Independent-expenditure committees already have spent much more on this year’s Seattle City Council races than on past contests.
Though the primary election is Tuesday and the general election is still months away, independent spending on the races has surpassed $275,000.
That’s double the outside money spent on primary- and general- election council races in 2009, when independent-expenditure committees chipped in $134,495.
Even fewer independent dollars were spent on races in the seven other election cycles since 1999, the first year for which records are readily available.
These political committees aren’t allowed to coordinate with candidate campaigns.