1 / 6Amazon City Council SpendingIn this Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2019 photo, a campaign poster for Seattle City Council incumbent candidate Kshama Sawant is posted outside her campaign headquarters in Seattle. Seven of the nine Seattle City Council seats are up for grabs in next month's election, where retail giant Amazon has made unprecedented donations totaling $1.5 million to a political action committee that's supporting a slate of candidates perceived to be friendlier to business.
With seven of the nine Seattle council seats in play Nov. 5, business interests see an opportunity to shift city leadership closer to the political center and away from a bent to potentially tax big companies to fund homeless services or improve public transit. Story continuesThe elections come a year after a political debacle that damaged the council's popularity. The leaders unanimously passed the"Amazon tax," designed to make lucrative companies contribute more to affordable housing for the homeless.
Liberal council members, including Sawant, say the sweeps are inhumane and don't work. She wants money for tiny-house villages. But after Amazon weighed in, both enthusiastically endorsed her last week. She's running against Egan Orion, director of an annual gay pride festival in Seattle."When there's that much money being offered, there will be a quid-pro-quo expectation," she said."Amazon has plenty of access to the council already. What they want is elected officials who are going to bend to their will.