Erica C. Barnett is an award-winning journalist with more than 20 years’ experience covering local news and politics and the author of the memoir Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery (Viking, 2020). Her work has been published in local and national publications, including Seattle magazine, Huffington Post, Sightline, Grist, and many others, as well as at her own website, The C Is for Crank. Erica started the website The C Is for Crank in 2015 and has run the site as a full-time, financially sustainable operation since 2016 with the help of hundreds of subscribers who support to her work covering the city of Seattle and holding public officials accountable through investigative reporting and analysis.

Sandeep Kaushik is an experienced political and public affairs consultant based in Seattle, with expertise in public relations, political communications, and strategic advisory work for elected officials, civic leaders, governments, and non-profits. He has worked on multiple political campaigns, including those for Seattle's last two mayors and several successful ballot measure campaigns. His current practice focuses on high-profile policy issues such as affordable housing, ridesharing, short-term rental regulation, transit funding, and universal pre-K. Sandeep has a background in communications, having served as deputy communications director for King County Executive Ron Sims and as a political columnist for Seattle's The Stranger and a correspondent for Time Magazine and the Boston Globe. He holds degrees from Reed College and Princeton University and serves on the executive committee of the Downtown Emergency Services Center.