Battleground blocks: Voters in these hotly contested precincts could decide the Seattle election

Most of Seattle’s neighborhoods are politically leaning one way or the other. More than 1,000 constituencies in the city voted for either Bruce Harrell or M. Lorena González as the mayoral candidates ran in the August 3 primaries.

But there are exceptions: Harrell and González won exactly the same number of primaries in the November 2nd general election in about a dozen districts that are now battlefields.

Harrell, a former city council president, has campaigned on pledges to keep parks free from homeless camps, while González, the current city council president, has vowed to tax large corporations and wealthy people. Races for council and city attorney are split similarly.

In the primary, Harrell did best in waterfront areas with many homeowners. González did best in urban areas with many tenants. Some of the neighborhoods they are stuck in illustrate Seattle’s political landscape in miniature (The median of registered voters in a district is around 450).

In a Maple Leaf district, rows of bungalows run perpendicular to an avenue with residents. In another borough, Beacon Hill homes overlook townhouses with mountain views. Tenants in maisonettes and triplexes meet with homeowners in a Magnolia district.

“Most of the major problems in the city have to do with housing,” said Shaun Scott, campaign coordinator for Nikkita Oliver, a city council candidate.

The battlefields are one of those where campaign posters and advertisers help make decisions about races. There will be more voters in the general election than in the area code.

“These are middle-income districts. Mostly homeowners but some rentals, ”with a mix of young and old residents, said Ben Anderstone, an advisor who works with Sara Nelson, Oliver’s opponent for citywide position 9 of the council.

The campaigns are also targeting alternate districts, where many voters have selected candidates who did not get past the primaries, Scott and Anderstone said.

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Maple leaf

Their businesses are only two blocks on Maple Leaf, but Mike Kelley and Jill Killen have different views on the city attorney’s race.

Kelley, who owns a hardware store, advertised candidate Ann Davison in his business in July. The store has seen an increase in crime and volatile behavior by people with addictions and mental health issues, he said, mentioning the security costs involved. Davison has promised to be more aggressive in certain cases.

“The public cannot protect itself. That’s the job of the police, ”said Kelley. “We have to have people who react, otherwise companies cannot flourish.”

Killen, who owns a coffee shop, supports Nicole Thomas-Kennedy, a former public defender looking to shift spending from many law enforcement to social services, opposite Davison, a lawyer who ran for Republican lieutenant governor last year. “I just don’t think we can stop our way out of poverty,” said Killen.

Kelley and Killen like and appreciate each other, so there is no such thing as personal beef. Rather, their perspectives reflect the diversity of opinion in Maple Leaf. In the constituency, which includes Kelley’s shop, Harrell and González shared 91 primary votes. The neighborhood is mostly single-family homes, but apartments line Roosevelt Way Northeast.

“We moved a lot of people here,” said Killen.

Chris Kammeyer, 40, has identified a gap in his field between “activist-minded millennials” and “inked Seattle NIMBYs”. The tenant supports González and Oliver, an attorney who runs an arts-based distraction program for court-interested youth, on Harrell and Nelson, a brewery owner who is a former councilor.

Kammeyer struggled with the police growing up in Idaho because he was queer and he supported candidates “open to the whole concept of defusing the police” for other solutions, the maintenance worker said, argues that higher taxes are needed for companies like Amazon and Boeing to fight homelessness.

Brad Wood, 59, a longtime Maple Leaf homeowner who works in construction, is also inclined to González because she appears to be more “liberal” despite concerns about devastated parks. But he said he expected his wife and many neighbors to vote for Harrell, also because they are annoyed with the camps and hope that Harrell will deal with them firmly.

Epidemiologist Liz Cromwell, 40, worried her child might run into needles in parks and will likely vote Harrell over González because the “current advice seems utterly incapable”. The current mayor, Jenny Durkan, who has headed the city’s homeless service since the end of 2017, is not standing for re-election.

The area comprises only 10 square blocks. Val Landicho, an employee of the town, lives just outside the district, as does Guy Oron, a writer. Landicho, 60, a Harrell voter, believes many people without protection need drugs and psychiatric treatment. Oron, 23, a González voter, named housing and climate change as key issues.

Beacon Hill

Another battlefield runs from Beacon Hill near Jefferson Park down to Martin Luther King Jr.Way South, where city trains pass.

