Kshama Sawant, an Indian-American Seattle City Council member since 2014, is facing a rare recall election in the state of Washington on December 7.
According to local King5.com, it took years for the recall effort to make it to voters in District 3 — and the issue has left many in the community divided in Seattle’s Central District, Capitol Hill neighbourhood.
The first and only member of Socialist Alternative to be elected to public office in America,
Sawant, the first member of Socialist Alternative to be elected to public office in the US, is accused of violating her oath of office with three certified charges from the state Supreme Court.
Sawant was accused of misusing city funds for a “Tax Amazon” campaign, leading a march to Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan’s home and letting hundreds of protesters inside city hall after hours during a pandemic.
She has also been accused of pushing for rent control, cutting police funding and expanding taxes on high earners such as Amazon to pay for affordable housing, schools and community services.
While, Sawant in a debate back in November, said, “This recall is racist, right-wing, and based on lies, the recall claims that I don’t represent everyone in the district, I don’t.”
“We’re turning out the vote in the biggest way that Seattle’s ever seen,” Kshama Solidarity Campaign Manager Bryan Koulouris told K5.
Sawant and other speakers rallied supporters to remind people to vote at a kickoff event Saturday morning, it said.
“We need to get together and work together,” Henry Bridger, who is running the campaign to Recall Sawant, told K5. “I’m not a politician, I’m just a normal guy who wants to get our city back on track.”
The supporters believe outside influences are trying to sway Seattle politics.
Backing the recall effort, the Seattle Times editorial board asked voters in her council district “to get their ballots in to oust her from office two years ahead of schedule.”
“Since winning her third council election in 2019, Sawant has repeatedly abused her authority with performative chicanery, shrugging at City Hall norms and the needs of a district stretching from Montlake to the Central District to Little Saigon,” it alleged.
Kshama Sawant, a former software engineer, became an economics instructor in Seattle after immigrating to the United States from India. In 2012, she ran unsuccessfully for the Washington House of Representatives before winning her seat on the Seattle City Council in 2013.
Sawant, born in a Tamil Brahmin family in Pune, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Mumbai in 1994. She received her PhD in economics from North Carolina State University in 2003.
