Washington state's 2025 elections saw progressives win across multiple cities and legislative districts, with people-powered campaigns and bold ideas beating out establishment moderates. Listen in to the Hacks & Wonks 2025 Post-Election Roundtable from Tuesday, November 11, 2025, as the strategists who saw it coming explain what pundits missed!

Panelists:

• Stephen Paolini, Principal at Bottled Lightning Collective

• Lexi Koren, Communications Consultant with PowerHouse Strategic

• Crystal Fincher, Executive Director of KVRU and Hacks & Wonks Host

As always, a full text transcript of the show is available at officialhacksandwonks.com.

You can follow Hacks & Wonks on Bluesky at @HacksAndWonks. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Bluesky at @finchfrii and find today's special guests, Stephen Paolini at ‪@stephenpaolini, and Lexi Koren at @lexikoren.

On this week-in-review, Crystal Fincher and Robert Cruickshank discuss:

🤩 Katie Wilson elected mayor!

🌊 Progressive wave across region and state

👀 What to watch out for next

🏫 Role of Stranger school board endorsements

⚔️ Looking forward to legislative session

As always, a full text transcript of the show is available at officialhacksandwonks.com.

Follow us on Bluesky at @HacksAndWonks. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Bluesky at @finchfrii and find today's co-host, Robert Cruickshank, on Bluesky at @robertcruickshank.com.

On this week-in-review, Crystal Fincher and Robert Cruickshank discuss:

⚾ Mariners!

💸 Seattle wastes homelessness money

⛔ SPOG undermining popular CARE team

🚫 Seattle School Board rejects cop at Garfield

🗳️ Use dropboxes to vote!

As always, a full text transcript of the show is available at officialhacksandwonks.com.

Follow us on Bluesky at @HacksAndWonks. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Bluesky at @finchfrii and find today's co-host, Robert Cruickshank, on Bluesky at @robertcruickshank.com.

On this week-in-review, Crystal Fincher and Melissa Santos discuss:

WA/CA/OR vaccine alliance

Cell phones in schools

Firefighter immigration raid = inside job

Harrell pushes light rail extensions despite shortfall

Autonomous vehicles pilot starts

As always, a full text transcript of the show is available at officialhacksandwonks.com.

Follow us on Bluesky at @HacksAndWonks. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Bluesky at @finchfrii and find today's co-host, Melissa Santos at @melissajsantos.

Amy Sundberg, public safety reporter for The Urbanist and publisher of Notes from the Emerald City, joins Hacks & Wonks to discuss how Seattle's City Council is poised to expand the city's surveillance pilot program before collecting any evaluation data on its effectiveness, raising concerns among privacy advocates about potential federal access to the data amid heightened immigration enforcement.

The expansion, scheduled for a final council vote on September 9 at 2:30 p.m., would install new cameras in three areas and tap into Seattle Department of Transportation's existing network of traffic management cameras, adding more than 365 cameras total to the Seattle Police Department's Real-Time Crime Center.

As always, a full text transcript of the show is available at officialhacksandwonks.com.

Follow us on Bluesky at @HacksAndWonks. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Bluesky at @finchfrii and find Amy Sundberg at @amysundberg.

On this week-in-review, Crystal Fincher and Robert Cruickshank discuss:

🧊 Spokane blocks warrantless ICE action

🥡 $15m Uber Eats settlement

🛒 UFCW 3000 backs Wilson

🚲 Biker hit where safety upgrades were cancelled

🏫 School board updates

🪧 Protests against Microsoft use by IDF

As always, a full text transcript of the show is available at officialhacksandwonks.com.

Follow us on Bluesky at @HacksAndWonks. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Bluesky at @finchfrii and find today's co-host, Robert Cruickshank, on Bluesky at @robertcruickshank.com.

Hacks & Wonks hosted a 2025 Post-Primary Roundtable on Tuesday, August 12, 2025 to dig into the 2025 primary results - what they mean, how they happened, and what's next - with the people who actually do the work of winning (and sometimes losing) campaigns in Seattle and King County. Listen to the roundtable as a podcast or watch the recorded livestream on YouTube!

By bringing together a panel of seasoned local political consultants who've been in the field, in the strategy rooms, and on the phones - not just pundits looking at numbers from a distance - they cut through the noise and spin to give insights not found in typical news coverage.

Panelists:

• Riall Johnson, Principal Partner at Prism West

• Stephen Paolini, Principal at Bottled Lightning Collective

• Lexi Koren, Communications Consultant with PowerHouse Strategic

• Crystal Fincher, Political Consultant with Fincher Consulting and Hacks & Wonks Host

As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com.

You can follow Hacks & Wonks on Bluesky at @HacksAndWonks. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Bluesky at @finchfrii and find today's special guests, Riall Johnson at @rialljohnson, Stephen Paolini at ‪@stephenpaolini, and Lexi Koren at @lexikoren.

On this week-in-review, Crystal Fincher and Erica Barnett discuss:

⛪ Christian nationalist rally moves to new park

🤑 Police execs take bonus meant for officers

🛡️ Trump admin targets sanctuary cities –

📮 -- and vote-by-mail

🕵️ Tacoma ICE facility must open for inspections

As always, a full text transcript of the show is available at officialhacksandwonks.com.

Follow us on Bluesky at @HacksAndWonks. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Bluesky at @finchfrii and find today's co-host, Erica Barnett, on Bluesky at @ericacbarnett and on PubliCola.com.

On this week-in-review, Crystal Fincher and David Kroman discuss:

💰 Seattle B&O tax overhaul proposal

📉 Seattle budget forecast

👁️ Seattle surveillance expansion

⚖️ Tacoma minimum wage initiative sues city

⚔️ MGP challenger in CD3

🗳️ Election results update

As always, a full text transcript of the show is available at officialhacksandwonks.com.

Follow us on Bluesky at @HacksAndWonks. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Bluesky at @finchfrii and find today's co-host, David Kroman at @kromandavid.

On this week-in-review, Crystal Fincher and Josh Cohen discuss:

❤️‍🩹 A Hacks & Wonks update

🗳️ Primary election results!

👀 Seattle: Mayor, City Attorney, City Council seats

💵 Seattle Democracy Vouchers

🥊 King County: Executive, D5 Council seat

🤓 Takeaways

As always, a full text transcript of the show is available at officialhacksandwonks.com.

Follow us on Bluesky at @HacksAndWonks. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Bluesky at @finchfrii and find today's co-host, Josh Cohen at @jcohenwrites.