Harrell and González each received 89 primary votes, although Matt Briggs did not vote for any of them. The Beacon Hill homeowner selected Colleen Echohawk, who touted her experience running a homeless nonprofit.

The 39-year-old Briggs has difficulty choosing between candidates he holds responsible for the current situation, the engineer said, and also blamed systemic problems such as Washington state’s regressive tax structure and the technology boom for Seattle’s affordability problems.

“They both seem the same,” he said of Harrell and González.

Neighbor Karin Roberts believes Harrell “hasn’t done enough” on the council in more than a decade while González has tried to bolster homeless services, she said. People who live in a long-time VA Medical Center camp should get help but “I don’t feel threatened” or want them chased away, said Roberts, 51, who works at a college.

Theo Holt, 38, said he feared higher corporate taxes could weaken Seattle’s competitive advantage over other parts of the country. “Part of me just wants to continue to be economic power,” said the investment manager, who should vote for moderate candidates.

Down on MLK, separated from Beacon Hill by the Cheasty Greenbelt, Seattle’s problems are different. The rent increases have brought Matthew Paige, 26, from Lake City to Renton and elsewhere, he said of traffic noise.

During this time, “I haven’t lived anywhere for more than eight months,” says Paige, who works in accounting and wants to vote for candidates who agree that “housing is a basic human right.”

Andy Raghavan, 48, lives in the same complex and prefers Harrell, also because González supported calls for a police defuse last year, he said. “There has to be police reform, but ‘defund the police’ is a terrible slogan,” said the technician.

The primary turnout in the Beacon Hill district was 46% – better than the citywide mark of 42%. However, that means that most of the residents left it out.

Kurt Kogita, 63, a jewelry maker, would like the city to stop building bike paths. Demaurian Casey, 34, an Amazon worker who rents from MLK, is worried about the apartment. Neither of the two plans to vote in the November 2nd election.

“Whatever they do, they do anyway,” said Kogita.

magnolia

Magnolia is best known for steeply sloping mansions, but an electoral district near Interbay’s railroad tracks is characterized by a jumble of residential areas that includes large and small apartment buildings, cottages, and homes with views.

Echohawk did relatively well in the district, winning 38 votes in the primary; Harrell and González each won 57.

“These blocks are an odd mix,” even though the residents are mostly white, said Ruth Eitemiller, a duplex tenant who works in the theater industry and has seen an increase in bus-driving homelessness. That connects them with the pandemic and housing costs.

Eitemiller is suspicious of campaigns aimed at “cleaning the streets … only getting the homeless out of sight,” she said, describing the strategy as disturbing and ineffective. In the city council race for position 9, the 33-year-old votes for Oliver, who sees Seattle’s problems “in a creative way,” she said.

Jennifer Hallett, a nearby homeowner, disagrees with homelessness. People camp in vehicles under their building, she said.

“I don’t think it’s fair that they can stay there and make mess,” said Hallett, 55, a skeptical advisor of the city attorney candidate Thomas-Kennedy.

Opinions differ widely even among homeowners in the Magnolia district.

Carlos Echevarria believes González would “give the homeless a free hand” while Harrell would take a tougher stance on street camping and crime, he said. also on Nelson’s side. The 74-year-old pensioner and immigrant from the Dominican Republic has lost patience with the town hall, he said.

Not so long ago someone who seemed mentally unstable had entered Echevarria’s courtyard with a metal pipe, he mentioned.

Helping people makes sense, but: “I came to this country with $ 20 in my pocket. I worked hard. If I could, so could they, ”said Echevarria.

Katelyn Weaver lives on the same block and has a sign in her window that reads: “Prosecutors and judges are complicit”. She put up the sign during the protests against police brutality last year. Weaver, 35, is a public defender who votes for Thomas-Kennedy.

She understands why neighbors like Echevarria are upset. “There has to be a constitutional state. We really need the police, ”she said.

Still, she wished more voters would step into the cascading circumstances that land many people on the streets and in court “beyond the police report,” she said, citing illegal arrests and job losses.

Weaver often said, “There really is a lot more going on.”

This coverage is provided in part by Microsoft Philanthropies. The Seattle Times retains editorial control over this and all of its reporting.

Daniel Beekmann:
206-464-2164 or dbeekman@seattletimes.com; on Twitter: @dbeekman. Seattle Times reporter Daniel Beekman covers the Seattle city council and local politics.