Government and politics of Seattle, Washington

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This is the main article on Government and politics of Seattle, Washington. Seattle, Washington, USA is a charter city, with a Mayor-Council form of government, unlike many of its neighbors that use the Council-Manager form. Seattle's mayor and nine city council members are elected annually, at large, rather than by geographic subdivisions. The only other elected offices are the City Attorney and Municipal Court Judges. All offices are non-partisan.

The city government provides more utilities than many cities; either running the whole operation, such as the water and electricity services, or handling the billing and administration, but contracting out the rest of the operations, such as trash and recycling collections. See the Utilities section for more details.

Seattle's politics lean famously to the left compared to the U.S. as a whole. In this regard, it sits with a small set of similar U.S. cities (such as Madison, Wisconsin, Berkeley, California, and Cambridge, Massachusetts) where the dominant politics tend to range from center-left to social democratic. Seattle politics are generally dominated by the liberal wing (in the U.S. sense of the word "liberal") of the Democratic Party; in some local elections, Greens (and even, on at least one occasion, a member of the Freedom Socialist Party) have fared better than Republicans. There do exist pockets of conservatism, especially in the north and in exclusive neighborhoods such as Broadmoor, and scattered Libertarians, but for the most part Seattle is a safely Democratic city, as exemplified by congressman Jim McDermott, who represents the Seventh Congressional District of Washington, made up of most of Seattle and also including semi-rural Vashon Island. McDermott has been reelected to his seat in every election since 1988, when he replaced fellow liberal Democrat Mike Lowry, who had held the seat since 1979. McDermott's weakest re-election result came in 2000, when no Republican ran; that year he received 72.8% of the vote, while Green candidate Joe Szwaja received 19.6% and Libertarian candidate Joel Grus received 7.6%. In 2002, when the Republicans replaced the Greens as the third party on the ballot, McDermott's vote share rose to 74.1%. [1]

See also: Current leaders of Seattle, Washington