Recent Poll Tests Tired, Right-Wing Attacks Against Girmay Zahilay

King County Council Member Girmay Zahilay beat his council colleague Claudia Balducci in the primary contest for King County Executive, now a new poll is testing messaging to bring him down. Some hoped this race would be an opportunity for two strong progressives to sharpen each other in the political arena, but if Zahilay opponents use thw attacks from the poll, King County suburban mailboxes may receive a barrage of mailers desperate to paint Zahilay (in bold, red lettering) as a fiscally irresponsible radical who hates cops. We might even add to the pile yet another flyer with a cutout of former Council Member Kshama Sawant super-imposed next to the candidate thanks Canva Pro rather than any meaningful association. 

Waste, Fraud And Abuse

The poll, which circulated over the weekend, tried out some positive messaging for Balducci, highlighting her advocacy for transit, her work as Mayor of Bellevue to establish the CARES community outreach and assistance program, and her experience fighting to defend Democrat values in court. The poll also presented different lines of attack against Zahilay and asked respondents to grade them for how strongly it convinced them to oppose him in the general election. All the questions can be found in this thread:

The poll tested a variety of budget-related snipes, offering a few different ways to accuse Zahilay of fraud, waste, and overburdening the taxpayer. Two prompts tried to blame the troubling findings of the recent audit of County contracts on Zahilay.  

First, the pollster offered this line of attack: “A recent audit of County grants to smaller organizations deemed “high risk” - including some championed by Zahilay - found near total lack of accountability and potentially massive fraud, yet his initial response was to show no urgency about fixing the problem.”

The poll seems to be referencing a highly (and often unfairly) scrutinized youth diversion program known as Restorative Community Pathways, something Zahilay has certainly championed. The audit started as a probe into Restorative Community Pathways, but expanded to other Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS) programs. Despite specific ire for Zahilay’s pet program, the audit found fewer issues with Restorative Community Pathways grants compared to other programs it reviewed, according to the Seattle Times. 

Zahilay and Balducci responded to the audit's findings very similarly. They both signed on to co-sponsor new legislation to require the DCHS to do annual risk assessments on top of its other contract management requirements. They also both made several similar calls for additional oversight, according to the Seattle Times. 

The poll tested out another version of that argument when asking respondents about positive messaging for Balducci. 

“There is only one candidate in this race who will restore accountability and address the serious waste and fraud that has been uncovered in King County,” the poll read. “While Zahilay will keep funneling billions to the usual progressive non-profit groups whether or not they deliver results, Balducci is demanding full accounting of how millions of taxpayer dollars went missing.”

This version of the argument carries subtle undertones of that DOGE press release about former President Joe Biden spending millions on transgender experiments on mice. And it also, once again, repeats the same falsehood that Zahilay doesn’t care about budget accountability. Balducci didn't even attend the meeting for the final vote to approve King County Auditor's Office Work Program 2025.

The poll indicates Zahilay haters are tinkering with a more generalized attack on his budgeting practices. In one test statement, the poll claimed Zahilay has voted for “almost every tax increase and continues to propose new taxes” during his time on the County Council as a way to pin the affordability crisis on him.

Zahilay definitely deserves his fair share of heat for proposing a sales tax hike to pay for public safety programs. But Balducci joined him in approving the regressive tax and then tried to earmark some of the funding to retail theft, validating Kroger’s talking points, utterly disputed by the grocery store workers’ union. Not exactly making a great case for herself as the candidate for the working people! 

ACAB (All Candidates Are Bastards)

In several prompts, the pollsters tried to tie Zahilay to the 2020 movement to defund the police. The statements called him out for attending protests (many such cases in the literal biggest protest movement in U.S. history), aligning with “radical activists who want to defund the police,” and a general weakness on public safety. 

Balducci or her proxies could connect some red string between Zahilay and efforts to defund the police (which of course never came to fruition), but in perhaps the most material way, Balducci also once supported the movement. In 2020, the King County Council proposed four charter amendments that removed legislative barriers to enact meaningful changes to policing in King County. Zahilay certainly took the lead, particularly when it came to the amendment to allow the County Council to shrink the Sheriff’s department and redirect its funds to alternative response. However, Balducci also voted to support putting the amendment before voters and more importantly, the voters ate that shit up, passing all four amendments, some by more than 80%. 

One prompt specifically accused Zahilay of supporting an abolitionist candidate, which may be in reference to his endorsement of Nicole Thomas Kennedy for City Attorney in 2021. If that’s the reference, the poll conveniently left out the important context that Kennedy was running against Ann Davison, a literal MAGA Republican. Kennedy easily scooped up support from King County Democrats, seven legislative district Democratic Party groups, and a bunch of unions. And she didn’t do too badly with the voters either, scoring 47.73% to her MAGA opponent’s 51.49%. Given how poorly Davison performed in a split-primary, pointing out Zahilay’s distance to her may not really help Balducci. 

While accusing him of being some sort of Trojan Horse for abolition, the poll also explored hits from the left, pointing out how Zahilay flip-flopped on shutting down the youth jail, a major promise of his first campaign. Likely, whoever funded the poll wouldn’t put this statement next to one calling him a radical abolitionist. To attack him on both fronts would be just as flip-floppy! 

In Defense of Balducci

The poll also indicates that someone is trying to polish the Bellevue vs. Seattle argument. 

“For too long, Seattle and its values have dominated King County government, while the rest of the County has been treated as an afterthought,” the poll argued. “That will only get worse under Zahilay. Balducci is a former Bellevue mayor who understands that the voices of suburban and rural King County must be heard.”

It’s true. Zahilay has ties to Seattle. Zahilay graduated from a Seattle high school, he’s worked in Seattle law firms, and he currently represents many Seattle neighborhoods on King County Council. He does not however live in Seattle, he lives in Tukwila. 

Besides, these connections didn’t stop his historically strong advocacy for Skyway, an unincorporated area between Seattle and Renton. 

In a Hail Mary mission to make that Seattle attack sing, the poll tested out a classic: Vaguely associating their enemy with Sawant, the emblem of Seattle’s failures in the suburban mind. We’ve seen the Chamber of Commerce, the real estate industry, and other conservative blood suckers trot out the Sawant boogeyman a million times. And as I wrote following progressive candidates’ blowout victory in the primary, it’s not landing this time around. 

Yes, Zahilay has supported Sawant, including against the infamously sexist and racist recall attempt launched by right-wingers, a position moderates such as Council Member Joy Hollingworth have also taken up. But he’s no Sawant fanboy. If he was, Zahilay would know that she’s challenging warhawk Rep. Adam Smith for his long-held seat in congress and he would obviously pick the candidate against genocide over the weapon’s manufacturers’ darling. But Zahilay seems to support Smith. After all, Zahilay attended Smith’s recent fundraiser banquet and he launched his campaign with Smith endorsement. 

Its unclear how Balducci’s campaign and moneyed interests who may support her will play offense against Zahilay in the coming weeks. But so far, it's not looking like anyone’s pretending Balducci is the progressive choice anymore.