Sen. Bob Hasegawa Announces Run For Mayor

The labor activist will run on an anti-Wall Street platform.

By Daniel Person • May 8, 2017 4:45 pm
Bob Hasegawa speaking at the Tax Day rally in Seattle this year. He said: “We need to have a statewide conversation about comprehensive, progressive tax reform. It includes talking about a progressive income tax. Those who get the most out of society, are morally and socially obligated to put the most back into society so we can build a society that lifts all of us up, not just a few at the expense of the rest of us.” Photo by Alex Garland
Bob Hasegawa speaking at the Tax Day rally in Seattle this year. He said: “We need to have a statewide conversation about comprehensive, progressive tax reform. It includes talking about a progressive income tax. Those who get the most out of society, are morally and socially obligated to put the most back into society so we can build a society that lifts all of us up, not just a few at the expense of the rest of us.” Photo by Alex Garland

State Sen. Bob Hasegawa is running for mayor.

Hasegawa, who currently represents the 11th district covering Beacon Hill, plans to announce his candidacy tomorrow morning in front of the Wells Fargo Center in downtown Seattle. Hasegawa is a longtime labor activist, and his announcement indicates he plans to make economic justice a central component to his campaign.

“This campaign is about recapturing our political system that is rigged against us. It’s about building political power for the people and flipping the political paradigm to prove people can overcome money in politics,” the release says. In Olympia, Hasegawa has championed the idea of creating a “state bank,” a publicly owned depository for tax revenue that is currently kept with large Wall Street banks (as Seattle’s recent divestment saga has made clear).

“This election is an opportunity to localize that concept and using our tax dollars to invest in Seattle, not Wall Street stocks,” his press release says.

Speaking at this year’s Tax Day protest, he also called for a progressive income tax.

The announcement comes as rumors mount that Mayor Ed Murray will drop out of the race.

dperson@seattleweekly.com