It’s true – Seattle is a wreck, destroyed from within by a succession of inept mayors and a radical city council. Something needs to change.

The Seattle City Council has taken a bruising over the last few years. First, most of the current council tried to circle the wagons and protect the former mayor, who was credibly accused of child sexual assault and eventually had to resign. Then the council passed a “head tax” in an attempt to raise even more revenue to toss into city coffers by charging companies a tax on the number of employees that they have. This ended up being so unpopular with everyone – not just big bad Amazon, which seemed to be their real target – that the council was forced to overturn its earlier vote and repeal the “head tax” within a month. The best part of this whole debacle was watching socialist councilmember Kshama Sawant get shouted down at Amazon headquarters by… union ironworkers.

Add to that chaos the revolving door of crime that the Seattle city attorney allows, businesses that are closing locations because they can’t keep employees safe, and the overwhelming drug issues that have turned Seattle into a homeless and drug-infested area, and you begin to understand why there was a grassroots effort to find more intellectually diverse candidates for city council. Now, because this is Seattle we’re talking about, not all of those candidates made it through the primary. But there will be some turnover, because many councilmembers saw their own polls and decided to not run for reelection.

Recently, Amazon decided to contribute over $1 million to the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce’s PAC to support a more business-friendly climate. This caught the attention of the Associated Press, who decided to open their article with a supporter of Councilmember Kshama Sawant who hates Amazon, and donated to Sawant’s campaign. The kicker? The supporter lives in New York. Does that say something about where Sawant is getting her money? YES. The article goes on to note that a “large portion” of Sawant’s financial support comes from out of state.

The New York resident sent $15 to socialist council member Kshama Sawant, a target of the online retail giant. While that doesn’t compare to Amazon’s unprecedented spending Oct. 14, about 1,900 others also have donated to Sawant since then, her campaign says. It’s a dramatic rise in support and a reflection of the risk Amazon is taking as it splashes into the politics of its liberal hometown.”

Tell you what – we will gladly send Sawant to you if you want her, because she’s an absolutely worthless politician here. Her opponent, Egan Orion, has already pointed out how much out-of-area money Sawant has taken in.

Of course Amazon has a vested interest in who is elected to the Seattle City Council. Despite all the buzz about “HQ2” and the move to Virginia, Amazon is deeply rooted in the Seattle area (though they have already started making moves to more business-friendly Bellevue across Lake Washington). Just because Amazon is a multi-billion dollar company doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have local roots in Seattle. And if a donation to the Chamber of Commerce’s PAC helps certain candidates who don’t feel like taxing Seattle into the ground while coddling criminals, why the whining by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and random guys in New York?

Yes, I know why the progressive socialists are whining about Amazon’s money. They only like money when it’s under their control, not in the hands of private companies, and not when it’s being used to promote alternative candidates – even if Sawant’s opponent is just as progressive as she is.

The Seattle City Council needs a major turnover if anything is going to change around here. One can only hope that those voters within city limits are finally tired of the current council’s shenanigans and will vote for centrist Democrats over radical socialists – because those are the only choices in the liberal progressive homeless camp that is Seattle.

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