We’re endorsing Jamie Fackler for Seattle City Council District 2! In a competitive field, Fackler stood out to us thanks to his thoughtful, holistic approach to the issues and complete commitment to tackling our housing crisis head-on, through the power of Prop 1A. On an ideal progressive council with Foster and Mercedes Rinck, already set with bold, Queer voices, Fackler can help keep attention and expertise on the fundamentals we all need to sustain our daily lives.

Choosing a candidate for District 2 was difficult for all the right reasons. In all honesty, we don’t think there’s a “bad” candidate in the bunch, and you could make a valid choice based on your own priorities and preferences.

Adonis Ducksworth isn’t perfect on the issues overall, but he’d be near-perfect if tasked with creating a more effective, more equitable public transit system, and he would be a fierce voice for South Seattle residents. Jeanie Chunn impressed us with her versatile background, demonstrating the ability to balance both the needs of small businesses and grassroots advocacy organizations. If you value empowering marginalized communities most, she’d be your best advocate. Eddie Lin is a great all-around candidate who could quickly and effectively address our hardball questions. If you want guaranteed success, then it’s worth investing in Eddie.

However, when measuring all these varying strengths, it forced us to reconsider what we actually want in a city councilmember in the first place. Do we want someone who can work with any policy, at any time, like Lin? How about someone who’s more specialized in particular issues, like Ducksworth? Frankly, we don’t have a conclusive answer.

What we do know, however, is we want a city council that works like a team again.

The existing council has proven itself to be way too dysfunctional. Even if we don’t see everything going on behind the scenes, we have seen two councilmembers resign out of pure exhaustion. We’ve had accusations of toxicity, and verbal spats between Sara Nelson and Dan Strauss that makes for rumormongering in your feed the next day. We already get enough of this animosity from the White House. We need it far away from City Hall.

That’s why we're endorsing Jamie Fackler. Because, despite being the token straight, white guy on the ballot and in our voter’s guide, we think he’d be the best at collaborating with the Queer women we want brought into office.