By Erica C. Barnett

As readers may know, I’ve spent much of the last month attending Seattle mayoral debates and live-posting about them on Bluesky. Typically, the dynamic is this: Mayor Bruce Harrell criticizes his opponent, Katie Wilson, for having “no experience” in various areas (housing, budgets, managing people, etc.), and belittles her while refusing to use her name. In response, Wilson defends herself with facts about her experience, achievements, and plans, often stumbling a little in the face of broadsides that may include five different inaccurate claims about her; Harrell is fond, for example, of claiming “she is one of the chief architects of the Defund [the Police] movement,” an absurdity that erases the Black leaders who began the movement in response to police violence against Black victims, like George Floyd, Breonna Tayler Eric Garner.

Over the weekend, though, Harrell had the rare opportunity to participate in a “debate” without his opponent present, after Wilson pulled out of the so-called “Great Debate” at the Washington Athletic Club at the last minute on Saturday afternoon. (Wilson’s campaign said she was sick; the debate’s emcee, Harrell supporter Julius Caesar Robinson, told the crowd, “She wants me to to pass on her apologies, which I am not!”) For a reporter in the audience, it was also a rare opportunity to see the usually unsmiling mayor in a friendly crowd—the debate was sponsored by We Heart Seattle, the Seattle Police Officers Guild, the state Realtors Association, and the Discovery Institute, among other right-leaning groups.

In contrast to his usual dour appearance when forced to share a stage with Wilson, Harrell was garrulous, expansive, and casual, often stopping to shout out people he recognized in the audience and ramble for minutes at a time about whatever was on his mind, be it the Mariners (“we’re playing some really, really good baseball this year) or the role AI will play in Seattle’s arts and culture (“The reason why culture and art is so strong is you’re going to see a heavy AI influence in it,” he said.)

And speaking of AI: During a rambling response to a question about how he would keep businesses in downtown Seattle, Harrell said he had great hope that AI startup incubators like AI House, on the downtown waterfront, would help produce “experiential activities” that would get people to come downtown. Those might include dog parks, day cares, restaurants, music, and interactive video, he said.

“We want video activity. And I gave an example to someone. I said, Imagine how cool would this be if we had like, a 10-foot wall. It’s interactive and it’s historical. And you could talk to Martin Luther King, and you could say, ‘Well, Dr, Martin Luther King, I’ve always wanted to meet you. What was your day like today? What did you have for breakfast?’ And he comes back and he talks to you right now. How cool would that be if we have a series of historical figures that we all could agree on, that we respect. And then it stops off, and we can watch the Mariners beat Toronto for the championship. That’s where downtown is heading, and our think tanks—my think tank that I’ve convened—are coming up these kinds of deals to make sure our downtown is vibrant and we get employees back. I think we can lead the way.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter, Dr. Bernice King, asked people to stop making AI versions of her father just last week. A spokesperson for the King Center in Atlanta said she’ll be issuing a statement soon about AI replications of her father’s likeness.

Harrell’s off-the-cuff musings about an interactive fake MLK in downtown Seattle weren’t the only unusually candid comments he made at the friendly event, which ended in a standing ovation. I’ve gathered a few of his remarks here, all from an audio recording and edited lightly for accuracy from my live AI (yes, there are good uses for it) transcript—a fact that I’m noting, mostly, because Harrell took a moment out of his comments to say that he hoped I was quoting him accurately.

On whether he “punches down” against his opponent, who founded the Transit Riders Union and led successful minimum-wage efforts in Tukwila, Burien, and unincorporated King County:

“I haven’t done anything that I would consider punching down. … I’ve tried to argue with facts. I said in a debate, I think we had two debates a couple days ago, and I said my opponent has never hired one employee, and my opponent said, That’s not true. And then her campaign manager said, she hired me. And then I said to my opponent, well, how many employees have you hired? And my opponent wouldn’t ask the question. I don’t think that’s punching down. I said that my opponent ran a $200,000 budget, and last year they lost $21,000. The year before that, $38,000. The year before, $46,000. They had zero employees. … So when I cite facts like that, I don’t see that as punching down.” (Wilson has said that as head of the Transit Riders Union, she recruited volunteers, not paid employees. TRU’s IRS filings show negative income but positive assets, like many nonprofits.)

