In Seattle, 2019 Election Candidates Are Lining Up

SEATTLE, WA - The 2018 election won't be over for weeks, but some are already looking forward to the 2019 election. Seven Seattle City Council seats will be up for a vote, and all five have already attracted a challenger or two.

Here's a look at the races as they stand right now:

Council District 1, southwest Seattle

Councilwoman Lisa Herbold will likely run again in 2019. Local attorney Phillip Tavel has already filed to run against her. Tavel ran for this seat in 2015, but didn't make it through the primary. He also ran in 2014 to be a King County judge, but lost to Mark Chow.

Council District 2, southeast Seattle

Incumbent Council President Bruce Harrell (and, briefly, the city's 54th mayor) already has two challengers.

Ari Hoffman owns Lion Logistics, a property management company. He lives in the Seward Park neighborhood and wants to put a moratorium on the construction of bike lanes, among other proposals.

Many would consider Matthew Perkins a conservative, at least in Seattle. He's against safe-use injection sites, the head tax, and seems to favor homeless sweeps, saying on his website the city needs to "clean up our city of needles, human waste, illegally parked RVs, and illegal encampments."

Council District 5, north Seattle

Only Alex Tsimerman has volunteered so far to unseat Debora Juarez. If you don't know, Tsimerman is the Council gadfly who gives Nazi salutes, among other outlandish behavior.

Council District 6, Ballard, Green Lake

Folks in the Safe Seattle circle really want incumbent Mike O'Brien gone. Candidate Christopher Rufo will probably appeal to that group. He says the city has created " perverse incentives" for homeless people. He's also part of the lawsuit against Seattle over the city income tax.

Kate Martin doesn't have super clear policy positions yet, but says on her website she "supports upstream strategies that fix problems and bring positive changes for the future, not more of the same." She ran for mayor in 2013.

Council District 7, Magonlia, Queen Anne

Naveed Jamali will challenge incumbent Sally Bagshaw. He worked as an analyst for MSNBC during the 2016 election. He's also appeared in local media upset about needles and other trash he's found around town.

Ballot Initiative

Fairvote Washington for Seattle is a campaign aimed at implementing ranked-choice voting in city elections. In that system, you literally rank candidates instead of choosing just one. Cities like San Francisco, Oakland, and Cambridge, Mass., use this style of voting. The campaign has already raised a pretty modest $20,000.

Caption: City Council President Bruce Harrell and City Attorney Pete Holmes at a press conference on Feb. 18, 2018.

Patch file photo

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of seats up for reelection in 2019.