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At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Rodolfo announced he is no longer planning to move his clothing design company, , from Seattle to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥. Speaking at the call to the audience, he blamed Mayor Regina Romero, the incumbent Democrat who is up for re-election, citing her support of a Black Lives Matter founder .

“Honestly, I’ve decided to keep my company in Seattle because of what’s going on here in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥,â€� Rodolfo said. “It’s awful what’s going on here in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥. This is the blueprint, mayor, of what exactly happened in Seattle.â€�

This week, Rodolfo has been celebrated on conservative talk radio, his , and passed along on social media by and . It caught on because he captured the frustrations that conservatives and some other residents feel about the city government under Romero.

But in political terms it was just a distraction that won’t help put a Republican or independent in local office.

The built-in advantages for candidates like Romero and her all-Democratic City Council colleagues are big now. It’s not just the left-leaning voting tendencies of the city’s residents, but also the attendant fundraising advantage and, of course, our “hybrid� election system that lets everyone vote in every ward’s City Council race in the general election.

We need a competitive political opposition to question the group-think that can take over a council whose members largely agree with each other. To be competitive, though, the Republicans, independents, Greens and Libertarians need to be hyper pragmatic and focused on our obvious issues — crime, housing, addiction, good jobs.

It’s important not to get sucked into MAGA rhetoric and logic that doesn’t sell in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥. But that’s what Rodolfo is offering.

He decided long ago

For one thing, his announcement Tuesday about not moving his business to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ appears to be retrofitting new reasoning onto an old choice.

In October 2020, , and the announced Rodolfo had decided to move his Wow Studios to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥. Rio Nuevo offered $500,000 in incentives for him to move into the old warehouse at 1 E. Toole Ave.

From there, the story got weird. Patricia Schwabe, who manages that property, told me she gave him the keys while they were still negotiating a lease, as a favor, and he moved materials in for a short period. Rodolfo did not respond to my interview requests.

“He came through ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ and made a big splash, said he had all these companies and had been so successful,â€� Schwabe said. “At some point, he just disappeared.â€�

Rio Nuevo Chair Fletcher McCusker and Sun Corridor spokeswoman Laura Shaw noted Rodolfo’s company never received any money for his move.

“He was fit to be tied with Seattle,â€� Rio Nuevo board chair Fletcher McCusker recalled. “He wanted to relocate his design firm. He offered to relocate other design firms to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.

“Then one day he called and said he had changed his mind. That was within two weeks of him moving his stuff in there. He never opened.�

MAGA Twitter troll

Rodolfo’s timing and logic are also strange when you think about them. with conservative radio host Garret Lewis on KNST radio, 790 AM, that his store in downtown Seattle was ransacked “by Black Lives Matter and Antifa� in May 2020.

In June 2020, Romero had a Black Lives Matter banner flown from the top of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ City Hall. Four months later, the man so angry with Seattle announced he was fleeing to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.

If you leaf through , you’ll get a steady dose of standard right-wing bile, some of it similarly nonsensical.

, “Folks it’s time to get ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ voters to take the red pill & not let ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ become another Seattle or Portland. I moved here to get away from political hacks like Romero.â€�

It defies logic that a person would move his company to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ to get away from politicians like the woman who had been mayor of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ for years.

His Twitter feed also has been low and ugly at times, often against Romero and her mentor, U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva. “your parents must of drop you on your head @ birth,� that she ““ and said of her, “.�

In other words, Rodolfo never moved his business to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, but he did establish himself as a local MAGA troll on Twitter.

An unfortunate alliance

There’s a place for MAGA trolls, I suppose, but it’s not on the winning side of elections in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.

Unfortunately, Republican mayoral candidate Janet Wittenbraker . She and Rodolfo called out Romero for hosting Alicia Garza, a Black Lives Matter founder who , at Leo Rich Theater on Monday night.

I have read that underlie the antisemitism claim, and to me they are not at all conclusive. Even Rodolfo implicitly acknowledged in the radio interview that Garza said nothing antisemitic at the Monday event: “Reading through every tea leaf there, she is so against Israel,� he claimed.

It’s unfortunate to me that Wittenbraker latched onto Rodolfo, because she seems a competent opposition candidate, but one who may only have a chance if she sticks to her core message — “a cleaner, safer ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€� as the signs say— and treats MAGA messaging as taboo. (In this race, she also seems doomed by the existence of two other opposition candidates.)

For me, the most encouraging opposition candidate in this year’s election is , the Republican running for City Council in Ward 1 against incumbent Democrat . In forums and conversation, she has shown a native’s deep understanding of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ as well as an instinctive tendency away from extremism, qualities the other opposition candidates for council don’t have.

When asked at a League of Women Voters’ forum about Prop. 412, the failed renewal of the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Electric Power franchise agreement, other candidates went off on weird tangents, some of them right-wing conspiracies, but Lem went succinctly to the point: It was a proposal that benefited few but was paid for by all.

When asked about “15-minute citiesâ€� a hot button issue on the right wing, other candidates went down conspiracist rabbit holes. Lem not only knew what the concept is — that residents should live within 15 minutes of work, school and shopping — but explained in pragmatic terms why she opposes it: It won’t work in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ because the city is so spread out.

Quality candidates, ideas needed

Candidates like Lem and platforms like “a cleaner, safer ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€� strike me as having a chance to take a council seat or even a mayor’s race in left-leaning ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ once in a while.

Inchoate rage against the sitting mayor and administration isn’t going to convince anyone. Conspiracism about 15-minute cities or Black Lives Matter isn’t going to win enough votes within ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ city limits to make a difference, even if it gets listeners or clicks in the broader metro area.

The issues are crime, housing, addiction, good jobs. Anything or anyone that distracts an opposition candidate from those fundamentals and leads them into right-wing talking points takes them on a path to certain defeat.