The Stranger Election Control Board loves a badass socialist. (See Sawant, Kshama.) But socialist Jess Spear didn't convince us she's ready to bring the people's revolution to Olympia, and we think longtime House Speaker Frank Chopp and his maddening incrementalism will actually do more for the issues we care about, more quickly, than a Spear election would.

That's because Spear, who sees Sawant's success on the nine-member Seattle City Council as her model for success in Olympia, seems to believe that electing just one socialist from one Seattle district to the 98-member state House will suddenly cause the rest of the House members to march behind her on rent control, a higher minimum wage, and forcing CEOs to give out free foot rubs. Yeah, we made up that last one, but really, Spear says things like, "I think electing me alone will cause many people in the legislature to understand." Wrong. If the motherfucking state supreme court can't even make people in the legislature understand, under the threat of a contempt of court finding, then how is one election in one ultraliberal district going to transform the minds of people representing Omak and Moses Lake, never mind a majority of House Democrats? Sawant moved the city council by capturing the imagination of a majority of Seattleites, which is the kind of thing that makes every other council member sit up and pay attention. Spear isn't going to capture the imagination of a majority of the nearly seven million Washingtonians with her focus on rent control. She didn't even convince a majority of the SECB that rent control is a great idea. (How's it working out in New York and San Francisco?)

Frank Chopp came into our offices and pointed out the window at affordable housing units that are under construction, right now, because of his efforts. "I'm the strongest leader on affordable housing," he says.

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