Seattle Monorail Board member Cindi Laws, running for re-election, has incurred the official opposition of organized labor for reportedly making lengthy, repeated anti-Semitic remarks during a candidate interview.
The King County Labor Council, which has endorsed no one in Laws' race yet, took the rare step of voting to oppose her candidacy Wednesday night.
"She linked opponents of the monorail to the Jewish community in what we felt was an inappropriate way," Labor Council Executive Secretary Steve Williamson said Thursday. Laws made the comments Aug. 9 during an interview with seven members of the labor council's political committee, including Williamson, who sits on the monorail board with her.
Several of those present, two of whom are Jewish, said Laws made offensive comments in the context of discussing her differences with Beth Goldberg, an election opponent. Goldberg is Jewish and a self-described "longtime monorail skeptic."
Laws is one of the monorail board's two elected members and an ardent supporter of the financially floundering project.
In the interview, said Marc Auerbach, an interview panelist, Laws was asked about her opponent and said she "was worried because she perceived that Jews have contributed a lot of money to the anti-monorail campaigns in the past, that Beth Goldberg is Jewish, and that will make it easy for (Goldberg) to potentially raise a lot of money because of those connections."
"I'm just mortified about this," Laws said Thursday.
"It's very frustrating for me because I have such a record of work on civil rights and working against discrimination," she said in an interview. "But I said some things that were taken as an offense. It was not intended to be so ... It was absolutely not meant to be offensive, and when I tried to explain the situation, it became mired worse."
Several interview panelists agreed that when they told Laws her remarks were offensive, her attempts to explain herself compounded the problem.
Williamson said he was shocked by Laws' comments, not only because they were uttered by a public official trying to win the support of organized labor but also because he has regarded her as an opponent of bias.
"I've worked with Cindi for three years on the monorail board," he said. "I know that Cindi's interactions in terms of her work on the board has been to be someone who looks out for people of color, their interests, the disadvantaged community."
According to notes taken by three interview panelists during the meeting, and confirmed by them Thursday, Laws said that 75 percent of the money spent on last year's unsuccessful monorail-recall ballot measure came from the "Jewish community."
In Auerbach's notes, and according to his and other panelists' recollections Thursday, Laws went on to say, "A Jewish candidate can get that money more easily," and noted that Goldberg has a Jewish surname.
Auerbach quoted the candidate as saying further, "Two things that terrify me: Without making it sound anti-Semitic, overwhelmingly the Second Avenue property owners ... they are very effective if you get into their group."
Auerbach said Laws mentioned that downtown businessman Ken Alhadeff "is a very active fund-raiser within the Jewish community and other circles" and that he kicked the Rainier Institute -- the think tank Laws directs -- out of the building where it was renting office space because he opposes the monorail.
Neal Safrin, who also took notes and who, like Auerbach, is Jewish, said Laws said her greatest fear was that downtown developers, whom she characterized as mostly Jewish, would join forces with anti-monorail groups to oppose her candidacy.
Willliamson said he told Laws "on behalf of the labor council that I found her remarks offensive and that we will not tolerate discrimination of any kind." Others also expressed indignation.
Interviewers said Laws apologized and, in trying to explain her remarks, said, "It probably is a poor reference," but that Joel Horn, former executive director of the Seattle Monorail Project, used to joke that he and another staffer were the only Jews who supported the project.
They said she went on to say that Horn would refer to the opposition as "Jews Against the Monorail," but that she was not anti-Semitic and that she once was engaged to a Jew.
Williamson said the labor council's executive board voted to recommend the action opposing Laws' candidacy -- an act that requires at least a two-thirds vote of the members -- to the council's delegate body Wednesday night, and it was ratified.
Williamson said the council hasn't endorsed a candidate in Laws' race because she was the only one who sought an endorsement, and "we only endorse candidates who come to us."
Goldberg, a King County budget supervisor, said she would ask for labor's endorsement. She said that when she heard about Laws' remarks, "I laughed. The Jews have been blamed in history for a lot of things over the years, but this is the first time I've heard we were involved in the monorail."
Robert Jacobs, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said he was shocked, after reading transcripts of the interview panel's notes, "to hear a candidate for public office who still is saying ... traditionally anti-Semitic statements about Jews having money, about Jews controlling politics. It's horribly disappointing."
Laws also has a second election opponent, Stan Lippmann, a perennial candidate.
But when will they stop being in denial, and truly embrace what they really feel? When will we see "Jews Get Out!" signs at moonbat rallies, meaning not "out of Palestine", but "out of the U.S."? 
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