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As noted in our previous posts, Seattle Bike Blog is not doing official endorsements this primary. Instead, I’ll be going district-by-district, posting videos from the MASS Coalition’s transportation forums along with a roundup of transportation-related endorsements and other notable news items and thoughts.

District 3 incumbent Kshama Sawant would be the senior member of the City Council if she wins reelection, but she has drawn her toughest slate of challengers yet.

Sawant has been a member of the Transportation and Sustainability Committee since 2016, when Mike O’Brien became chair after Tom Rasmussen declined to seek reelection. During that time, she has been unwavering in her support of walking, biking and transit efforts in her role on the committee and in full Council votes.

Transportation is not her top issue, and it’s not the focus of Socialist Alternative rallies and posters. But she gets it, and she often highlights equity and the needs of working people during committee discussions.

So if transportation is the issue you’re focusing on for this race, then I don’t see much of an opening to unseat Sawant.

Here’s a look at some endorsements:

• Transit Riders Union: Kshama Sawant
• The Stranger: Kshama Sawant
• The Urbanist: Kshama Sawant
• Seattle Transit Blog: Logan Bowers rated excellent, Zachary DeWolf rated good.
• Seattle Subway (PDF): Logan Bowers and Zachary DeWolf

This race, perhaps more than any other, shows some clear differences among the local transportation groups. TRU and the Urbanist were completely convinced that Sawant has been great and should go back for another term. STB and Seattle Subway both had good things to say about Sawant’s voting history for transit, but then chose not to endorse her for, honestly, kind of confusing reasons.

Bowers and DeWolf both have strong positions on biking, walking and transit, as you can hear for yourself in the video below. Bowers in particular is very clear that the Council needs the courage to do the right thing even in the face of organized opposition. He also rides a solo wheel all over town, which, as the Stranger’s Lester Black noted, “is half of a bicycle but still needs all of the same infrastructure.”

Here’s the video from the Move All Seattle Sustainably District 3 transportation and housing forum:

Rooted In Rights not only produced the video and added captions, they also created this handy transcript if you prefer to read candidate responses instead (.txt).

You can also hear each candidate give general statements in this cool Seattle Channel online voter’s guide.

This post is also a chance for you all to share your thoughts and promote your favorite D1 candidates in the comments below. Did I totally gloss over or miss something important? Let me know in the comments below. If you work for a campaign, you are welcome to participate, as well. Just please disclose which campaign you work for.