Washington Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz is switching from running for governor to running for U.S. Congress in the wake of Rep. Derek Kilmer’s announced retirement.

The moderate Democrat, first elected representative in 2012 from Washington’s 6th Congressional District, announced Thursday that he wouldn’t run for another term.

In a statement Friday through Franz’s campaign, Kilmer offered his endorsement.

“As lands and wildfire chief, Hilary Franz has proven herself to be a bold, strategic leader with a track record of bringing people together from across the state and from different backgrounds to find solutions to our shared problems,” Kilmer said in prepared remarks. Twice elected statewide as state commissioner of public lands, Franz has been running for governor in a crowded field that includes Democratic state Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Dave Reichert, Republican and former member of Congress.

In her campaign statement, Franz touted her time serving in the district between 2008 and 2011 as a member of the Bainbridge Island City Council.

“Over the last few months, I’ve talked to voters in every corner of Washington and heard the same concerns – rising prices for necessities like housing pushing families out of the middle class, protecting reproductive freedom and women’s rights, safeguarding our democracy, supporting our veterans and military families, and the climate crisis bearing down on us,” said Hilary Franz. 

The statement also announced a slew of other endorsements for Franz, including from Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards; Kitsap County Commissioner Christine Rolfes, also a former state senator; and state Rep. Mike Chapman, D-Port Angeles.

Washington’s 6th Congressional District includes the Olympic Peninsula and stretches over Puget Sound to include parts of Tacoma.

Though she has been previously registered to vote in Seattle, Franz bought a home in the congressional district – in Grays Harbor County – in 2022, according to Franz spokesperson Jack Sorensen.

“Has had a home and spent much of her time there for a while,” Sorensen wrote in an email. “That’s her voting address, and she voted there in this election.”

“The house in Seattle you’re referring to has actually been rented out for a while,” he added.

In the hours after Kilmer announced, two state lawmakers have also said they were considering bids: Democratic Sen. Emily Randall of Bremerton and GOP Sen. Drew MacEwen of Union.

U.S. Democratic Rep. Derek Kilmer announced Thursday he won’t run next year for reelection, setting off what could be a scramble as a rare Washington congressional seat opens up.

Since 2012, Kilmer has been elected to Washington’s 6^th Congressional District, which includes the Olympic Peninsula and runs across Puget Sound into parts of Tacoma. Born in Port Angeles, Kilmer spent several years in the Washington Legislature before his election to Congress. He sits on the House Appropriations Committee.

In a statement shared on Twitter, Kilmer said that it was time to start a new chapter in life. He recounted writing letters to his children from Washington over the years.

And, “In a letter I recently shared with my kids, I told them what I am now telling the folks I represent: I will not seek re-election next year,” he wrote.

“I never intended for this chapter to be something I’d do for the rest of my life, and – as I shared with my kids – I’m excited to start a new chapter when my term is complete,” he added later.

Known as a moderate Democrat, Kilmer’s work has included sponsoring legislation to get better access to funding for Native American tribes for relocation and amid climate change and rising sea levels. His statement touted efforts to get a new veterans clinic built and protect Puget Sound, among other things.

An email seeking comment to Kilmer’s campaign wasn’t immediately returned.

Within hours of Kilmer's Thursday afternoon announcement, two state senators said they were considering jumping in.

State Rep. Emily Randall, D-Bremerton, said she is “seriously considering” running for the seat.

“It is an opportunity that I cannot help but consider,” said Randall, adding that “It wasn’t in my plan.”

Kilmer called her about an hour before making his announcement, said Randall. She praised Kilmer’s work, particularly his efforts at constituent services, and she touted her own work at the Legislature to expand healthcare programs

“We’ve done good stuff here in Washington, and the opportunity to have an impact on a broader scale is definitely interesting,” she said.

Meanwhile, Sen. Drew MacEwen, a Republican from the town of Union in Mason County, said he is also seriously considering a bid.

"I am giving serious consideration to running for the 6th congressional district," MacEwen said in a message on social media. "Will be discussing with family and supporters and making a decision very soon."

King County voters deciding how to vote on the proposed property tax increases on the Nov. 7 ballot can use an online tool to estimate the potential financial impact of that choice.

King County Assessor John Wilson offers his Taxpayer Transparency Tool for the sake of government transparency.

“Taxpayers have a right to know where their money is going, and what each proposed property tax levy will cost them,” he said in a news release Monday when the 2023 election tool was released. “Property taxes keep going up. We need to make sure the public understands why.”

The tool is designed to help property owners in Kirkland, Maple Valley, Seattle, Enumclaw, Fife and Kent, plus those who live within the boundaries of the Skykomish School District; the King County FIre Protection District 27 in Fall City; Snoqualmie Pass Fire and Rescue; the Valley Regional Fire Authority covering Auburn, Algona and Pacific; and the Si View Metropolitan Park District in North Bend.

King County has offered the Tax Transparency Tool since 2018. It was developed by a software company called Spatialest, which focuses on property assessment data analysis.