On dealing with the Trump administration:

“Dealing with Donald Trump is very, very hard because I don’t understand the end game. I have an idea of the end game, which is not healthy for America as far as I’m concerned. It’s my personal belief, and it’s more my style to understand the president. I actually had a one on one with President Biden several times, a one on one. Not a lot of people can say that. We would take a walk. I had one on ones with Vice President Harris. How many people could say— I’m very proud of that. I’ve had some great opportunities here. I believe there’s a sacred pact between the federal government and the city. They should help us with transportation projects, cancer research, public safety, infrastructure. So to answer your question directly, I’ve been very aggressive on our executive orders, because no one believes. Remember, I was a linebacker. A linebacker, and I’m not particularly big. I played against people who are much bigger. I’m tenacious.” (Harrell went on to praise Police Chief Shon Barnes, a “superstar,” and detail the executive orders I wrote about here, which include a local law banning federal agents from wearing masks to conceal their identities.)

PubliCola is supported entirely by readers like you.
CLICK BELOW to become a one-time or monthly contributor.

Support PubliCola

On whether he’ll require protesters “dressed in black bloc” to take off their masks too: 

“I think what you’re talking about are masks with the intention, perhaps, to take some kind of aggressive action which could result in someone being unsafe. And I don’t think that’s right at all. I have to respect the fact that some people—we were all wearing masks about three and a half years ago, and there could be code restrictions or health concerns where some people need to wear masks. So the reason I mentioned that is because when looking at the mask law, I asked the question, well, can’t—how far we can we go with masks in case someone still has a respiratory issue and have to wear masks? And so what we’re trying to do is make sure that masks with the intent to camouflage themselves, to exert force over people, is not what we want, and we’ll prohibit that. So I’m all for that, but I have to recognize that people will have health conditions that may require some level of mask, and we have to respect that.”

On “good protest”:

I expect people to use their voices. You all have loud voices. You know how I know? ‘Cause I hear them sometimes. And we don’t want you poking the bear. We don’t want you falling for the bait. And so we also want to do some training on what First Amendment good protest looks like, because I don’t want any of you to be charged with obstruction of justice. You heard my [police] chief ask many of you, have you ever heard of Willie Grimes? … If you go back in history books, this was a person that when the National Guard federalized, he was killed. … There are many incidents in our history when there was peaceful protest that resulted in violence. So we want to make sure that you all know the do’s and don’ts of peaceful protest to protect you as you raise your voice.”

On the “failing” Seattle/King County Public Health Department:

“Now, one thing that I did ask when I first got elected, I really wanted to serve on the Board of Health because I thought I should implode it. Remember, the health department is a $3.5 billion organization run by the county. …  There are many cities like Berkeley that run their own health department, and there’s an effort underway on a national basis for cities to get close to running their own health departments, becoming what they call a continuum of care. Now, why would cities be interested in doing that? I’ll tell you why. Because during COVID, the monies went right to the cities, and they found out cities were nimble. They knew their constituents better. They knew their streets better than the county. I know the streets better here in Seattle than the county.

“Okay, so part of the challenge, Andrea, is that I can’t tell them how to do their job, because this enabling of [public drug use] often is exacerbating the problem. … And so I struggle a little bit with the Health Department. When I say this during these debates, my opponent will say, you’re passing the buck. I don’t pass any bucks. I’m an empowered person. But I have to acknowledge that there are structural issues of how the health department are doing their job, and we are all suffering as a result of that. So I’m on top of the issues. We’re working on it now, and I will guarantee you that we’re making changes to our relationship with the county, because I’m paying into a system that, I think it’s failing all of us. So we’re moving very recently because, because I realized the system was failing. …”

“What I want to see from the health department, and I won’t denigrate any of these fine people work with health department. I will not do that. But here’s the challenge, Andrea, I never see them when I—if you and I took a walk out on Third Avenue, we’ll see people that are not fulfilling their lives. So what I’m asking my group is, where are these health workers? Many of them are fine people. So what I want to see—every time I see someone dying or sick, I want to see them getting help.”

On his work ethic:

“Anyone that works around me knows that I outwork everybody. I will. I’ll work seven days a week, 12, 14, hours a day. My people that work with me, they are amazed with the energy, I have an amazing wife. In any debate, I always have to find her, because she’ll always say, smile, Bruce, smile. They take pictures of me. I’m looking at myself expressing joy at the love of my life.”

A full recording of the Q&A session with Harrell is available here. 

I’ve also posted a rough transcript here.