Mayor Bruce Harrell held a press conference Friday morning to welcome the five City Councilmembers-elect to City Hall in advance of the Jan. 2 swearing-in ceremony.

Councilmembers-elect Rob Saka, District 1; Joy Hollingsworth, District 3; Maritza Rivera, District 4; Cathy Moore, District 5; and Bob Kettle, District 7 stood with Harrell on the seventh floor of City Hall to emphasize their commitment to collaboration and transparency.

“We have some excitement and some energy on the kinds of things we want to do together,” said Harrell. “And I trust that they will lead with integrity, with passion, with intelligence.”

In his remarks, Harrell said that he expects to work with the new Councilmembers on public safety, homelessness, affordable housing and basics like constituent services and fixing potholes.

All five incoming Councilmembers ran on platforms that largely aligned with Harrell’s priorities, especially when it comes to public safety, where they promised to hire more police, expand the newly launched dual dispatch pilot program, address the drug crisis and more. Harrell endorsed Saka, Hollingsworth, Rivera and Moore in the general election.

The Councilmembers-elect also benefited from the backing of business and real estate in the greater Seattle area, which spent more than $1 million on their campaigns through independent political committees.

Each Councilmember-elect gave brief remarks Friday morning.

Saka re-emphasized his public safety goals and noted the historic moment they’re a part of with such high turnover on the Council. According to the City Archivist, the last turnover of five Councilmembers in a single election in the body’s modern history happened in 1970. There were larger turnovers between 1886 and 1910, but the Council’s size and term lengths were different, making it an apples-to-oranges comparison.

Hollingsworth said she’s been meeting with community and public safety groups in her district, City Hall staff and others to get up to speed before she’s sworn in. “We know that this process will take time. We know that everyone wants a sense of urgency. But we also understand that it’s a process.”

Rivera said she was humbled by her election and that she is “looking forward to getting this city back to the vibrant state so our kids are really thriving here, as well as all of us.”

Moore said she’s been working on assembling her team, recognizing the role that Council staffers play in Councilmembers’ success. She said one of her top goals is to get sidewalks in every neighborhood, a particularly pressing issue for her North Seattle district.

Kettle reiterated the message of collaboration and his goals to foster it within the Council body and with the mayor. “Ultimately, it’s about leading with compassion, but then also wisdom and having balance. Balance is, like, my new favorite word, and I’m looking forward to leading with that balance.”

The five electees join District 2 Councilmember Tammy Morales and District 6 Councilmember Dan Strauss, who were reelected to second terms in November along with at-large Councilmember Sara Nelson, whose first term ends in 2025.

One of their first tasks in January will be to appoint a replacement for at-large Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, who was elected to the King County Council in November and begins that new role at the start of January.

Let’s Go Washington announced Tuesday it is submitting petitions for an initiative to loosen restrictions around when law enforcement officers can engage in vehicle pursuits.

The group, which is funding a series of proposed conservative ballot measures, said it turned in more than 400,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office for Initiative 2113. That’s the third of six proposed initiatives the group is bringing to the Legislature but expects will be up for a statewide vote next November.

In a statement, Let’s Go Washington founder Brian Heywood said, “Communities across the state are suffering impacts of rising crime while lawmakers tell them not to believe their eyes.”

“Local police, mayors and city councils should not be stuck with a one-size-fits-all policy that keeps police from doing their job,” he added. “Handcuffing police is a failure and regular Washingtonians are paying the price.”

In 2021, lawmakers tightened the circumstances around which law enforcement officers can engage in police pursuits. The law was one of roughly a dozen measures to change policing after the deaths at the hands of police of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Manuel Ellis in Tacoma, among other people of color.

Lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled Legislature last year then loosened the new restrictions a little, but it has not dampened criticism from conservatives.

I-2113 would allow pursuits when officers have “a reasonable suspicion a person has violated the law” in instances where “pursuit is necessary to identify or apprehend the person, the person poses a threat to the safety of others, those safety risks are greater than those of the pursuit, and a supervisor authorizes the pursuit,” according to the ballot measure summary.

Republican State Sen. Drew MacEwen has officially joined the race for the 6th Congressional District seat that will be vacated by outgoing U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer.

MacEwen, of Shelton, is the first Republican to register a campaign for this seat with the Federal Election Commission, which oversees federal campaign finance laws. Three Democrats – Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz, State Sen. Emily Randall, D-Bremerton, and Jefferson County Commissioner Kate Dean – also have launched campaigns for the seat.

MacEwen, a U.S. Navy veteran, has been in the state Senate since January 2023 after he was elected to replace retiring State Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Shelton. Before being elected to the state Senate, MacEwen represented the 35th District in the state House of Representatives between 2013 and 2022.

Washington’s 6th Congressional District covers the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas and stretches into parts of Tacoma. The next elections for the U.S. House of Representatives will be in 2024, and the newly elected representative will start a two-year term in January 2025.

