In the race for King County Metropolitan Council in District 8, a political newcomer is challenging a veteran politician.
Nick Duda, a tech and business consultant who spent 10 months as a legislative aide to a Seattle City Council member, is looking to unseat County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, who has held the seat since January 2024. Before that she served on the Seattle City Council for seven years. Although Mosqueda has years of public policy experience, Duda would bring a fresh approach to solving some of King County’s most pressing and longstanding problems.
As a legislative aide to Seattle Councilmember Maritza Rivera, Duda helped shepherd the legislation that created the proposed $480 million Seattle Public Library Levy that will be on the August ballot. He also conducted internal analyses of the city’s public safety and human services initiatives.
Duda would bring to King County expertise in budget analysis, something the county sorely needs as it grapples with a huge biennial budget shortfall, a need for greater financial oversight of the beleaguered King County Regional Homelessness Authority and of its own Department of Community and Health Services.
“I think we’ve suffered from a lack of accountability,” Duda said. “We haven’t held organizations and agencies accountable, despite mismanagement fraud.”
He called the open air drug use at 12th Avenue South and South Jackson Street in Seattle and sex trafficking on Aurora Avenue North examples of public policy failures.
“Our tolerance for letting this go on for as long as it has is kind of galling,” he said.
Duda said he would be in favor of using available housing space at the Patricia H. Clark Children and Family Justice Center as a safe haven for young girls who are being trafficked.
He also favors more aggressive law enforcement when it comes to public drug use, such as a “three strikes” approach that would eventually lead to mandatory drug treatment.
When asked about the sex trafficking and crime that have festered on Aurora Avenue North, Mosqueda said she’s interested in connecting trafficked victims to social services. But she also cited as part of the problem barriers to access to massage parlor licenses, such as high costs and licensing information not available in various languages. We found the last part of that answer to be nonresponsive to the sex-trafficking challenges victims and the neighborhood are experiencing.
When it comes to revelations from a recent audit and Seattle Times investigation of the Department of Community and Human Services, Duda said the lack of measurable expectations can lead to fraud and abuse.
“I’m a firm believer that if we’re expanding social programs, expanding our revenue through increased taxes, that we should hold those programs to the highest standards about how we’re doing that and what measurable outcomes we’re looking for.”
A third candidate, longshoreman Mia Jacobson, is also on the ballot. She offered positions that focused on the need to hear directly from constituents when it comes to decision-making.
When it comes addressing the county’s needs with an innovative and pragmatic approach, Duda is voters’ better choice.
