Sawant, Mosqueda top list of officials endorsing Berne Sanders

Endorsing Bernie Sanders, socialist Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant declares: "I agree with Gernie that billionaires should not exist and that we need a society that works for working people -- in my view, a socialist society." less Endorsing Bernie Sanders, socialist Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant declares: "I agree with Gernie that billionaires should not exist and that we need a society that works for working people -- in ... more Photo: GRANT HINDSLEY, SEATTLEPI.COM Photo: GRANT HINDSLEY, SEATTLEPI.COM Image 1 of / 11 Caption Close Sawant, Mosqueda top list of officials endorsing Berne Sanders 1 / 11 Back to Gallery

Seattle City Councilmembers Teresa Mosqueda and Kshama Sawant, stalwarts of the city's political left but of different political roots, top a list of 10 elected officials endorsing the 2020 Democratic presidential candidacy of Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Mosqueda is the former political director of the Washington State Labor Council and a "proud Labor Democrat." Sawant is a militant socialist whose Socialist Alternative movement spends much effort denouncing the Democratic Party. She picketed a 2016 Seattle appearance by Hillary Clinton, urged Sanders to run as a third-party candidate, and spoke for Jill Stein of the Green Party in the November election.

"I agree with Bernie that billionaires should not exist and that we need a society that works for working people — in my view, a socialist society," Sawant said in endorsing Sanders.

Sanders will "stand up for worker rights and right side up our upside-down tax system," Mosqueda said. Sawant supported Mosqueda's opponent Jon Grant, a self-described independent democratic socialist, in the 2017 Seattle City Council election.

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Supports of Sanders also include State Sen. Bob Hasegawa, D-Seattle, a far-back finisher in the 2017 mayor's race, and newly elected King County Council member Girmay Zahilay. "In a system of politics that's designed to corrupt, Bernie Sanders has maintained his integrity for decades," Zahilay said in a statement. He unseated veteran Seattle civil rights activist Larry Gossett in November.

Sanders has yet to appear in Washington during the 2020 campaign cycle. He was here repeatedly in 2016, drawing big crowds and sweeping Washington's Democratic precinct caucuses. He lost to Clinton, however, in the state's "beauty contest" presidential primary. The state's Democratic national convention delegation was dominated by contentious Sanders backers,

Washington is having a meaningful Democratic presidential primary on March 10 of this year. Its results will count toward allocation of delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee.

The 2020 Sanders campaign will have a kickoff rally at 6:30 Thursday at Washington Hall on Capitol Hill. Sawant will speak at the event.

Other Sanders endorsers include Kate Burke of the Spokane City Council and Renata Rollins of the Olympia City Council. "I'm read for a system upgrade and a majority in this country are ready, too," Rollins said.

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Jordan Sears, mayor pro-tem of Gold Bar, is also on board, as is Varisha Khan of the Redmond City Council -- first Muslim woman to win a council race -- and Iris Carais of the Mount Vernon City Council.

Retired (in 2018 by 32nd District voters) State Sen. Maralyn Chase has endorsed Sanders. Chase has been supporting insurgent Democrats ever since the 1968 anti-war candidacy of Sen. Eugeme McCarthy and the 1970 challenge to Washington Sen. Henry Jackson by Spokane lawyer Carl Maxey.

Jeff Johnson, former president of the Washington State Labor Council, summed up the case for Sanders: "This is no time for small changes or small politics. Bernie Sanders is the only candidate thinking, talking and organizing around dramatic change."

Maybe not the only candidate. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, an advocate of "fundamental structural change" in America, drew a crowd of 20,000 people at the Seattle Center last August, and has built an organization aided by some who supported Sanders in 2016.