The tax increase estimates offered by the tool are likely not accurate for the life of any levy, as those numbers usually change during the life of the tax.

Starting this week, voters in the 4th Congressional District in Central Washington will see radio ads in Spanish and English explaining how Democratic Party values align with voters’ beliefs in a region where conservative candidates have generally dominated. 

The ads are part of a $350,000, 14-month public awareness campaign from Rural Americans United. Doug White, a fourth-generation farmer and Democrat from Yakima, formed the organization and developed the group’s strategy based on what he learned during his unsuccessful run for Congress against U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, who was elected to a fourth term in 2022.  

The marketing campaign will feature 20,000 English and Spanish radio spots on a variety of issues, including public education, healthcare access, improving roads and other infrastructure, job creation, immigration reform, unions and supporting veterans. 

In a news release announcing the campaign, White contends there are more Democratic-leaning voters in the region than election results let on, but that those voters haven’t received messaging that would compel them to vote for Democratic candidates. 

“On the campaign trail, I learned that 80 percent of the Central Washington population has never heard a positive Democratic message,” White claimed. “Worse yet, younger generations are being constantly bombarded with one-sided far-right rhetoric.”

Rural Americans United has several goals for the 2024 election: increase votes for Democratic candidates by 11% percent, shift more independent voters, and increase Latinx voter turnout by 7%. 

The group also wants to double the number of active Democrats in Central Washington, create revenue opportunities for the party and attract more Democratic candidates.

The 4th District has not elected a Democrat to Congress since Gov. Jay Inslee won a single term in 1992. Inslee lost that seat to Republican Doc Hastings but continued his political career by relocating to Western Washington. Hastings served in Congress for two decades before retiring in 2015.

This story, originally published on Oct. 19, 2023, was recently revised to correct the amount of the 14-month public awareness campaign. It was $350,000, not $330,000. 

Seattle City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda wants to shift future Council elections to limit mass turnover of councilmembers and the brain drain of institutional knowledge that comes with it.

The City Council comprises seven district representatives and two citywide at-large positions, all of which are four-year terms. The district elections and at-large elections are held two years apart.

Mosqueda is proposing staggering elections instead of electing all seven district positions at once, which Seattle voters have done since 2015. In addition, she wants to move election years for one of the Council’s two at-large positions.

This November’s district Council elections illustrate how the current system sets Seattle up for potential major change every four years.

This year, only three of seven district councilmembers are seeking reelection, guaranteeing at least four new faces in City Hall next year. And of course the three incumbents could also lose their races. On top of it all, Mosqueda, an at-large councilmember, is running for King County Council and has a strong chance of winning, so it’s possible eight out of nine city councilors will be new to the job next year. 

“I think this would be a really positive way for us to ensure greater stability and continuity as we look to serve members of the community and help reduce a large number of seats turning over all at once,” said Mosqueda during the Sept. 14 Finance and Housing Committee meeting.

Mosqueda’s proposal is to shift the elections for Districts 2, 4 and 6 by two years to align with at-large position 8, as well as with mayoral and city attorney elections. She has also proposed moving elections for at-large position 9 by two years so it aligns with elections for odd-numbered district Council positions.

To make that election shuffle work, there would need to be elections for special two-year terms for Council position 9 and district positions 2, 4 and 6. These positions would then run again for their regular four-year terms, and the new system would be fully in place by 2030.
 

Seattle voters created the district City Council system with the passage of a 2013 ballot measure, Charter Amendment 19.

Councilmembers Alex Pedersen, Lisa Herbold and Sara Nelson expressed varying degrees of concern about staggering Positions 8 and 9, the two at-large elections. Nelson said that the original intent of running at-large elections at the same time as mayoral elections was to force an at-large councilmember to choose between their own reelection or to run for mayor.

The logic, as Nelson explained it, is to prevent a scenario where an at-large councilmember runs for mayor, loses, then spends the rest of their Council term at odds with the winning executive. Granted, there’s nothing stopping a district councilmember from running a losing campaign for mayor, keeping their seat for the remainder of their term and finding themselves similarly at odds.

For Mosqueda’s proposal to become reality, the full City Council would first need to adopt a resolution in support of the idea. It would then be up to Seattle voters to pass a charter amendment on the November 2024 ballot.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, King County Executive Dow Constantine and former Gov. Chris Gregoire have endorsed Bob Ferguson for governor in 2024. 

The announcements came this weekend as Ferguson, the state attorney general, officially kicked off his gubernatorial bid with campaign stops in Seattle, Spokane and the Tri-Cities, according to a news release.

“I’ve worked closely with Bob Ferguson and watched him work to hold powerful interests accountable and defend the core freedoms, including reproductive freedom, of every Washingtonian,” Inslee said in a statement distributed by the Ferguson campaign. “He knows how to win and deliver for Washingtonians."

