SEATTLE (AP) - A King County judge has rejected Seattle city council member Kshama Sawant’s effort to stop a recall attempt against her from moving forward.
Sawant had appealed a decision by Superior Court Judge Jim Rogers that said some of her recent actions crossed the threshold to initiate a recall.
On Monday, Rogers in a five-page ruling reiterated his earlier finding that four of the six charges leveled against Sawant are both specific enough and sufficient to permit the process to continue, and denied Sawant’s motion for reconsideration in its entirety, news outlets reported. The ruling means that the recall effort against Sawant can proceed.
Sawant, a socialist and vocal proponent of cutting Seattle’s police budget, also has appealed Rogers’ earlier ruling to the state Supreme Court, which has not made a decision or said they will accept the case.
A group of Seattle residents is pushing for the Sawant recall, alleging violations including when she allowed demonstrators into City Hall during a nighttime protest in June and spoke at a protest at Mayor Jenny Durkan’s house.
They also say she used city resources to promote a ballot initiative and delegated employment decisions in her office to her political party.
Rogers’ role is to assume the charges against Sawant are true and to determine whether they are specific and serious enough to merit a recall.
Dmitri Iglitzin, Sawant’s attorney, said previously in arguments that Sawant has been elected three times, most recently less than a year ago, and said the recall petitioners were trying to redo those elections because they disagree with her politics.
The Seattle City Council has voted to pay for Sawant’s legal defense in the matter.
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