Cascadia today: WA primary election results + PDX has world's worst air quality + annual Indigenous canoe paddle on the Salish Sea

Mix of centrists and progressives win in WA primary

Yesterday was election day in Washington, and the results didn't show one particular trend but rather a mix of centrists and progressives prevailing, and Trump-backed right wingers winning where you'd expect.

OPB reports on the most closely-watched congressional race in the 3rd district in southwest Washington, where conservative Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez defeated a challenge from the left by Brent Hennrich and will face a close race against John Braun, a Republican state senator from Centralia. Gluesenkamp Perez has been a huge disappointment, joining the GOP to support ICE funding and anti-trans bills.

The 9th district's conservative Democrat Adam Smith will likely return to Congress representing south King and north Pierce counties after socialist opponents Kshama Sawant and Melissa Chaudhry split progressive opposition, leaving Smith to face Republican Doug Basler.

And in central Washington's conservative 4th District, Trump-backed candidate Amanda McKinney will face Democrat John Duresky to replace retiring Congressman Dan Newhouse.

Progressive Nilu Jenks had a strong showing in the race for the Seattle city council's district 5, ahead of Julie Kang by 13 points. Democratic socialist Ron Davis, however, did not fare well in the race to unseat NIMBY Democrat Gerry Pollet in the 46th in north Seattle, with former prosecutor Will Dreher emerging as the challenger. Former state senator Rebecca Saldaña was leading Seattle port commissioner Toshiko Hasegawa in the race for a King County council seat in District 2. Senate majority leader Jamie Pedersen's seat in the 43rd seems safe as progressive challenger Hannah Sabio-Howell gained just 17% of the vote.

In state supreme court races, two left-leaning judges appointed by governor Bob Ferguson were doing well: Colleen Melody and Theo Angelis were both leading. Another race for a seat will likely be close in November, with Mason county judge David Stevens, a conservative, leading progressives Jaime Hawk and Mike Diaz, who are in a tight race to see who faces Stevens. For more on statewide results, Washington State Standard has a good wrap-up. For results from across Seattle and King County, check out Through the Static's election results page.

The best news of the night was Seattle library levy winning with a whopping 72% of the vote. Local suburban wet blanket The Seattle Times opposed the measure and its editors' tears will now be collected to run water-saving toilets in the downtown library.

PDX measure to pay cops from climate fund fails

The Portland Mercury reports that a dumb ballot initiative that would have sent 25% of the Portland Clean Energy Fund to pay for more cops has failed to gather enough signatures to go on the ballot. Election officials say many of the signatures were not from voters registered in Portland or were those who had signed twice. None of this is surprising, as the ballot campaign has been accused of many instances of trying to mislead voters, and paying out-of-town canvassers who had little knowledge of the measure.

Portland air quality worst in world as fires hammer Cascadia

OPB reports that Portland had the worst air quality rating of any city in the world yesterday as wildfires burned more than 2 million acres across Oregon. More than 8,000 people are under evacuation orders in British Columbia and high temperatures are expected over the next few days, CBC reports. As fires continue to threaten Spokane, the Spokesman Review reports that the suspected arsonist in the Old Trail Fire was questioned about previous wildfires but not charged.

Predictably, right wing dipshits like Jonathan Choe and Beth Dutton all leaped on the suspected arson to say that climate change has nothing to do with these fires. RANGE Media has a great piece challenging this stupid take, noting that high temperatures and drought connected to climate change have made Cascadia's forests a tinderbox. There's ample evidence that climate change (combined with bad forest management practices, which the Trump administration is hoping to revive) is responsible for the increased intensity of wildfires across western North America.

Indigenous canoe crews paddle to Nisqually potlach

KNKX has a great audio postcard of the annual Paddle to Nisqually Medicine Creek Potlatch, in which more than one hundred Indigenous canoes from various tribes are paddled south through the Salish sea to a potlach at Medicine Creek in the Nisqually river delta. It's a deeply important Indigenous tradition, and Regenerate Cascadia looks at the history of the paddle and the significance of the destination, where a treaty was signed in 1854 that eventually led to the long battle over Indigenous salmon fishing rights in Cascadia. To learn more about the paddle and the potlach, check out the Nisqually Indian tribe's excellent website, which includes maps, stories, and traditional songs.

Thanks for reading. As always, keep loving and keep fighting. --Andy