The man the Seattle Times tasked with the job of compressing cultural and political developments into tokens that the reader can share during a dinner party, or in a pub, or with the person next to them on a flight, Danny Westneat, has determined that the recent primaries in the state of Washington were spared the surge of progressivism seen elsewhere in the United States. His column’s title: “When the revolution got to WA, it fizzled.” But following his reasoning for this assertion is the same as watching a man make love to a chair. According to this view, Washington somehow missed its Brad Lander/Melat Kiros/Abdul El-Sayed moment. In fact, our races received little to no national attention. Nothing sensational to be found in this mild-mannered corner of America. What to make of this? Westneat concludes that Washington is already too damn progressive. How many more socialists does our state want? Throw a salmon in any direction, and you will hit a Shaun Scott. This is why voters said: “Hey establishment, you keep on establishing.” The chair fucking continues. Westneat first points to the 43rd Legislative District race, which featured state Senate majority leader Jamie Pedersen and an upstart progressive, Hannah Sabio-Howell. True, Pedersen obliterated his opponent “by more than 40 percent.” And it is also true that Pedersen is, as the Stranger Election Control Board pointed out, “the most progressive Senate majority leader in state history,” as evidenced by the fact that “he’s in the middle of a crusade to completely reform the second-most regressive tax structure in the country.” Voters were certainly aware of this. It’s all over the newspapers. And so, by all appearances, Sabio-Howell unwisely entered a race that had almost no path to success. The question then is this: Can the peculiarities of this primary be translated into a Grand Universal? Can it be connected with what happened in Michigan and New York City? Westneat thinks so. So does the chair he is fucking with.    But one might ask about the 9th Congressional District race. Certainly there’s some there there. To make his case, Westneat presents as evidence the Stranger’s endorsement of Kshama Sawant (though he conveniently omitted this paper’s endorsement of Pedersen). “[Sawant’s] hype” writes Westneat, “[didn’t match] the voters’ reality.” America’s most-famous socialist was all hat and no cattle, this is why “Ninth District voters… handily renominated [moderate Dem Adam Smith].” But Westnet neglects to mention that Sawant would easily have defeated Doug Basler, the Republican who won second place in the race, if Melissa Chaudhry, a progressive, had not split the vote on the left—12.2 percent to Sawant’s 17.5 percent. Basler is at 22 percent.  In fact, all Sawant needed was a little less than half of her key revival’s votes to enter the general election. As to why Chaudhry did surprisingly well in this election is a matter that’s still under consideration. But what is for certain is Smith did not sail through this year’s primary as he did in 2024. Back then, he claimed 53 percent of the votes; this time around, he will finish with 47 percent. (I will stop talking fucking chairs at this point.) What can be said about the primaries is that several of the results were specific to the region and the state: It was a mixed bag. Even Westneat, in a moment of lucidity, admits that this was indeed the case—an admission that lets all the air out of his own premise.  He writes: “It wasn’t all solid ground for the old guard, as several Democratic incumbents are officially ‘in trouble’ for the general election.” He then mentions the race between state Sen. Jesse Salomon and state Rep. Cindy Ryu (who is left of her opponent); and the one between veteran incumbent state Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos and progressive Kelabe Tewolde (whose name he doesn’t mention for some obscure reason). Of course, there is no mention of the smashing success of DSA-endorsed Jaelynn Scott, who ran in 37th District, Position 2 race and won 86 percent of the votes. If our Seattle Times  commentator had looked at the races with more rigour, he might have noticed that DSA’s program is aimed at races that have a good chance of winning and avoiding those that don’t. This discrimination points to a possibility that his column failed to register: A number of the progressive candidates just didn’t cut it.   So, if you do want to look like a fool at a dinner party or to the person sitting next to you on a plane, best to keep Westnest’s “analysis” to yourself. The post Sawant Lost Against Melissa Chaudhry, not Smith appeared first on The Stranger. ...read more read less