City Council Endorsement: Alexis Mercedes Rinck
Please Volunteer & Sign Over Your Democracy Vouchers
I endorse Alexis Mercedes Rinck for City Council.
Alexis has the experience, expertise, and values to make Seattle more livable, affordable, green, clean and safe for people from all backgrounds. Please vote for her.
Please also volunteer for her, particularly during pride weekend when she will be doing a big push. There are other opportunities as well.
Please also send her your democracy vouchers. (Each Seattle voter has $50 to dedicate to a candidate). The form takes about 30 seconds to fill out, as long as you know your own name and address and how to sign your name! You don’t need to know where your mailed voucher is or anything like that.
Alexis is running to fill the big shoes left by Teresa Mosqueda.
The seat is currently held by Tanya Woo, who was temporarily appointed by the council. Woo is also running to retain that seat, and is the favorite of the corporate lobbying class. Woo rejects basic Democratic party principles like progressive taxes, and has made it clear she would prefer to devastate basic services over having rich people pay even close to as much of their income in taxes as poor people do. She needs to be defeated.
I’ve been looking for a candidate that meets two key criteria
A candidate whose values, platform and skills are compelling and
Is the most likely to beat Woo this year and retain the seat next year when we hold yet another election over it (because the full four year term will have ended).
I think that person is Alexis Mercedes Rinck.
Who is Alexis?
She has a compelling backstory, having experienced firsthand the power poverty has to harm families, but the redemption that comes through loving embrace and a community that invests in its youth. She has responded by living a life dedicated to service—whether to young women via Planned Parenthood, teaching on the role of corporate/dark money in politics, or bringing together grassroots organizations to push back against the Trump administration’s harmful policies. Her professional work is also clearly dedicated to public service.
She also has real policy expertise! In an era of Republican rejectionism toward scientific rigor (that has unfortunately also infected our City Council), I am always delighted to see someone whose understanding of the world is rooted in rigorous research. She earned her Masters of Public Administration at UW, which has one of the top 10 such programs in the country, and has put it to good use. She was a policy analyst for the Sound Cities Association, supporting over 38 member cities. She fought the good fight at the King County Regional Homeless Authority– working to improve their outcomes amid a broken governance system that was out of her control–the exact kind of (painfull) work experience that our leaders tasked with fixing governance need. And has since been working as the Assistant Director for Policy, Planning and State Operations at UW.
Mercedes Rinck’s Strong Policy Platform.
She has a plan to make our city safer, one that doesn’t just sit back and rely on silly fantasies about conjuring 600 police out of thin air when the national hiring market is so bleak. She is realistic to note that we do need to right-size the department, but recognizes that we also need to actually build an alternative response for nonviolent calls, expand programs that reduce violence quickly, invest in behavioral health and overdose prevention and reversal strategies, and ensure police oversight and accountability. This is what the people have said they want, but the current council and Mayor have shown very little interest in. We need her in council chambers for these conversations and votes.
Like me, she’s extremely concerned about housing and affordability. She supports significant changes to the current “I give up on housing and homelessness plan” put out by Harrell. Fom matching the State Department of Commerce’s guidelines for missing middle housing, to increasing the number and reach of neighborhood centers, to much more intensive transit oriented development–she is clear on what needs to be done. She also supports much broader investments in affordable housing, as well as anti-displacement and wealth building strategies for underrepresented groups.
Ms. Mercedes Rinck also signals strong support for making the changes we need for our climate. This includes strong building codes, and protecting green new deal investments from a council that currently looks like it will cut them. She has a plan to make mobility without a car more realistic, affordable, easy, and safe, for people with all abilities and from all backgrounds–something near and dear to my heart.
She is also strong on labor protections–something that the vast majority of voters across the country–in both parties, support. Unfortunately, our city council does not–so even though it shouldn’t be, this is a big deal. Witness how close the council is to reversing minimum wages for delivery drivers! And unlike the conservatives on the council she understands that we cannot devastate basic services like buses, libraries, childcare, or investments in affordable housing. Like any sensible Democrat, she has offered up a relatively modest tax plan that would fill much of the impending gap with progressive revenue.
Alexis is our champion this year, and we need to show up for her. We need to tell our friends and we need to volunteer, sign over vouchers, and donate.
PS. (More important than my endorsement, Alexis is also endorsed by every Democratic party organization thus far, as well as superstar legislators like Nicole Macri, Darya Farivar, and Julia Reed, and Community Leaders like Becka Johnson Poppe and Shaun Scott, and labor organizations like UFCW 3000.)
PPS. This is not an anti-endorsement for either of the other progressives running. I previously suggested people consider sending vouchers to Saunatina Sanchez, who has a strong urbanist platform and an amazing history of advocacy on behalf of workers and others who get short shrift in our region. I think very highly of Saunatina and have for quite some time. I’ve also since met with Tariq Youssef, who I think has immense talent and strong values as well, and I expect we will see big things from him in the years to come.
They are both great people and nothing in this endorsement of Alexis should suggest I think otherwise!