The group Let’s Go Washington on Tuesday announced it is submitting signatures to put on the ballot a parents’-rights initiative that could be decided by voters next November.

Fueled by a big donor, Brian Heywood, the conservative group is aiming to qualify half a dozen proposed initiatives to the Legislature by an end-of-year deadline.

The proposed parents-rights’ initiative, Initiative 2081, would let parents and guardians of public-school children review curricula and student records, including disciplinary and health information, according to a summary of the proposal. Among other things, the measure would allow parents to opt their children out of sex education.

“A parent’s right to care for their child is foundational to strong communities and a functioning society,” Heywood said in a statement. “Parents are the primary stakeholder in raising children. No government employee can care about or love a child like their parent.”

The citizen sponsor of I-2081 is state Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, who is also chairman of the Washington State Republican Party. Let’s Go Washington gathered more than 420,000 signatures, nearly 100,000 more than needed to qualify, according to the group.

The proposal comes after loud opposition by conservatives to a comprehensive sexual education law passed a few years ago – and later approved by voters. A law passed earlier this year, Senate Bill 5599, has also rankled conservatives.

That new law expands an existing statute allowing organizations that provide services to unsheltered youth to hold off on notifying a guardian or parent if there are compelling reasons, such as neglect or abuse. SB 5599 added protected health care services as a reason to delay notification. Such services include reproductive health care and gender-affirming treatment. The bill quickly became a target in the national culture wars.

I-2081 is an initiative to the Legislature, and if it qualifies, lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled Legislature can either choose to pass it during the upcoming legislative session, which begins in January; take no action and let I-2081 go to the ballot; or pass an alternative proposal, which would send both I-2018 and the alternative to a vote of the people.

Last month, Let’s Go Washington submitted signatures for I-2117, an initiative to the Legislature that seeks to repeal Washington’s carbon cap-and-trade system.

Yakima, Benton and Chelan counties have settled a 2021 lawsuit filed by Latino voters and advocacy groups over the county’s voter signature verification process.  

The voters and the League of United Latin American Citizens and Latino Community Fund of Washington sued elected officials in the three counties in May 2021, alleging the three counties’ signature verification process violated the federal Voting Rights Act. According to the complaint, Latino voters in the three counties were several times more likely to get their ballot rejected due to a mismatched signature.

Benton and Chelan counties reached a settlement with plaintiffs in October. Yakima County was the sole defendant in the suit long enough for a trial date to be set before ultimately reaching a settlement as well last week.

Under the settlement, the three counties will conduct mandatory signature verification training for county auditor election staff. County election staff must also complete cultural competency training every two years. Finally, ballot materials will now include language on a ballot’s security sleeve that outlines signature verification requirements, cure processes and other terms. 

The settlement with Yakima County notes that the county already meets some of the settlement terms, including providing significant verification and cure-process language and Spanish-language voter registration information.

Counties admit no wrongdoing in their settlements. In a statement to the Yakima Herald-Republic, Yakima County Auditor Charles Ross said he felt his elections office followed state law, that the complaints were “meritless” and that the county settled this suit from a “business perspective.” 

A third Democrat has announced a bid for the seat of outgoing U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, who is not seeking reelection after more than a decade in Congress.

Jefferson County Commissioner Kate Dean announced her bid Tuesday. Dean has been on the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners since 2017 and also serves on the Washington State Board of Health and the Puget Sound Partnership Leadership Council. Dean joins Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz and State Sen. Emily Randall, D-Bremerton, as confirming their candidacies in the race for Washington’s 6th Congressional District.

Kilmer’s decision to not run for reelection prompted Franz, state Commissioner of Public Lands since 2017, to drop her 2024 bid for governor to run to replace Kilmer in Congress. Randall, the State Senate Deputy Majority Leader, announced she also would run for the seat about two weeks after Kilmer’s announcement.

Republican State Sen. Drew MacEwen, R-Union, also announced last month that he was exploring a run for Kilmer’s seat.

Washington’s 6th Congressional District covers the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas and stretches into parts of Tacoma. Kilmer, a Democrat, was first elected to represent the district in 2012. The next elections for the U.S. House of Representatives will be in 2024, and the newly elected representative will start a two-year term in January 2025.

Opponents of Washington’s fledgling carbon pricing system on Tuesday turned in 418,399 signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office on a petition to repeal the program.

The petition needs at least 324,516 valid signatures by Dec. 29 to go to the Legislature. If the Legislature takes no action, it will appear on the November 2024 ballot as a referendum.

“We’re going to give the voters a chance to vote it down,” said Brian Heywood, leader of the effort, at a press conference in Kent in front of a trailer filled with signature pages. Heywood, a hedge fund manager, is providing more than 80% of the petition drive’s budget, according to Let’s Go Washington’s Web site. 

Since January, Washington’s cap-and-invest program has held pollution allowance auctions aimed at reducing Washington emissions. Opponents blame the cap-and-invest program for Washington’s high gasoline prices, saying oil companies are passing on their auction costs at the pump. 

