Amazon, the largest employer in the city of Seattle, is likely not getting the exact results it expected when contributing large amounts of money through a political action committee in an effort to help elect candidates aligned with its interests.
The company contributed $1.45 million to the "business-backed" political action committee Civic Alliance for a Sound Economy to "help elect [city] council members Amazon views as more favorable to its interests and those of the business community," per Bloomberg's Wednesday morning report.
As of the early results tally Tuesday night, however, the resulting Amazon-supported candidates are not expected to win a majority of the nine-seat council.
Bernie Sanders is among the progressive political leaders who have strongly condemned Amazon's efforts, with the 2020 hopeful saying in October that "this obscene system of oligarchy" must be fought back against. Activists and others who quite wisely oppose Amazon's efforts have also been vocal about its potential implications, regardless of the final election results.
And while Amazon may not secure a majority in the council, a defeat for vocal Amazon critic Kshama Sawant is still possible, with multiple reports Wednesday morning noting that she was trailing Egan Orion by a potentially loss-inducing number of points.
"This race is still too close to call," a spokesperson for Kshama Sawant told regional outlet The Stranger. "But regardless of what the final outcome is, we have run a historic grassroots campaign, with working people and community members rejecting Amazon and billionaire attempts to buy this election."
Regardless of how this all shakes out in Seattle, it is indeed—as many have been pointing out for quite some time now—laying the groundwork for yet another slippery slope toward the dismantling of democracy, even in influentially progressive states like Washington.
Dark times.
