Voters from District 4
Giving, By Far, Most
"Democracy Vouchers"
to Alex Pedersen
Public Disclosure Request reveals good news
for Pedersen campaign;
Pedersen earning most vouchers from D-4 voters
is a strong sign for most votes on Election Day;
Other candidates getting major support
from outside of district and outside of Seattle
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Donna Hartmann-Miller, campaign manager, 206-502-9092
SEAT
TLE, April 16, 20
19 -
A recent public disclosure request (PDR) reveals positive news for Alex Pedersen's fundraising efforts: 83% of his Democracy Vouchers are from voters residing in District 4, where he is running for election to become the next full-time Councilmember in November. In contrast, other candidates are obtaining large percentages of vouchers from outside of District 4.
In addition to the positive results regarding vouchers from his own district, Pedersen continues to be the leading fundraiser when combining both traditional dollars raised and the Democracy Vouchers collected.
"
I'm proud to be earning the confidence of so many residents from Wedgwood to Wallingford to Eastlake by listening to their concerns and demonstrating I am the only candidate with the direct experience and community connections to deliver the strong accountability they deserve from an elected City Councilmember," said Pedersen. "We believe how people choose to award their Democracy Vouchers indicates how they will cast their votes in this vital election for Seattle's future
."
Source of Vouchers:
While news media outlets have reported widely the total count of vouchers received by candidates, the geographic source of the vouchers has not been readily available. Due to the substantial lag time in obtaining complete data when some candidates delay their official reports, a PDR was needed to have the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission (SEEC) provide
the current source of all vouchers
.
|
|
Democracy Vouchers Only
: Pedersen receiving
83%
from District 4. (Source: For the Excel file provided by SEEC in response to recent Public Disclosure Request,
CLICK HERE
.)
Other candidates are receiving a large percentage from District 3, where Kshama Sawant is the incumbent Councilmember.
|
|
The actual count for the four D-4 candidates receiving the most vouchers thus far can be seen in the table below:
|
|
Total Fundraising
(combining both numbers): When there are Democracy Vouchers, the most accurate way to assess total fundraising is to add together the total traditional dollars raised AND the dollar value of all the vouchers RECEIVED (and validated) by SEEC.
Traditional donations + Valid Vouchers
Received
= Total Fundraising $
When adding the two numbers, Pedersen continues to be the leading fundraiser in D-4 and possibly across the entire city.
Because SEEC prominently publishes the amount of vouchers a campaign chooses to "redeem" (cash in), some news media outlets have reported just vouchers
redeemed
whereas the broader picture should include vouchers
received
(collected). SEEC makes the voucher collection information available on their "Program Data" website as an Excel file every few days -- but without the geographic origin of the vouchers. Candidates, like Pedersen, who have also raised traditional dollars would need to redeem a relatively small amount of vouchers whereas candidates with little in traditional donations must redeem a larger amount of vouchers.
It's also important to highlight the large percentage of donations received from outside of Seattle.
[Note: The charts on the
SEEC website
can be misleading because the percentages often include the candidate's
personal contribution
in a separate category -- which artificially lowers the category for "District 4." For an "apples-to-apples" comparison of who has the most support from their district, the candidate's personal contribution should probably be removed from both the numerator and denominator. There are several ways to sort the data from SEEC, all of which point to Pedersen earning the most support from his home district, D-4.]
|
|
-------------------------
Alex Pedersen, a progressive results-oriented Democrat, was the first candidate in the entire city to qualify for the city's Democracy Voucher program in this year's Council campaigns and has also been a leading fundraiser as he runs on a platform of accountability, transparency, and results.
Pedersen officially launched his campaign on November 28, 2018 for District 4. Because the incumbent Rob Johnson vacated his seat early, the City Council is appointing a temporary caretaker until D-4 voters choose their own 4-year Councilmember in the August primary and November general elections.
District 4 is home to approximately 100,000 residents in 20 neighborhoods including Bryant, Belvedere Terrace, Cowen Park, Eastlake, East Fremont, Hawthorne Hills, Inverness, Laurelhurst, Magnuson Park, Maple Leaf, Ravenna, Ravenna Springs, Roosevelt, Sand Point, the U District, University Park, View Ridge, Wallingford, Wedgwood and Windermere.
- Link to Alex Pedersen's bio: https://electalexpedersen.org/meet-alex/
|
|
Paid for by Elect Alex Pedersen, P.O. Box 15235, Seattle, WA 98115
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
