If you meet a Sawant canvasser, ask them where they live, whether they are being paid, and, if so, who is paying them.
Sawant’s Socialist Alternative is the American Branch of the London based Socialist Party. The Socialist Party is part of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI), a socialist international that organises in over 40 countries.
Kshama Sawant has raised an unprecedented amount of money to hire a very large and professional campaign crew.
The total is likely beyond the countable dollars reported on the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission site, because she also has a large crew of professional “volunteers,” people working for the SEIU and advisers from the London based home of of her “Socialist Alternative” party. I have been told that the total raised by Sawant may be as much as $700,000 of which only $325,000 is reportable.
The blue arc is the proportion of contributors living outside Seattle. The red arc is the contributors in Seattle. Click Sawant or Banks for their data.
The most visible part of this is deluge of “canvassers.” These folks, a large portion of whom are from outside District 3 or even Seattle, are saturating the streets with an effort to get out her vote. I suggest, if you meet a Sawant canvasser, that you ask them where they live, whether they are being paid, and, if so, who is paying them.
A security cam caught an anti-Banks vandal in action. CLICK FOR FULL VIDEO
Unfortunately, some of these folks, one would hope without approval of the campaign, have also been removing Banks’ campaign signs. I have seen signs disappear in my neighborhood and heard the same thing from colleagues about their own signs. The most dramatic example, however, is a security video from the Banks campaign, showing theft of Banks yard signs from outside the Urban League at 14th and Yesler; the owner of the building (where Banks works as director of the Urban League) is a Banks fan and provided the video.