By Erica C. Barnett
Mayor Bruce Harrell’s campaign finance filings for October include an unusual series of five $5,000 payments, each one representing one week of work, to a Tukwila-based company called FF and J Consulting. According to Harrell’s public campaign records, the $25,000 was for “Management and consulting services: Community Engagement Consulting.”
For comparison, Harrell’s chief political consultant, Christian Sinderman of NWP Consulting, receives $5,000 for his services every month.
According to state incorporation records, FF and J is a one-person firm run by Abdisalam (Abdul) Yusuf, a prominent member of the Seattle-area Somali community who has frequently advocated on behalf of rideshare drivers as the founder of the company Eastside for Hire. Neither FF and J, , nor Yusuf as an individual, has ever done any paid work for any campaign in the state prior to this year. Yusuf is also the vice president of Drive Forward, the Uber-funded lobbying group that advocated for Seattle legislation that would have reduced the minimum wage for delivery drivers.
It’s unclear what kind of outreach Harrell is paying Yusuf $5,000 a week to do on his behalf. Harrell’s campaign did not respond to detailed questions on Wednesday, and Yusuf did not respond to multiple requests for an interview.
Yusuf was also involved in a previous Harrell campaign controversy. In 2015, when then-city councilmember Harrell was being challenged by Tammy Morales, Harrell was accused of paying for 15 of Yusuf’s Eastside for Hire employees to join the 37th District Democrats in order to sway their endorsement in favor of Pam Banks, then running against Kshama Sawant, and Harrell.
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According to reporting in the South Seattle Emerald, the memberships were paid for in one batch using sequential money orders from the same store. After some of the new members were disqualified because they didn’t live in the district, about 10 showed up to the endorsement meeting wearing Harrell t-shirts and helped both him and Banks win endorsement by one-vote margins. In response to the controversy, NWP Consulting sent out an “open letter” accusing members of the 37th District Democrats who raised concerns of attempting to “silence” “our East African members.”
Several people active in East African communities in Seattle told PubliCola they’ve observed Yusuf (along with Harrell’s director of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, Hamdi Mohamed) working to drum up support in their communities, hosting meetings with Harrell and extending assurances about what Harrell will do for their communities in a second term.
The $25,000 Harrell has paid Yusuf’s firm so far this year is ten times the $2,500 he paid a different community leader, Somali Independent Business Alliance president Nafiso Samatar, for community engagement and outreach when he first ran in 2021.
Harrell’s campaign has raised just over a million dollars so far; among individual contributors the top three employers are “not employed,” the city of Seattle, and Amazon. A PAC supporting his campaign has raised $1.75 million so far, most of it from real-estate developers and building managers.
erica@publicola.com
For the record, back at the 2015 37th LD Endorsement meeting, Bruce was way out ahead. It was Tim Burgess and Pam Banks who won by 1 vote. The accusation that Bruce paid for the memberships of African immigrants was lodged by supporters of Kshama Sawant, who was not eligible for endorsement, and those supporting Burgess’ opponent Jon Grant. The 37th LD Executive Committee did a deep dive into the accusation and found no evidence that Bruce had paid for those memberships. But it also raised the problem that the treasurer for Grant was also the treasurer for the 37th LD. And SHE had violated the rules by not notifying anyone of the 15-consecutive numbered money orders until a couple of weeks AFTER the endorsement meeting. And she had accepted those memberships/money orders 25 days before the endorsement meeting; 37th LD Bylaws require all paid memberships within 25 days of any endorsement. This caused a tremendous rift in the district between Black and Brown members of the District and the white Left-leaning members who were supporting Grant, and it caused the Chair to be opposed in the next reorganization meeting.
I’m sure Director Mohamed was there in her capacity as a Seattle Port Commissioner and community member, not as the director of OIRA.
It was a sad day when Cuc Vu was replaced with that union-busting cretin.
They had to call it SOMETHING…”Royal Butt Wiper” would be embarrassing to put in the budget line item.
No amount of outreach is going to change the face that Harrell has not much to show for his 18 years in city government. THAT is what most voters are concerned about, he is simply free-riding off the city to boost himself.
And the fact that he gave the money to a guy (Yusuf) who fought to DECREASE pay for Uber drivers tells us everything we need to know about Bruce. He may have been born into a working class family, but he has now turned his back on the working class and has adopted the perspective of his wealthy lakefront neighbors.