shukri Olow, both Democrats, look to be making it through. So just a result that Republicans certainly did not anticipate that they would not make it through, that their number one pick Carmen Goers wasn't even the top-finishing Republican in the race. She's currently in fourth place, not even third. So just really interesting results there. What did you see go into that, and what do you think happened in the 47th district?

[00:09:43] Daniel Beekman: I wrote a story on the Senate race there back in - about a month ago or a little bit less than a month ago - just thought it was really interesting, partly because the district is so multifaceted because it, as you know very well - you and I even talked about it - having urban, suburban, and semi-rural areas, all kinds of folks in terms of income, in terms of race and ethnicity background. Just - you got everything in there and it's a little bit of a microcosm of America because it's so finely balanced politically. And you can tell - I went back and looked and you can see that Senate seat went from Republican to Democrat in 2006, to Republican in 2010, to Democrat again in 2018, and then the Republicans this year in 2022 were saying this - they're number one, if not - or at least one of their top targets in the state, maybe their top target for Senate seats and could it flip again? And I think that's partly what made it interesting, besides that obviously the people of the district care about who's representing them, personally. But I was, I have been interested in the results showing that combined the Democrats have, like you said, above 50% and trying to see which one might get through. Satwinder Kaur obviously had the support of the Democratic party, despite not being the former seat holder in that race. But Claudia Kauffman is ahead, I think, by 65 votes right now and that's interesting that she may make it through, despite not having the backing of the Party, although I assume the Party would come and support her in the general.

And I also wrote a story - The Seattle Times and a number of other organizations - King5 and schools at UW and WSU - commissioned a poll that we wrote a whole bunch of stories about different results in the last few weeks, including - I wrote one about what are the issues, what's the most important issue to voters? That was one of the questions that was asked and they were given a whole range of topics and the clear number one and two - number one was inflation, number two was - number one was abortion, excuse me. Number two was inflation. And I believe abortion was very high with suburban voters as well as inflation. But the Democratic suburban voters - I think it just could point to, who knows, but looking at these results, it could - the 47th district could be an example among many of where the Supreme Court's decision on abortion really fired some people up on the Democratic side of things in some of these swing races.

[00:13:14] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. And it's an area where it's hard for - a lot of Republicans certainly try to make the case if you look at their literature, their advertisements and mailings - that they're moderate and reasonable and pragmatic. That's really hard to sell when they're anti-choice. And that is just out-of-line with so many of these districts and voters, certainly looking across the state - out-of-line with where Washington voters are generally. And I think a lot of Republicans faced challenges for being pro-life, not being really able to explain that - and I think that's an area where Republicans have gotten a pass before. Some of these same candidates have in previous years expressed similar sentiments, but I think a lot of people didn't necessarily connect it to reality, feeling like we were safe as they continue to try and say - I saw Reagan Dunn say recently in an interview - it's settled law here in Washington State. People heard "it's settled law" from Justice Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court and heard "it's settled law" from Congressional Republicans. And it was not settled at all. And they keep seeming to move in a more conservative direction and now talking about same-sex marriage, contraception, and a number of different things. And so that's scary to a lot of people - those are fundamental rights that people have - count on and build lives on and that shape the direction of people's lives. And so it's just so out of step and extreme for the general population here, it's hard for a lot of people to get past.

And also looking at these races, Republicans tried to make arguments saying that Democrats don't have solutions for public safety, they're soft on crime, blah, blah, blah. And it actually does not look like those attacks landed at all. And I think voters are at the point where - okay, we see there's a problem - whether it's inflation, whether it's not feeling safe - but we've talked about this problem. What is actually the solution that we have for it? And I think they heard a lot of the same things that they've seen put in practice that haven't necessarily made a difference from Republicans. And I think - certainly people are absolutely concerned about public safety - we have to attack gun violence, we have to attack violent crime, property crime across the board. But people also recognize and polling has underscored this - that police can't do it all by themselves. Even if you think more police are part of the equation, hardly anyone thinks that's the entire equation. And investments in behavioral health, investments in some of the root causes of crime and ability to help people stabilize are necessary components of these things that Democrats are talking about and Republicans aren't. And I think that played into that not landing in a way that Republicans were really thinking it was gonna land.

