NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate provides the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Tuesday, August 1st, 2017

Progressive slate leads in closely watched 2017 Seattle School Board contests

Grass­roots edu­ca­tion advo­cates in Seat­tle can take com­fort in ear­ly results for this year’s con­tests for school board posi­tions. Emer­ald City vot­ers are enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly back­ing a trio of can­di­dates whose com­mit­ment to pub­lic schools is not in doubt.

In the con­test for Posi­tion #4, Wash­ing­ton’s Para­mount Duty cofounder Eden Mack is tru­ly clean­ing up with an aston­ish­ing 67.46% of the vote. She has more sup­port than all of her oppo­nents com­bined… times two. That’s real­ly impressive.

A jubi­lant Mack com­mem­o­rat­ed the big lead on Face­book by post­ing pho­tos from her elec­tion night par­ty, where every­one was in high spir­its. “Cel­e­brat­ing 67% of the vote with my neigh­bors at our block par­ty! Thank you all who vot­ed for me!!!!”

In the con­test for Posi­tion #5, Zachary Pullin DeWolf has estab­lished a com­fort­able lead of his own, although not as impres­sive as Mack­’s. He’s got 43.19% of the vote, trailed by Omar Vasquez at 18.18% and Andre Helm­stet­ter at 16.46%.

Helm­stet­ter is close enough to Vasquez that he may be able to move into sec­ond place as late bal­lots are count­ed. Grass­roots edu­ca­tion activists would like to see Vasquez elim­i­nat­ed, as he is a sup­port­er of char­ter schools.

In the con­test for Posi­tion #7, Bet­ty Patu appears on her way to a third term. The wide­ly respect­ed incum­bent school board mem­ber is crush­ing it with 65.52% of the vote. Chal­lenger Chelsea Byers is far behind at 22.76%.

Mack, Pullin DeWolf, and Patu were all backed by the King Coun­ty Democ­rats and the city’s Demo­c­ra­t­ic leg­isla­tive dis­trict organizations.

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