For more than a decade and a half, if you asked people in King County what a “County Executive” was, they might’ve said “uh, some guy named Dow Constantine?” Dow’s dynasty (Dow-nasty?) is through and it’s time for Girmay Zahilay to take charge.
Zahilay, a charismatic County Council Member first elected in 2019, is already a political staple repping University District, Laurelhurst, Ravenna, Eastlake, Capitol Hill, the Central District, South Seattle, Allentown, and Skyway, but he’s never held such a powerful executive position. He can do it. And, damn it, we want him to. So do the “just fine” establishment dems like Governor Bob Ferguson, cool establishment dems like Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, and moronic warhawks like Congressman Adam Smith. Big tent!
He’s also led plenty. In the five-plus years he’s been on the dais, he’s risen to current council chair and prince of fiscal management (or, in boring council speak, chair of the county’s budget and fiscal management committee. Yawn). He introduced the $1 billion Regional Workforce Housing Initiative and led the effort for a $1.2 billion property tax levy to fund mental health treatment centers. He sponsored a $2 million community-based gun violence program. He passed a five-part gun violence prevention program and supports a year-round gun buyback program. He reached these heights by knocking the legendary (read: old, respectfully) civil rights legend Larry Gossett off his perch—a big upset for an unknown lawyer from the South End who ran a nonprofit mentoring middle schoolers and came to this country as a refugee when he was 3.
In our endorsement meeting, he even seemed genuinely nervous. He clearly expected our question about the child jail. In his first campaign, he made closing the detention center a huge part of his platform. But in a vote last year, he walked it back.
During our endorsement meeting, Zahilay didn’t give a satisfying explanation for why he changed his mind. He says he believed the jail could be transformed with activities and community-based services. When we asked for an example of similar successes, he pointed to close-to-home facilities and “bringing the home to them through the integration of community services.”
And it was a bullshit answer when there’s probably a more straightforward version: The county had nothing to replace kid jail, so the council didn’t close kid jail. This is the infrastructure we have, so Zahilay wanted to make it better. We’re not convinced that sour lemon will ever make lemonade, but Zahilay’s only real challenger in this race, County Council Member Claudia Balducci, didn’t vote any differently, and her background directing King County’s Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention is way, way more carceral.
That said, these two are pretty politically aligned and did a good job at least pretending they loved each other.
We like Balducci, just not as much as Zahilay. She’s a Transit Maven with political experience who is good at getting those Eastside misers to pay for things. And if we have any hope of addressing homelessness and building thousands of units of housing, someone is going to have to convince (or force) those misers to buy the biggest goose in the window (pay taxes) for Tiny Tim (us).
Aside from Zahilay’s progressive zeal and résumé, we need someone in the executive’s chair who, instead of facing east toward the suburbs à la Balducci, will continue to face South toward the people and places this county has long neglected. At a time the federal government is literally rounding up immigrants and refugees and saying they don’t belong, electing Zahilay is one way we can show all King County residents know they belong and they matter. And we trust he’ll do right by us all. Vote Zahilay.