And similarly with inflation - lots of people are hurting, but who is prescribing things that are different. You hear Democrats talking about middle-class tax cuts and relief and taxing the wealthy to pay for programs and services that benefit those who are not wealthy. And not hearing that from Republicans. And so I think those are some of the - you look at the arguments that were made, the messaging that was in the primary - and it just looks like, from beginning to end, it felt like it didn't land. And certainly choice is part of it, but I don't even think it accounts for all of what we saw. How did you see that?

[00:17:17] Daniel Beekman: I was just speculating that abortion rights could have played a big role in this, in many swing districts, and could continue to. But certainly not the only thing. I think that there was, like you said - you could see it in the advertising on the Republican side - a big play ahead of this election to point to inflation, gas prices - which are maybe coming down a little bit now, but were so high. And also crime - pointing the finger and saying - the Democrats are in charge here in Washington State, the Democrats are in charge in DC and you're hurting. And in their sort of making the play that voters would take out their frustrations and their pain on Democrat in their ballots. And I don't know - it doesn't, it definitely doesn't seem like that's happening conclusively. Also in the background is January 6th and all of that. And I guess what's interesting is, you look at where is a surge happening, or where's the dynamic on the Republican side. If Joe Kent is able to take out Jaime Herrera Beutler, or - like we were talking about - or at least get close, the energy there is coming from the Make America Great Again sentiments and the Joe Kent type of politics that you were talking about is not necessarily maybe as much coming from those bread-and-butter inflation and crime issues, I don't know. And maybe there's a takeaway that you might have from the 8th Congressional District and what we're seeing there in terms of Matt Larkin moving forward rather than Reagan Dunn or Jesse Jensen. I don't know whether, what that could tell us. And also how Kim Schrier did, being a Democrat, tell us about what's happening.

[00:19:51] Crystal Fincher: That's such an interesting race - one, just the beginning result - Kim Schrier finished really strongly. And in, I think, in a stronger position than a lot of people were expecting. Certainly choice had to do with that and all the issues that we talked about. It's interesting - with Dunn and Jensen - who spent a lot of the primary attacking each other. And so it is part of the question - were they so focused on each other, and Matt Larkin was just there not taking any heat and therefore seemed a better option and made it through? Is it that the Republican base is splintered and that Dunn's reputation as a moderate over time is just too moderate for today's GOP? They certainly - Jensen attacked Dunn for his prior DUI, for his substance abuse disorder issues. Dunn finished relatively strongly in King County, it looks like. But I don't know how that's landing in the Republican base, obviously. I actually don't think that, especially given his advocacy for treatment for substance use disorder - that has actually been an issue he's been okay on and not toeing the - "just lock 'em up" line for all of that. I don't know that he pays a price for that in King County, or that's an effective attack for him in the general election, like they were suggesting - saying that he's vulnerable, he's had these issues in the past and that makes him a liability in the general election. I don't know that that would've landed in the general, but maybe just Republicans thinking about that accusation were uncomfortable. Probably a mix of those things. But just really interesting to see where they were at.

But it's certainly - based on where Kim Schrier finished - she has gotta be eager about the general election and I think that this is certainly a seat that Republicans nationally had in their sites as a prime takeover target. I think nationally, they probably felt that their chances were better with Reagan Dunn versus Kim Schrier and so I think one of the questions is going to be - does this attract national investment, a lot of the PAC money that would come in here. We saw a lot of spending in the primary - does that continue in the same way in the general, or does this drop down a tier and is not gonna be attracting all of the money from everywhere on those? Certainly this is not a foregone conclusion - Kim Schrier has to execute a good general election campaign, I'm confident she will - not taking this for granted at all, but it does look like Democrats have an advantage here. And I think that's hard for Republicans to deny and just gets a little bit tougher with someone who has no name ID from prior races in the district. Is that how you see things, or are there any other factors that you think are at play there?

[00:23:14] Daniel Beekman: I know that Larkin did campaign hard on crime and -

[00:23:22] Crystal Fincher: "Make crime illegal again."

[00:23:23] Daniel Beekman: Right. So I don't know if that continues in the general, or what sort of approach he takes - I'm guessing that Schrier would, like we were talking about - talk about choice among other things because I believe Larkin has anti-abortion views. And would expect that to play a role.

