Four-term Seattle City Council member Richard Conlin is still AWOL (we've been trying to pin him down) on whether he would support a joint resolution condemning Russia's gay-bashing policies, but his Socialist Alternative challenger, Kshama Sawant, has zero qualms about supporting such a resolution.

"Absolutely. No question," answered Sawant without hesitation. Sawant called council president Sally Clark's excuses "disingenuous," citing a long list of prior city council resolutions—from South African apartheid to Arizona's "papers please" law—that had nothing directly to do with city business.

But even if there wasn't precedent, says Sawant, the resolution would still be the moral thing to do. "What is stopping a council member from doing the right thing," Sawant asked rhetorically. "That is your job: To show leadership."