Socialist Jess Spear, left, and Democrat Frank Chopp, right. Two of them can make it through the August 5 primary. But in what order? And which one should win the general election in November?
  • Spear by Dominic Holden / Chopp by Chopp Campaign
  • Socialist Jess Spear, left, and Democrat Frank Chopp, right. Both of them can make it through the August 5 primary. But in what order? And which one should win the general election in November?

In this corner: Democratic State House Speaker Frank Chopp, who's been representing Seattle's 43rd District in the state legislature since 1994 and now presides over the one half our state lawmaking apparatus that's in Democratic control. He hands out stacks of papers outlining his accomplishments in the house (many of them thwarted in recent years by the Republican-controlled state senate) and says, "I'm the strongest leader on affordable housing."

In this corner: Socialist Jess Spear, who helped lead the grassroots push in Seattle for a $15 minimum wage and wants to go to Olympia, in part, to push rent control. She believes she can do for the legislature what Kshama Sawant has done for the Seattle City Council—pull the body swiftly to the left—and says that by ditching the speaker of the house and electing her Seattle would "lose a corporate politician" and "gain a bold advocate."

The Stranger Election Control Board will tell you what it thinks of this race tomorrow, but for today: