Chamber of Commerce is planning on being an active player in Seattle District Elections

It will be hard to tell the difference, really. I suppose this is some kind of leverage they are holding over the incumbents that aren't socialists, and aren't actively doing whatever the Seattle Downtown Association wants.

The reality here in the 5th District is that the idea that whatever benefits downtown benefits the entire city was just dismissed by citizens voting for districts.

The other group looking to influence candidate selection and election will be the Democratic (and I suppose Republican) state parties.

The state LD's are breeding grounds for political insiders, and in the case of our local county district representative, inbreeding.

That whole system creates incumbents by appointment, rather than open elections.

The 2015 elections, especially in the 5th, are one of the few chances for anybody not inside somebody's system to run for an open seat.

That uncertainty is likely to make people that are used to having their way do some fairly extreme things to keep control of the city council.

Chamber Plans for 2015 City Elections

The Civic Alliance for a Sound Economy, the political arm of the Seattle-King County Chamber of Commerce, held a closed-door "business leaders' luncheon" today to discuss, among other things, "Rumors and Lies: Who will run for City Council in 2015?," "Policy and political plans for 2015 district elections," and "Campaign infrastructure, candidate recruitment, communication strategy, fundraising, [and] district partnerships." 

The group reportedly didn't name many specific potential candidates, but they did make it clear that they want to see the entire council get strong challengers—or, at the very least, to hold off on contributing to incumbents, who the Chamber usually supports, until they're assured the council has the chamber's back. (Read the rest here: http://www.seattlemet.com/news-and-profiles/publicola/articles/chamber-plans )