With Inslee opting not to run again after three terms, the open governor's contest has drawn two fellow Democratic statewide elected officials: Ferguson and Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz. In a statement Monday, the Franz campaign announced endorsements by the local firefighter unions in Bellevue and Shoreline. They “join hundreds of other firefighters in Vancouver, Wenatchee, Spokane, Spokane County, and Walla Walla in endorsing Franz for governor,” according to the statement.

Also running is state Sen. Mark Mullet, a moderate Democrat from Issaquah, who has previously clashed with Inslee. In a social media post ahead of the weekend’s endorsement announcement, Mullet characterized Washington’s high prices for housing and fuel in recent years, declaring, “Gov. Inslee’s endorsement of my opponent indicates there will be more of the same under his leadership.”

The race has also drawn former U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, a moderate Republican, and Semi Bird, a conservative who was recalled last month by voters from his position as Richland School Board member. The August 2024 primary election will narrow the field of these and other candidates to the two top vote-getters, who will advance to the November 2024 ballot.

Hello creative Seattle. While you’re considering who to vote for in November, take a few minutes to think about how you picture your City Council district. Where is the heart of your district? What image represents your community’s place in Seattle?

Does the Fremont Troll best represent District 6? Or is it Waiting for Interurban? Or something else?

Here’s your chance to participate in the Nov. 7 election and show off your artistic vision. Crosscut is asking the voters of Seattle to submit photos of their City Council districts, and we will choose our favorites to illustrate our district election profiles.

This handy district map on the Seattle page of our voter guide will help you find your district or help you submit a photo of another district. Submit your photos here and please let us know why you think this photo best represents your district.

We’ll give the photographers credit for their winning photos, of course, and send you some Crosscut swag as thanks for contributing.

Hello Crosscut readers, what’s on your mind? What questions do you want us to ask the candidates for the local elections in your city? What do you need to know before deciding how to mark your ballot for the Nov. 7 election?

Crosscut’s election coverage is inspired by The Citizens Agenda. Instead of just letting candidates set the campaign agenda, we ask the public what issues they want candidates to talk about on the campaign trail.

We will be asking each candidate mentioned in our voter guide two questions. This is where we need your help. Please submit your ideas here for what you think those questions should be. The best questions require candidates to share a specific idea on how to address the challenges unique to your community. Please stay away from questions they can answer with a yes or no.

Instead of attending a public forum where you may hope to get your questions answered, ask them in a much bigger room, where the answers can be seen by everyone who visits the Crosscut voter guide. Become part of Crosscut’s citizens agenda and help yourself as well as your neighbors.

The general election voter guide will be posted in mid-October.

A conservative advocacy group has filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court to challenge Washington’s capital gains tax.

Passed by the Legislature in 2021 and signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee, the tax on some capital gains was upheld this spring by the state Supreme Court in a case known as Chris Quinn v. State of Washington.

In a 7-2 decision, the court upheld the 7% tax on profits from the sale of stocks and bonds over $250,000, ruling that it is not a tax on income, which could have led to it being struck down. The court instead ruled that it is an excise tax.

Now the Freedom Foundation is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to a statement by the advocacy group. The appeal contends the tax “violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which reserves to Congress the right to regulate interstate commerce, thus depriving states of the ability to do so.”

“If the Supreme Court decides to accept the case and concludes that the tax violates the Commerce Clause, it could strike down the entirety of the tax and potentially open the door for the refund of taxes previously paid,” according to the statement.

In response, the executive director for Invest in WA Now claimed that those challenging the tax “are desperately trying to grab $800 million a year from Washington’s child care and education to give it to ultra-millionaires and billionaires.”

“Polls show Washingtonians strongly support making the wealthiest pay what they truly owe in taxes for services all of us depend on,” Treasure Mackley, whose advocacy organization has supported the capital gains tax, said in a statement. “Only when we have a fair tax code can we undo decades of racism and disinvestment that hurts families, communities, and small businesses.”

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the state of Washington to redraw one of its legislative district boundaries after finding that the Central Washington political boundary impairs the ability of Latinos to choose candidates from their own community.

The ruling comes after a coalition of Latino voters early last year sued Washington’s bipartisan Redistricting Commission, contending that the new once-a-decade political maps perpetuate the disenfranchisement of Yakima County’s minority voters.

The legal challenge focused on the commission’s decision to exclude heavily Latino communities in Yakima County that are adjacent to the new 15th District map. Instead, the new district map pulled in more white and rural communities from Grant, Benton and Franklin counties.

In his ruling released Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Robert S. Lasnik found merit in that argument and gave the state until Feb. 7 to adopt new legislative district maps for the region.

“The question in this case is whether the state has engaged in line-drawing which, in combination with the social and historical conditions in the Yakima Valley region, impairs the ability of Latino voters in that area to elect their candidate of choice on an equal basis with other voters,” wrote Lasnik. “The answer is yes.”

As such, “the Court finds that the boundaries of LD 15, in combination with the social, economic, and historical conditions in the Yakima Valley region, results in an inequality in the electoral opportunities enjoyed by white and Latino voters in the area,” he added.