As we bid adieu to 2023 and welcome in 2024, it’s the perfect time to look back at the most popular Cascadia Advocate posts of the calendar year. Here’s the top twenty most read posts from the past three hundred and sixty-four days, in descending order. Note that some were published in years preceding 2023.
#20 | Martin Luther King, Jr.: “One day the South will recognize its real heroes”
Post premise/summary:
Take a few moments to read this excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King’s Letter From Birmingham Jail.
Published January 21st, 2019
#19 | The Stranger versus PubliCola versus The Urbanist: Comparing their August 2023 Seattle City Council endorsements
Post premise/summary:
Read NPI’s analysis of the endorsements published by The Stranger, PubliCola, and The Urbanist for Seattle City Council in the August 2023 Top Two election.
Published July 25th, 2023
#18 | Marie Gluesenkamp Perez makes key staff hires and prepares to take office in January
Post premise/summary:
Having prevailed over ultra MAGA Republican Joe Kent in the contest for U.S. Representative in Washington’s 3rd, just as NPI’s research showed she could, Gluesenkamp Perez is now getting ready to take office on January 3rd.
Published December 19th, 2022
#17 | Is Dave Reichert getting ready to run for governor in 2024? It sure looks that way
Post premise/summary:
Former United States Representative and King County Sheriff Dave Reichert, a Republican, appears to be on the verge of joining the increasingly crowded field of candidates running for Governor of Washington State next year, if recent statements from Republican state legislators are any indication.
Published June 27th, 2023
#16 | Attorney General Bob Ferguson leads 2024 WA gubernatorial field, new NPI poll confirms
Post premise/summary:
25% of 773 respondents interviewed June 7th and 8th for NPI said that they preferred Ferguson for Governor. 17% said they favored Republican Raul Garcia. 10% say they’d vote for ultra MAGA Republican Semi Bird. 9% said they preferred another Democratic contender: Hilary Franz, the current Commissioner of Public Lands. Another 7% back a third Democratic candidate, State Senator Mark Mullet. 33% were not sure.
Published June 9th, 2023
#15 | Right wing group “Let’s Go Washington” fails to qualify any of its 11 statewide initiatives
Post premise/summary:
A right wing group formed and primarily funded by Republican donor Brian K. Heywood of Redmond has admitted defeat in its efforts to qualify a batch of eleven right wing initiatives to the 2023 Washington State Legislature.
Published January 4th, 2023
#14 | Time to worry about Snohomish County, too: Washington’s right wing frets about Sheriff Adam Fortney’s reelection prospects
Post premise/summary:
With less than one week to go until General Election Day 2023, there’s mounting evidence that local Republicans and right wing groups are growing concerned that key races aren’t going to turn out in their favor, including a key sheriff’s race in Washington’s third largest county.
Published November 1st, 2023
#13 | Turmoil inside the Let’s Go Washington paid signature drive: Brent Johnson pushed aside, while some petitioners have reportedly quit
Post premise/summary:
An ambitious effort to qualify six right wing initiatives to the 2024 Washington State Legislature is struggling to get traction with less than three months to go until the signature submission deadline arrives, NPI has learned.
Published October 7th, 2023
#12 | Documentary Review: “Saving Capitalism” highlights an important truth about markets
Post premise/summary:
Read NPI’s review of former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich’s new film about what happened to our economy, now available to stream on Netflix.
Published December 16th, 2017
#11 | Joy Hollingsworth leads Alex Hudson for Seattle City Council District #3, NPI poll finds
Post premise/summary:
Seattle City Council hopeful Joy Hollingsworth is the clear favorite in the closely-watched contest to determine a successor to outgoing Councilmember Kshama Sawant, a new Northwest Progressive Institute poll has found.
Published November 3rd, 2023
#10 | White House announces Kamala Harris’ schedule for August 2023 Seattle trip
Post premise/summary:
The trip consists of an arrival, an official event that is open to precredentialed media, a briefing, a campaign reception, and a departure.
Published August 14th, 2023
#9 | 2023 Washington State general election on track to join the worst turnouts of all time
Post premise/summary:
Here’s where voter turnout stands with twenty-four hours left to vote in the 2023 Washington State general election.
Published November 6th, 2023
#8 | Martin Luther King, Jr.: We have a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws
Post premise/summary:
Take a few moments to read this excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King’s Letter From Birmingham Jail.
Published January 18th, 2016
#7 | The Seattle Times versus The Stranger: How their 2023 MLKC area endorsements compare
Post premise/summary:
With each paper’s set of endorsements now available to scrutinize, our team thought it would be interesting to do a comparison and see where the papers agree and disagree. You might think the papers would be far apart in their choices, and sometimes they were… but not always!
Published Wednesday, July 12th, 2023
#6 | Republican megadonor Brian Heywood opens his wallet to fund six-initiative signature drive
Post premise/summary:
A wealthy donor to the Washington State Republican Party has begun funneling serious money into a signature drive that aims to qualify a slew of six right wing initiatives to the 2024 Washington State Legislature, reports filed this week with the Public Disclosure Commission by his political committee show.
Published September 15th, 2023
#5 | Bruce Dammeier (R), Bob Ferguson (D) lead hypothetical 2024 gubernatorial field in WA
Post premise/summary:
Should Governor Jay Inslee decide against seeking an unprecedented fourth term, an NPI poll has found that Republican Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier and Democratic Attorney General Bob Ferguson would be the two leading candidates to succeed him in a 2024 hypothetical field that also included King County Executive Dow Constantine (D) and Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz (D).
Published March 16th, 2023
#4 | Dori Monson: 1961–2022
Post premise/summary:
Longtime right wing talk radio host Dori Monson died suddenly this weekend of an unspecified condition after being hospitalized, his employer Bonneville Seattle announced on its website today. Monson was sixty-one.
Published January 1st, 2023
#3 | Documentary Review: Robert Reich’s “Inequality for All” is an essential film
Post premise/summary:
Read NPI’s review of Inequality For All, a film based on the work of progressive thought leader and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich.
Published April 13th, 2019
#2 | Poll Watch: Thoughts on the New York Times / Siena College’s battleground state polling
Post premise/summary:
Read the NPI team’s thoughts on a set of polls commissioned by The New York Times that fielded in battleground states in October of 2023, about one year before the home stretch of the 2024 presidential election.
Published November 5th, 2023
#1 | Dave Reichert slightly ahead of Bob Ferguson in 2024 WA gubernatorial race, NPI poll finds
Post premise/summary:
46% of 700 likely 2024 Washington State voters surveyed in mid-November for the Northwest Progressive Institute said they’d vote for Republican Dave Reichert if the election were being held today, while 44% said they would vote for Bob Ferguson. 9% were not sure.
Published November 16th, 2023
Honorable mention
This post wasn’t one of the twenty most-read, but is one of my favorites:
Republicans in Washington State cannot just ignore King County and expect to win
Republican candidates can win statewide, but that means they need to appeal to voters in King County, because, despite new party chairman Jim Walsh’s claims, there just are not enough votes in Eastern Washington to overturn King County’s whims.
Published September 5th, 2023
NPI’s state and local electoral research remained a key draw. Previously published reviews of Robert Reich documentary films continued to draw a lot of interest, too. And our coverage of “Let’s Go Washington” was also a magnet for readers.
Thanks to everyone who read the Cascadia Advocate this year. See you in 2024!