Why did the Seattle Chamber hire a progressive as its new CEO?

The Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, founded in 1882, advocates for over 2,500 companies. Its new CEO is Joe Nguyen, a former Democratic state senator and Washington commerce secretary with a history of support for progressive tax and policy positions.

For some background on this change in leadership, KUOW’s Kim Malcolm spoke to Seattle Times reporter David Kroman, who wrote about what it means for the chamber's role in city politics.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Kim Malcolm: You have a funny note in your piece about when Nguyen was recruited for this job. You write that he asked, "You guys know who I am, right?" Can you talk a little bit about why he may have said that?

David Kroman: In 2018, Nguyen ran for state senator, and was pretty unabashedly progressive and pro taxes on the rich and corporations in Washington state. At one point, The Stranger compared him to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic Socialist from New York. He gave a lot of very confident quotes to left-wing publications about how, "We're coming for taxes, and we're not gonna stop there."

He spoke with a lot of bravado about overhauling the state's tax code to land heavier on the wealthy. A lot of the proposals he did eventually offer while in the Legislature were exactly what the Chamber of Commerce has fought against. He backed proposals on payroll taxes, wealth taxes, or high-income taxes, that the chamber opposed and saw as driving business out of Washington state.

So, the fact that seven years later, after he was first elected on that progressive platform, he’s leading the organization that opposed a lot of those early policies that animated his rise, was quite surprising.

You write about Nguyen having a change of heart when it comes to progressive measures, especially around taxing and spending. How has he shifted on that?

He had really defined himself as being the pro-tax guy in the Legislature. But I think he shifted pretty quickly when he realized that just being pro-tax wasn't really getting him anywhere, and it wasn't really gaining traction. So, he tried to redefine himself as basically being a little more of a nuts-and-bolts guy, spending time on the budget and trying to analyze which programs are working in the state.

In his telling, he says, "It's not that I'm necessarily anti-tax anymore, but my ideas for what that tax should buy and how effective it should be have been shaped and shifted by the time that I've spent in the Legislature.” Now, he sounds a little bit more like the kind of standard Democrat of the Seattle area, which is, "We can stomach taxes when we believe they are worthwhile." But the chamber, and Nguyen by extension, now believes a lot of the taxes that are being discussed and proposed are not worthwhile.

It's interesting that this is happening at the same time that two major audits have come down from King County, which have raised some serious red flags about how money is tracked and allocated. I know that's at the county level, but Seattle's a big part of that. What do you think the chamber is reading from that?

I think it's affirming in some ways to the stance that they've taken on a lot of issues. You could point back to the payroll tax on Amazon, or some of their opposition to the tax to fund new social housing in Seattle. They have always said, "We are an organization that can be convinced to support new taxes."

They point to their support for Sound Transit and some of the local property tax levies for transportation. But if they don't believe that outcomes are going to be there, then they can't get behind that. I think they view some of the results coming out of King County as evidence that they're correct in this, that the money is not necessarily being well spent.

The counterargument is these issues have gotten much larger and much thornier and more difficult to wrap your arms around, and it's naive to believe that you can tackle an issue like homelessness without new funding. But that is kind of the tension between those two viewpoints.

Listen to the interview by clicking the play button above.