By Erica C. Barnett
In a short but spirited debate that aired on the Seattle Channel Friday, Mayor Bruce Harrell repeatedly attacked his frontrunning opponent, policy nerd and Transit Riders Union leader Katie Wilson, as a know-nothing policy lightweight with zero leadership experience, while explaining away his own missteps, including the ongoing budget deficits that have resulted, in part, from his own proposals to increase city spending, as the result of circumstances beyond his control.
During the debate, Harrell consistently spoke over Wilson, interrupted her, and repeatedly posed his own questions, then wouldn’t let Wilson answer them.
Repeatedly, Harrell took over the role of moderator (to the consternation, no doubt, of actual moderator Brian Callanan) and needled Wilson with rhetorical questions that seemed designed to suggest his challenger—a longtime labor and transit activist who helped craft the JumpStart payroll tax and led several successful minimum wage campaigns— had no business coming anywhere near the mayor’s office. (At one point, Harrell, an attorney, noted that Wilson “has no experience in constitutional law, in arguing in front of courts to be able to protect the people that matter most,” which is not part of the mayor’s job.)
Harrell, who has claimed (unjustifiably) to have created 3,000 new units of housing for homeless Seattle residents, accused Wilson of having “all the platitudes” but “no plan” to build 4,000 new shelter units, as she has vowed to do. “You see the weakness in her platform—it’s just complaints with no solutions,” he said. In comparison, Harrell claimed, his administration successfully referred thousands of people to shelter. (More on why that’s a poor metric for addressing homelessness here.)
Then Harrell accused Wilson of “taking credit for the minimum wage” in Seattle and said businesses were “hemorrhaging money” because of the JumpStart payroll tax she supported.
“There’s been no evidence at all that we haven’t supported” social housing, “we just wanted it paid for differently,” Harrell continued. In fact, Harrell appeared on campaign materials for a proposal to reject social housing and instead use existing funds to pay for traditional affordable housing, something the city already does.
Wilson did get a moment to explain the difference between the social housing measure (which she has said inspired her to jump into the race) and the alternative Harrell supported, which would have deprived social housing of funding. She also corrected Harrell’s false claim about the minimum wage: “I have never taken credit for Seattle minimum wage. What I have rightly taken credit for is leading and coordinating campaigns in the cities of incorporating King County and Burien to raise the minimum wage to the highest in the country.”
Wilson also pointed out that the Jumpstart payroll tax has provided the money to cover gaps in the city budget year after year, even as the mayor and council have piled on new spending that has contributed to a structural budget deficit that now tops $240 million budget. Harrell characterized deficits during his administration as “a very tough hand” he was “dealt,” and changed the subject to accuse Wilson of wanting to eliminate the entire police department.
Instead of responding directly to that claim (Wilson wrote a piece in 2020 about what defunding the police would realistically look like), Wilson accused Harrell of making repeated bad hires that have harmed morale at SPD. “You hired and stood by Adrian Diaz as police chief, and under his reign, SPD lost many high-integrity career officers. Morale tanked,” Wilson said. “It’s weird to be the one saying this in this race, but the police actually have a really important role to play. That’s not happening right now.”
Addressing Callanan, Harrell responded, “It’s pretty rich of her to say that. …. She’s never led anything. Number one, just look at her background. I mean, she’s run a nonprofit. I think one employee.”
PubliCola is supported entirely by readers like you.
CLICK BELOW to become a one-time or monthly contributor.
When Wilson also brought up two other disastrous hires: Pedro Gomez, a key staffer who was accused of sexual assault and harassment by several women who met him through his official role at the city, and Darrell Powell, a longtime Harrell friend who spent a brief and tumultuous time as head of the regional homelessness authority—Harrell said he wasn’t to blame. “If you actually had experience of hiring people, which clearly you do not, you’ll realize that sometimes you get it right and sometimes you can make corrections, and you have to be nimble.” Harrell defended Powell, who was accused of referring to an employee as a “retard” and fostering a hostile work environment for LGBTQ staffers, by citing his MBA and CPA degrees.
“When you run an organization of 14,000 employees, you have to make these tough decisions. That’s why the stakes are so high in this particular election, because you are really, literally hiring a person. If you look at her—but she doesn’t talk much about her personal story, by the way. There’s no ability to lead an organization, no budget. What’s the highest budget you’ve ever managed?”
As Wilson began to respond, Harrell interrupted her. “What I’m trying to impress upon everyone that’s listening is that an executive has to have executive experience. Even before this, I was elected to the City Council, as president twice. [I was] a managing partner at a law firm. I know how to manage people. … These are tough decisions. Katie, and if you’ve never managed any employees, you should at least tell them. Maybe they’d accept that—'[it’s] the city of Seattle, I’m hoping to be the mayor of an $8 billion organization, and I’ve never managed any employees,'” Harrell said.
On the topic of police surveillance, Harrell accused Wilson of claiming to speak “on behalf of minorities” while “ignoring” the opinions of Seattle Councilmembers Joy Hollingsworth and Debora Juarez, two women of color who voted to expand camera surveillance earlier this week. (No mention of another woman of color on the council, Alexis Mercedes Rinck, who opposed the bill.)
“How rich is it for this person to talk about protecting my community?” Harrell said. “We ran into the same same arguments when I proposed body cameras [for police]. Body cameras are put for the protection of communities of color. Now this surveillance will be used smartly and not to the detriment of the very same people that my opponent seems to want to speak on their behalf.”
The law the council passed expanding surveillance, Harrell continued, has plenty of “safeguards” to ensure the footage can’t be used to prosecute immigrants and people seeking abortions or gender-affirming care.
Not even the most ardent surveillance supporters on the city council were so bold as to make this claim when they passed the legislation earlier this week; instead, they added an amendment saying the city can shut down the cameras for 60 days if the feds come after SPD’s footage, as the many civil-rights groups that opposed the legislation believe they will.
Harrell concluded by calling Wilson’s plan for creating new shelter beds “ridiculous,” calling Wilson herself “a person that gives platitudes, that will not answer a question,” and accusing her of being “hypocritical” by “talk[ing] about the need for public safety.”
