Political newcomer and Superintendent of Public Instruction candidate, Reid Saaris, has been leading the pack in fundraising throughout the race, and the latest numbers show that trend continues.
The Saaris campaign raised an estimated $334,000 since the candidate announced his run in summer 2023, officials told The Observer. Saaris raised $56,000 from June 1 to July 15, according to a fundraising update shared with The Observer.
The fundraising update for two-time incumbent, Superintendent Chris Reykdal, showed the campaign collected about $40,000 in cash and $45,000 via in-kind contributions in the same period.
Saaris is still winning the money game for Superintendent, raising upwards of $140,000 more than the two-time incumbent, according to the PDC.
Where the money comes from differs. For Reykdal, about 25% of those contributions came from PACs and 13% from unions, whereas 95% of what Saaris raised came from individual donors, including a lot of affluent out-of-state supporters Saaris has connected with through his time at the moneyed Stanford University.
Though Saaris has raised more cash than Reykdal, the money isn’t necessarily translating to many high-profile endorsements for Saaris compared to the incumbent.
For example, Reykdal secured the endorsement of the influential Washington Education Association, which represents public school teachers, after participating in a panel where members selected Reykdal over Saaris as their chosen candidate.
Despite securing the support of the WEA and many elected officials—including outgoing Gov. Inslee and frontrunner for the Governor’s race, Attorney General Bob Ferguson—a few statewide representatives were notably silent on Reykdal and others parted with the incumbent and endorsed the political newcomer.
One of those endorsements came from Rep. Tana Senn, D-Mercer Island, who chairs the House Human Services, Youth, and Early Learning Committee. Senn does not sit on the House Education Committee, where many K-12 education policies are tested, but has helped craft policies that impact public schools, such as the zero-emission school bus bill from the 2024 session.
Senn told The Observer that she endorsed Saaris because she felt he was committed to working more collaboratively with school districts, an area where she feels OSPI has fallen short of its obligations under Reykdal’s leadership.
Senn said she also liked his ideas around money for basic education focusing more on the individual needs of each student, as opposed to cash going to school districts based on reported student demographics.
Most states have some sort of weighted formula for English language learners and students in poverty in public schools, making districts educating these students eligible for more money from the get-go to meet student needs, according to research from the University of Washington Education Policy Lab.
Washington does not use student weights and assigns money to school districts using the prototypical school model, which gives money based on enrollment and fixed school staffing ratios. Schools receive extra allotments for English language learners and low-income students, but the money is allocated in a different way than student weights. Many school district leaders argue education financing policies must be reassessed.
Saaris was also endorsed by Rep. Amy Walen, D-Bellevue, and Deputy House Majority Leader Larry Springer, D-Kirkland. He also got the stamp of approval from The Seattle Times editorial board.
House Education Committee Chair, Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos, D-Seattle, and education committee member Rep. Monica Stonier, D-Vancouver, have not issued endorsements for any superintendent candidates yet, including the incumbent.
Santos and Stonier are major players in the K-12 education space, and sources tell us their decision to stay silent on Reykdal could indicate a lack of support, though neither has explicitly commented on Reykdal’s candidacy or the race.
The Republican party selected David Olson as their candidate for Superintendent, though his fundraising has so far paled in comparison to his Democratic competitors. Olson reported about $18,000 cash on hand currently, according to the latest fundraising update. (Sara Kassabian)
Franz gets a nod from The Seattle Times in the 6th CD
The Seattle Times editorial board backed Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz in her bid for Congress, which could further tighten one of the hottest races on the ballot.
What’s interesting about the endorsement is that it nowhere mentions the recent story by the Times’ own Jim Brunner in which Franz is held to account for unduly politicizing the work of the Department of Natural Resources.
The 6th, which stretches from Tacoma northwest across the Kitsap and Olympic peninsulas, mostly lies outside the newspaper’s traditional circulation area. However, it does include folks who commute to Seattle via ferry from Bremerton and Bainbridge Island, who were avid consumers of the hard-copy paper when that was more of a thing.
The board chose Franz over state Sen. Emily Randall, D-Bremerton, who has been racking up major endorsements in recent weeks, writing: Randall is “an accomplished lawmaker whose focus on higher education and health care access is needed in Olympia. But Franz’s bipartisan leadership and élan as public lands commissioner is too important to keep from the nation’s capital.” (Paul Queary)
An unsurprising poll on the governor’s race
A new horse-race poll commissioned by The Seattle Times and partners paints a conventional-wisdom picture of the state of the governor’s race. The survey, which bravely attempted to test people likely to vote in next month’s primary, found 42 percent back Democratic Attorney General Bob Ferguson, while 33 percent are behind Republican Dave Reichert, a former congressman and King County sheriff. As Claire Withycombe of the Times notes, the margin would shrink to about six percentage points if votes for Republican Semi Bird and Democrat Mark Mullet are redistributed by party.
That’s about the generic structural advantage for Democrats here. The paper’s headline writer, apparently searching for drama, went with “Bob Ferguson has a single-digit lead over Dave Reichert.” It should be noted that nine percentage points is a country ass-kicking in politics. (Paul Queary)
These stories first appeared on the authors’ political website, The Washington Observer
Not only does this guy Saaris have “slick snake-oil faker” written all over him, but a quick check of his contributors on PDC finds known charter school supporters Chester Finn, Steve Sundquist, and Don Nielsen among them, and charter-curious figures such as Erin Jones, herself an unsuccessful candidate for SPI, who ran with heavy backing from charter money. This in addition to endorsements from charter squishes like Larry Springer. So Saaris, despite his kumbaya campaign and his bland platitudes, is a hard no for me. I’m not interested in rewarding these people. Sticking with Reykdal.
The Seattle Times endorsement would fit in that corner, too.