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New York Times exposed after attempting to paint Antifa activist candidate as a Democrat by quoting paid campaign consultant

The New York Times cited Shasti Conrad, the chair of the King County Democrats but initially failed to disclose that Conrad was a paid operative of Thomas- Kennedy’s campaign.

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Ari Hoffman Seattle WA
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The New York Times on Saturday waded into a local election for the office of Seattle City Attorney between an Antifa activist who has pledged not to prosecute crimes against a former moderate Democrat who left the party to become a moderate Republican.

In his article entitled Seattle’s Choice: A Police Abolitionist or a Law-and-Order Republican? Seattle bureau chief Mike Baker attempted to paint Nicole Thomas Kennedy, who pledged to abolish the police and prison system, as a Democrat rather than an anarchist.

Ann Davison, the Republican candidate, has been endorsed by both sides of the political spectrum which includes Gary Locke, a former Washington Democratic governor who worked as President Barak Obama’s ambassador to China and former Democratic governor Christine Gregoire.

In attempting to try and showcase Antifa supporting Thomas-Kennedy as a Democrat, likely hoping the very blue city will vote for whichever candidate voters view as 'more Democrat,' Baker cited Shasti Conrad, the chair of the King County Democrats.

However, Baker initially failed to disclose that Conrad was a paid operative of Thomas- Kennedy’s campaign. Baker wrote that Conrad was "…shocked and disheartened to see Mr. Locke and Ms. Gregoire back a candidate like Ms. Davison. People can’t call themselves Democrats and endorse a Republican for the job, she said, adding that the former governors were simply not in touch with the people living in Seattle."

The omission was quickly called out on social media and a line was added to the article which read, "Shasti Conrad, the chair of the King County Democrats, who has done consulting work for the Thomas-Kennedy campaign…"

Conrad worked for Prism Washington on the Thomas-Kennedy campaign. Thomas-Kennedy hired Prism Washington's services as campaign consultants and to collect Democracy Vouchers. To date, Thomas- Kennedy has spent over $226,000 on Prism’s services out of the more than $428,000 the campaign has collected.

When reached for comment, Danielle Rhoades Ha, Vice President of Communications for The New York Times told The Post Millennial, "We regularly update online articles to refine them, add new information and additional context. This article was updated to note that Ms. Conrad has done consulting work for Ms. Thomas-Kennedy's campaign in addition to serving as chair of the King County Democrats. We make note of changes only if they involve an error."

The controversy was reminiscent of an incident in September when Gennette Cordova at Teen Vogue was revealed to be a contractor for Prism Washington and worked on Thomas- Kennedy’s campaign. The outlet has a history of supporting the anti-police movement as well as Antifa.

After The Post Millennial reached out to Teen Vogue for comment on the controversy, the magazine did not reply but did add a disclaimer at the bottom of the article. "Editor's note: The author of this piece is a contract staffer for Prism Washington, a consulting firm that was also contracted by Nicole Thomas-Kennedy's campaign. She has not done any work directly for Thomas-Kennedy's race."

Yet, records showed that Cordova was paid by Prism leading up to the publication of the article.

As Teen Vogue received more pushback online regarding the author's connection to Prism, which included documents from campaign expenditures, they again updated the editor's note to say: "After this piece was published, Teen Vogue learned that the author of this piece is a contract staffer for Prism Washington, a consulting firm that was also contracted by Nicole Thomas Kennedy’s campaign. Some of the social media work she did for Prism benefited all of the firm’s clients. We regret the initial failure to disclose this information."

According to RadarOnline, Cordova is the college student who received the infamous, sexually suggestive pics of former Congressman Anthony Weiner, and was also busted for underage drinking in 2018. Ironically, according to the outlet Cordova "was voted by her former classmates at Shorecrest High School in Washington as 'the most likely to be involved in a tabloid scandal.'"

The Post Millennial has learned that at least two ethics complaints were filed regarding the incident and one has already been filed regarding the latest case involving The New York Times.

Prism works mostly on the campaigns of radical socialist candidates. Prism Washington, worked for the campaign of socialist Seattle City Council Member Tammy Morales, who advocated for riots during last summer's unrest.

Prism has also been hired by Seattle City Council Candidate Nikkita Oliver, who is mired in allegations of fraud and worse. Oliver is one of the leaders of King County Equity Now (KCEN) and has advocated for defunding the police and for the money to be given to community groups.

She also advocates for less prisons and releasing criminals. Recently, allegations of money mismanagement and fraud have been leveled against her organization. The Seattle City Council used a loophole to circumvent the bidding process and appropriated 3 million dollars to "non-profit" organizations that were part of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ).

The money appeared to be more of a political payoff to groups involved in the riots and armed occupation of the city, rather than an investment in the community. The money was funneled through the office Council Member Morales. Oliver was a supporter of the Morales campaign and Morales has endorsed Oliver's campaign for council.

During the primary election, Prism worked on the campaign of Ubax Gardheere, a candidate for King County Council in Washington state, who threatened to blow up a school bus filled with children, who had been receiving a large amount of campaign contributions from outside her district including from day care centers in Minneapolis, Minn. as well as the Democrat party and local Democratic officials.

