A recall supporter sent CHS this photo of reported anti-recall vandalism
Campaign organizers working to recall the Capitol Hill and Central District representative on the Seattle City Council asked for some unusual assistance last week for its efforts to get the issue on the ballot.
“The Recall Sawant Campaign will be sign waiving (sic) and signature gathering this weekend and would love any off-duty SPOG members (and friends and family) to join them,” campaign manager Henry Bridger wrote in an email last Friday.
The full invitation is below.
The call for Seattle Police union members to join the campaigning and information table efforts didn’t break any rules. But the call was more than a request for volunteers.
Bridger tells CHS he is also asking for law enforcement support because of safety concerns.
Opponents of the recall effort, meanwhile, say the email is yet another sign that the recall campaign is backed by political forces from outside District 3.
Bryan Koulouris of Kshama Solidarity says the effort to bring out off-duty police to be part of the recall is one of the many “signs of Astroturf” around the campaign.
“I approached them because we wanted more bodies there,” Bridger said. Sawant supporters have followed volunteers and there have been recent incidents on Broadway involving the campaigns, Bridger says.
“We all have a voice,” the campaign manager said. “I wanted officers to help us but also just in case we were approached.”
Bridger said he’s unsure how many if any off-duty, “plain clothes” cops joined the campaign’s on the ground efforts around Broadway over the weekend but he said the volunteers who did show had run-ins with Sawant supporters.
“Saturday, two of our volunteers — one guys walks up and starts yelling and taking a sign out of his hand — which was uncool,” Bridger said. “We’re taking this seriously.”
Koulouris says the Recall Campaign is exaggerating the situation. “If you live on Capitol Hill, you know Sawant people will be in front of grocery stores,” Koulouris said, adding that the Recall Campaign also chose the same area of Cal Anderson as a gathering point that Sawant campaign groups use when organizing.
The transition of the political fight over Sawant’s leadership from online comments to real-life arguments on Broadway comes as recall backers are claiming victory in a Sawant ethics violation as they work to gather the 10,000 signatures from District 3 voters to put the veteran councilmember’s recall on the ballot.
For Koulouris, bringing the Seattle Police Officers Guild into the recall debate is just fine.
“They have the right,” the Solidarity campaign rep said — not to mention many District 3 voters will be skeptical of SPOG political involvement against a councilmember who has been the harshest critic of the city’s policing and its strongest proponent for defunding the department.
But there are concerns about escalating the already taut political tension between the two campaigns. Koulouris said he, too, is concerned about the arguments and run-ins along Broadway last weekend with Sawant supporters becoming entangled with recall backers on the same Capitol Hill turf.
“The email probably explains some things,” Koulouris said. “Some of those people were cops.”
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