[00:23:49] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. And it's - across the state - some interesting results. Just other ones - a lot of, certainly a lot of people are looking at the 26th Legislative District, it's a very competitive district. Republicans also have that one as one of their top Senate pickups - pickup opportunities - and Emily Randall finished strong with over 50% of the vote. Certainly that makes the general election look real favorable facing Jesse Young, a Republican - currently a House member who's running for that Senate seat now, who raised a lot of money, who is well-known from his time in the House. But Emily Randall handily beat him - again, not a foregone conclusion, but certainly looks to have the advantage going into the general election.

The 10th Legislative District, the 5th Legislative District, 30th Legislative District - all those were Republicans - and Democrats - were wondering are these gonna be really close races or not? And looking at 55% of the vote for Democrats and others, so those look like they're pretty handily in the Democratic column. Again, still need to get through the general election, still need to campaign hard - but if they do campaign hard, run great general election races - looks like they have the advantage there. 42nd District was, is a district that was close and that looks like it could be a toss up, but really a lot of the talk initially was like - there are a number of purple districts, swing districts potentially that could be really close and a number of these seats could flip. And it looks like we're down to one right now, that looks like maybe there's the opportunity for it to flip. The 42nd District in northern Washington with Sharon Shewmake running for the Senate seat up there - she's currently a State Rep. And then you have State Rep candidates there, but it's not out-of-hand, certainly, but looks to be a competitive general election race that will attract a lot of attention and investment because that's a toss up right now. Are there any other races across the state that caught your eye?

[00:26:19] Daniel Beekman: One thing that's interesting is - I did a story leading up to the election about independent spending - spending by PACs independent from the candidate campaigns, and - just as a way to get a measure for - okay, where are the hot races? Because that's where the money generally goes. And this is money from the Democratic Party and big Democratic funders. And then even more, when I checked at least, on the Republican side from the Republican Party and large companies and business interests. And many of those districts that you mentioned - and what was interesting was I talked to some people and it was pretty clear that there was even more independent spending this year than in past years in the primary. Usually it really ramps up for the general, but here even in the primary, we're seeing pretty big numbers of dollars pouring into these races. And even in some districts that - even with this idea of it could be a red wave year and some big Republican spending in districts that have been pretty clearly blue recently, and it was suggested to me by a couple folks that that's the Republicans probing and saying - okay, do we even have a shot here in the general? And let's see what the primary results look like because they're a better poll than any poll. And then we can decide and maybe we'll be surprised on the east side, or in one of these other districts, and we'll see that we have a shot. And then we can really pour money in for the general election. And so some of it may have been somewhat speculative - some of the spending - but in other districts, like the 26th you mentioned, there was just a ton of money going there. I don't think that was as much speculative as let's go for this. And so it'll be interesting to see also with the big money spenders, how that shakes out - do they give up on the Republican side on some of these districts in the general, or do they double down? So that'll be something to watch.

There was a race up in the - now I've gotta remember what district it is - the Bellingham district, legislative district that includes Bellingham, where there was a Democrat on Democrat - there's going to be a Democrat on Democrat general election. And there was in the primary as well - a competition there between an incumbent - as far as I understand it, an environmentalist-minded lefty incumbent - and a Democratic challenger with some labor support and some other support and challenging. And there was a question of - would that be competitive? And I believe Alex Ramel, the incumbent, really did well in the primary. And that could continue to be interesting in the general, but that was interesting to see and I'd like to learn more about that race.