In 2015, Seattle voters approved a property tax of $3 million to fund the Democracy Voucher Program for 10 years. The Democracy Voucher Program gives each Seattle voter $100 in $25 vouchers to give out to "donate" to the campaign of their choice.

This summer, Pride Fest attendees reported to Safe Seattle, that canvassers are being paid to collect the vouchers, one of the canvassers claiming that he collected 2,000 vouchers on Saturday which at $25 each, would equal $50,000 in funds for campaigns.

According to the report, the canvasser claimed that he and "his crew are getting paid to gather Democracy Vouchers." He also claimed that "they all came up from California to do this and are making a lot of money."

The canvasser claimed that they were contracted by the consulting firm Prism on behalf of mayoral candidate and current Seattle Council President Lorena Gonzalez, as well as other candidates.

Prism was also the firm behind voucher collection for Andrew Grant Houston, a candidate for Seattle Mayor and former City Council staffer who managed to get more people to give him money through the Democracy Voucher Program than to actually vote for him, which raised red flags. Houston, who did not advance from the primary, was able to bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds through the program.

Houston’s campaign gathered more vouchers by far than any other campaign, almost 14,000 vouchers worth $346,325, coming in behind Gonzalez in vouchers though he only managed to finish in sixth place in the contest.

At the time his campaign concluded, Houston was in the process of paying off $60,000 in student loan debt. He owed over $28,000 in back rent on his $1,695/month Capitol Hill apartment. This after he had stopped paying rent at the start of the pandemic, despite still being employed as a staff member of Council Member Teresa Mosqueda. Houston told The Center Square, "I don't think I would be running if the Democracy Voucher program didn't exist."

Like Houston, Nicole Thomas Kennedy, who has campaigned on cutting the City Attorney’s criminal division and an end to prosecuting misdemeanors, also has a massive amount of debt. According to her 2019 bankruptcy petition there is approximately $465,000 of debt, which is mostly student loans. There are also 13 collection agencies chasing those debts.

Additionally, Thomas-Kennedy’s apartment building, which is subsidized by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), is located on a prominent corner of the Seattle University’s business district. According to the building’s website, it is limited to people who earn 60 percent of the of Area Median Income (AMI), which is approximately $62,000 for a family of 3 such as Thomas-Kennedy’s. Rent in the building is $1,233 for a two-bedroom apartment, as of 2019.

According to public records, while working as a Public Defense Attorney for King County in 2020, Thomas-Kennedy had a reported earning $47.65 per hour, which is over $97,000 per year at a full-time rate. This before factoring in her husband’s income from his private practice.

It appears as if she has lived in that location for the better part of five years. The bankruptcy was filed in 2019. She quit her job in July of 2020, seemingly to make a lot less money. From the bankruptcy documents, Thomas-Kennedy may have known her income was too high to remain in subsidized housing and referenced possibly having to move out of the "rent controlled" building. That may have been another reason she quit her well-paying job.

According to her website, Thomas-Kennedy left the public defender's office to take on "pro bono activist defense work, part-time public defender contract cases, and volunteer with the National Lawyers Guild" during the riots in 2020 in the wake of the death of George Floyd led by Antifa and BLM, presumably to advocate for the rioters.

From that location, she regularly tweeted about the Seattle Police Department’s activities in the area during the Antifa and BLM riots in 2020. She has also been accused of lying about an experience in which she claimed her home was gassed by Seattle Police during the 2020 riots. However, neighbors dispute this claim, one even called out the candidate during a recent forum to which Thomas-Kennedy responded, "What difference does it make?"

Yet little of the previously published information was included in the write up on Thomas Kennedy by The New York Times. Instead, the Times pushed Thomas-Kennedy’s narrative regarding the false claim that her building was gassed. "Ms. Thomas-Kennedy said the tweets she sent last year, before even considering a run for office, came at a time when she was angry after police were shooting tear gas into her neighborhood, forcing her to buy a gas mask for her child. But she said the remarks were inappropriate for someone running for office."

Violent socialist extremists have taken over the Democratic party in the Greater Seattle area. Blue dog, moderate, even liberal Democrats are now labeled, "Alt right," "white supremacist," "white nationalist," "fascist," "Nazi," even "Republicans" and "conservatives" by these fringe activists. The activists know that if they get the coveted ‘D’ next to a candidate’s name, the heavily leaning population will vote for them even if the candidate is a Democrat in name only.

Meanwhile these so-called Democrats hurl racial slurs at minorities and even dress their children in Antifa onesies.

Davison knew this when she penned an op-ed explaining why she left the Democrat party in 2020.

"All my life I assumed that the Democratic Party believed in acceptance and tolerance, but that was not my experience in this race. Those claiming to be the most tolerant, through their political party affiliation, showed their intolerance to differing political thought and approaches to problems. They had to shame me and many others, including thousands of voters, for having such political thoughts. I say that is the opposite of tolerance and in fact harms our democracy more than a lot of other things. Claiming to have a virtue while doing the opposite is what should not be tolerated."

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