Bruce Harrell takes commanding lead over M. Lorena González in Seattle’s mayoral race

Bruce Harrell had a sovereign lead of almost 30 percentage points over M. Lorena González in the mayoral elections in Seattle on Tuesday eveningwhich makes it likely that he will claim the top job in town.

Harrell had 65% of the votes tallied in the highly anticipated head-to-head match between celebrities. He said he was delighted with the initial results and that his remarks were triumphant. González said she wanted to see that every last vote is counted.

“We have to bring Seattle back together,” said Harrell at a party in Belltown that was full of trailers and adorned with orange and green balloons, calling the desire for safety a “unifying element” among residents of the city.

The gap between Harrell, a moderate former city council president, and González, a progressive currently serving as council president, could change as more votes – up to half the expected total, according to election officials – are added to the table in the coming days . In Seattle races, ballots that arrive and are later tallied tend to favor candidates in the left lane.

In their overcrowded August 3 primary, Harrell’s lead fell from nine points over González on election night to less than two points when all the votes were counted. In recent years, some competitions have swung even more – but not 30 points. According to analysis by the Seattle Times, González may need to secure 63% of the remaining votes to catch up.

Progressive candidates for the city attorney and for a seat on the open council also lagged their opponents by a wide margin, though not quite as far as González did when Seattle voters expressed their views on local issues for the first time since the emergence of COVID-19 -Pandemic announced, the city’s economy was shaken and protesters marched through the streets calling for racial justice following the murder of George Floyd.

Surrounded by family members in a Rainier Valley bar after the results were announced Tuesday, González reassured her supporters, saying that more ballots would be counted before what she called “an extraordinarily long and brutal” race.

“We are used to being the underdog in every way,” “and this campaign is no different,” she said while the crowd cheered, many participants wore González stickers.

Supporter Erin Haick, a service employee whose union did telephone banking and knocked for the candidate, gave hope.

“Progressive voters vote late,” said Haick. “We have to wait.”

However, Harrell sounded confident on Tuesday night as supporters sang “Bruce!” with his fists in the air.

“We believe our message was tailored to what this city needs right now,” he told the Seattle Times, referring to conversations with voters in supermarkets and cafes over months of campaigning. “We feel very good about the results and can’t wait to start working.”

At Harrell’s party, Norm Rice, Seattle’s first black mayor and a Harrell supporter, made emotional remarks.

“I have tears in my eyes and joy in my heart and the belief that we moved on because someone believes where we are and what we will be,” said Rice.

The mayor race between politicians who had worked on the council for more than four years has grown fierce in recent weeks, with claims about corporate influence and racism.

Harrell, 63, a business-backed attorney raised by city workers in the Central District, based his campaign on promises to keep parks and sidewalks clear of homeless camps. He promised to press for more police officers and unarmed first responders, and criticized González’s earlier support for “defusing the police” to fund other services.

The Seward Park resident would be the first Asian American mayor and the second black mayor in Seattle history. He described himself as a consensus builder, quoted his roots in his hometown (and the University of Washington soccer star) and used decades of campaign connections.

“Let’s root out racism and unreasonable violence” in the police department, “but I want our children to be safe,” said Harrell on Tuesday evening. “In a city that has many resources and compassionate people here, we can actually solve homelessness.”

González, 44, a work-based attorney raised by immigrant farm workers in central Washington, focused her campaign on willingness to tax large corporations and wealthy people to pay for affordable housing and other social needs. She cautioned Harrell to bow to corporate interests and pursue punitive, ineffective approaches to public safety.

The resident of West Seattle would be the city’s first Latina mayor. Calling herself a champion for workers, she remembered earning her first paycheck picking cherries as a child and saying she would fight for marginalized people.

During her remarks on Tuesday evening, González said a lot of work needs to be done at City Hall to reduce economic inequalities and protect tenants if the city is evicted from COVID-19 limitations End.

whoever is mayor, “There will be an extraordinary amount of work to be done to prevent a simultaneous housing, public health and public safety crisis,” she said.

In the race, González argued that Seattle should open all neighborhoods to people with fewer wealth by building apartment buildings on blocks across the city. Harrell opposed the abolition of zoning, which currently reserves most of the apartment blocks for single-family homes, arguing that the city should continue to focus primarily on apartments along the main streets.

The rivals, who served together on the council from 2015 to 2019, applied for an open position because current Mayor Jenny Durkan, after a turbulent 2020, the COVID-19, included mass demonstrations against racial injustice and an increase in gun violence, last December announced she would not be re-elected.

During Tuesday lunchtime, outside the Ballard Library, voters eyed a tent camp in the park across the street as they stuffed ballots into a voting box for the King County election. Dah-ve Bell, 33, and Remy Coronado, 26, agreed that homelessness influenced their votes for mayor, but came to different conclusions.

“I voted for those who I thought would offer immediate solutions,” said Bell, a Harrell voter who lives near the library, park, and warehouse. “I think he’ll focus more on safety.”

Coronado was more in line with Gonzalez on police accountability and budgeting.

“I just felt like she really cared about people and had a plan to put more money in apartments,” said Coronado, who lives on Phinney Ridge. “I trust her more.”

Harrell’s campaign raised more than $ 1.3 million while González’s campaign raised nearly $ 980,000, according to the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission records on Monday.

Both took advantage of Seattle’s unique Democracy Coupons program, which allows any qualified resident to donate $ 100 of public money to candidates who abide by the program’s rules. Redeemed coupons accounted for about 43% of Harrell’s loot and about 66% for González.

A pro-Harrell political action committee, funded by real estate managers and corporations as well as other individuals and business interests, reported more than $ 1 million in independent advertising expenses for Harrell and against González. A pro-González PAC funded by unions representing the hotel, supermarket, health and security personnel reported nearly $ 1 million ion ads for González and against Harrell.

The Pro-González PAC sponsored a television commercial attempting to link Harrell to former President Donald Trump through a donor. Meanwhile, the pro-Harrell PAC sponsored a TV commercial telling voters that González was leaving tents in parks and trying to disappoint the police.

Three polls in September and October showed that Harrell led González by varying degrees.

Tensions in the race peaked when the González campaign sponsored ads accusing Harrell of “being on the side of perpetrators” and finding that Harrell failed to join González in 2017 when she met then-Mayor Ed Murray asked to consider resigning as Murray had molested several teenagers decades earlier.

The ad featured a white rape survivor unrelated to the Murray allegations. A number of Harrell supporters and black political and civic leaders condemned the ad as desperate and racist for reinforcing the tropics over dangerous black men. González pulled the ad off television and apologized for who was featured in the campaign while standing on her criticism of Harrell.

Contributors to this report were reporters Sarah Grace Taylor, Lulu Ramadan, Lewis Kamb and data journalist Manuel Villa.

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.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/bruce-harrell-is-leading-m-lorena-gonzalez-in-seattle-mayor-race/
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