[00:29:33] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, it was interesting to see. There was a basically a moderate - Democratic moderate - group that went in spending against him and his environmental record and others. And that effort seemed to fall flat 'cause he finished extremely strongly - I think he was in the 70s. Just absolutely conclusive. That was interesting to see and full disclosure - I have been a part of some of those Independent Expenditure efforts in south King County in the 47th and the 30th Legislative District. I think, just even in Seattle - a lot of people listening to this are going to be in Seattle - these aren't D versus R races necessarily, but just a couple things that were notable to me. One, in the 46th Legislative District - which also I was working with Melissa Taylor in, who did not make it through, which is sad, but - right now, Darya Farivar is in first place in that northeast Seattle district - a strong, progressive candidate who I think people - and I'm giving air quotes here for "conventional wisdom" - but the "conventional wisdom" for - Hey, northeast Seattle - it's somewhat more conservative, it's not the Capitol Hill area or south Seattle where they'll elect a socialist and all that kind of stuff. But the more moderate people who prefer the other things are in northeast Seattle. And the numbers are not showing that right now. Representative Gerry Pollet, who made news this past legislative session for opposing the middle housing bill that was there and not being a proponent of upzoning single-family areas, moving forward with inclusive zoning - appears to be in the dramatic minority there. It looks like around 70% of the votes in that district went to candidates who conclusively supported - vocally supported - inclusive zoning, expanding the allowable building in single-family areas. And so I just think that the political ground is shifting - that we are in a housing affordability crisis that's talked about a lot in the City. And we've seen recent activity from the Seattle City Council being more cautious - especially with Sara Nelson, Bruce Harrell - and it looks like the City has moved forward and is saying - okay, it's time to get to work on some of these solutions, looks like these things are happening. And they're not wild - Spokane and Tacoma have moved forward with things like that and Seattle's kind of fallen behind. But I just thought that was very, very notable.

Julia Reed finished with a really strong result. Emily Alvarado finished with a really strong result. And it looks like the 37th Legislative District race in southeast Seattle is gonna be a closely contested general election race, with Chipalo and Emijah proceeding through to the general election. So exciting stuff to come, we're still waiting to see if the social housing initiative is gonna qualify - that's in a signature gathering phase, the extra, extended signature gathering phase. There's certainly been calling for volunteers this weekend to help get that on the general election ballot. We're gonna have ranked-choice voting versus approval voting - that choice on the general election ballot. So some interesting and exciting races to come in the general election in Seattle. And I think if you take labels off of issues like "progressive" and "moderate," and just look at what - in a primary election in Seattle - where usually the result is a little bit more moderate than you see in the general election - voters are speaking loudly and clearly about where they're at on issues and what they want to see.

[00:33:42] Daniel Beekman: Yeah, I think it can be a little bit difficult to parse out what's going on in some of those - the 36th and the 46th House races in Seattle had five Democrats in them, I think. And so it's a little bit hard to parse it out maybe, but yeah - with Darya Farivar moving ahead, how does that square with reputation, political reputation, of that district - northeast Seattle? I think could be partly - district is changing somewhat - maybe getting a bit younger and there's been some development in Roosevelt, for example, places like that. So the district is changing in that way, maybe. And it'll be interesting to see - I think she's from the district. I saw she went to Roosevelt High School so she's a local person, even though she's a bit on the younger side. And it'll be interesting to see whether she - I know her background is - I think she works for Disability Rights Washington - that's the sort of the policy focus, but it'll be interesting to see whether she leans into those urbanist issues you were talking about or not in the general election. And you were making the case that that could be important. So it'll be interesting to see. I don't know how much she, how hard she went on that stuff in the primary. So it'll be interesting to see in the general how that shakes out and whether that becomes - with Lelach Rave - a wedge issue in that race or not.

[00:35:26] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, it will be interesting to see. But it looks like there is going to be a contrast between Lelach Rave, who has definitely taken up moderate stances and signaled that - hey, I'm very intentionally not being progressive here - and taking stances that we've typically seen with that. Versus Darya, who is really talking about issues from beginning to end that lots of people have concerns, and trying to bring solutions for affordability and keeping people safe that reflect what people have said they want in the district. So very eager to see how that turns out, but I'm really excited at the prospect for electing someone who wants to move forward and take action to address some of the challenges that we have, and is bringing some solutions to the table with a deep policy background for how to do that in a way that includes everybody.

With that, we are at time - we thank you for listening to this Hacks & Wonks episode on Friday, August 5th, 2022. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Lisl Stadler with assistant producer Shannon Cheng, who is assisted by Bryce Cannatelli. Our wonderful co-host today - Seattle Times politics and communities reporter, Daniel Beekman. You can find Dan on Twitter @DBeekman that's B-E-E-K-M-A-N. You can follow the show on our new Twitter account @HacksWonks on Twitter. You can find me on Twitter @finchfrii. Now you can follow Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you want to get your podcast - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to get our Friday almost-live show and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave a review wherever you listen to Hacks & Wonks. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced on the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the episode notes.

Thanks for tuning in - talk to you next time.