A recent Crosscut analysis showed that numerous factors beyond the cap-and-invest system are affecting Washington’s gasoline prices.

The petition “will be dead on arrival,“ said Sen. Joe Nguyen, D-White Center and chairman of the Senate’s Energy & Environment Committee, last week. The initiative would have to go through his committee.

Heywood said public ballot measures for a cap-and-trade program were defeated before the Legislature passed the cap-and invest program in 2021. “The Legislature said ‘F U’ to the voters and it is saying ‘F U’ again,” Heywood said in response to hostility from the Democrat-controlled Legislature toward the petition.

Nguyen said the petitioners are unaware of the cap-and-invest program’s benefits and that the 2021 law is the result of compromises reached among environmentalists, advocates of disadvantaged communities and the business community, including some of the oil industry. He also contended the petition’s backers are climate-change deniers.

“Of course, climate change exists. Of course, humans cause climate change. I’m just not a member of the mother-breathing Church of Gaia,” Heywood said. He later added: “This money is going to the political friends and allies of the governor. To be honest, this is a money grab.” 

In an email, Gov. Jay Inslee’s spokesman Mike Faulk said: “As for the false claim about how auction revenue is spent, if he can’t back it up then it’s not even worth printing. We’ve been more than happy to share with folks where the funds are going.”

The cap-and-invest program is on track to raise almost $2 billion in 2023. So far, $300 million has been appropriated to 188 projects.  

Washington is projected to collect $770 million more in taxes over the next four years than previously expected, according to a new state revenue forecast.

Tax collections are now expected to bring in an additional $191 million for the current two-year budget cycle, according to the state Economic Revenue Forecast Council. Another $579 million in higher-than-expected collections are projected for the 2025-27 budget cycle.

While some tax collections came in lower than expected – including the real estate excise tax – the projected increases are due in part to sustained consumer spending and employment, according to the Council forecast.

“Revenue collections remain steady, but we have seen personal income forecasts improving later in the forecast period as well as stronger total employment and construction employment forecasts,” Steve Lerch, executive director of the nonpartisan Council, said in a statement. “These changes have resulted in slight modifications for the November forecast.”

In the 60-day legislative session that begins in January, state lawmakers will write supplemental budgets that tweak the main two-year budgets they passed last year. Gov. Jay Inslee is expected to unveil his proposed supplemental budgets next month.

Washington’s new capital gains tax has brought in nearly $900 million in its first year, according to the state Department of Revenue.

The DOR estimates $889 million was collected out of a total of 3,765 returns, according to an agency spokesperson. That number could fluctuate a little before lawmakers return in January for the annual legislative session, according to spokesperson Mikhail Carpenter.

Legislators in the coming session will write supplemental budgets that make adjustments to the state’s two-year spending blueprints.

The first $500 million of the tax is directed toward a state fund that pays for K-12 education and child-care programs. The additional dollars are then expected to go into a state account that pays for school construction.

In March, the Washington Supreme Court upheld the law, which puts a 7% tax on profits from the sale of stocks and bonds exceeding $250,000. Exempt from the tax are sales of real estate, retirement accounts and livestock and timber for ranching or farming. There’s also a special deduction for sales of family-owned businesses. Foes of the tax in August asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in.

A group of conservative Latino voters is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to get involved with lawsuits over Washington’s 2021 political redistricting process.

They want the justices to change the outcome of two U.S. District Court cases related to the 15th Legislative District, a Latino voter-majority district in Central Washington. 

In an August ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Lasnik sided with Latino voters who filed suit in January 2022 over the new boundaries of 15th District, saying it violated the federal Voting Rights Act. The plaintiffs of the case, Palmer vs. Hobbs, contend that while the district met the required percentage of voters to be a majority-Latino district, the bipartisan Washington State Redistricting Commission drew the district in a way that diluted their voting power. Lasnik set a January deadline for a new map to be drawn. 

Latino Republicans, who intervened in the Palmer case, believed the ruling was flawed and accused the federal district court of entertaining a “partisan charade.” The group also wants the U.S. Supreme Court to address a separate request to resurrect a related case, Garcia vs. Hobbs, deemed moot by Lasnik in his ruling on Palmer. 

The group, which includes State Rep. Alex Ybarra, R-Quincy, filed an appeal to the U.S. Courts of Appeals Ninth Circuit but is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review Palmer v. Hobbs before judgment there. Reviewing a case directly from a lower court has been historically rare, but the U.S. Supreme Court has granted more of these petitions in recent years.  

The core argument is that the 15th District already has a majority-Latino voter population and elected a Latina — Republican Nikki Torres — to the state Senate in 2022, the only election held thus far under the current map. They say Palmer v. Hobbs aims to get Democrats elected in a conservative region.

“This litigation is a partisan’s playbook on how to use race as a proxy for political preference to persuade a court to redraw a district’s boundaries to favor one political party,” attorneys said in a filing with the U.S. Supreme Court.