Is Seattle seeing a sharp shift in its politics?

Bruce Harrell is the mayor-elect, with a gap of nearly 30 points between him and the challenger and current city council president Lorena Gonzalez.

SEATTLE – Temperate and pro-business interests signaled victory on Wednesday after Seattle voters made what appeared to be a sharp shift.

“[It] was a rejection of the divisive politics of our city, “said Jon Scholes, president of the Downtown Seattle Association, delighted with the returns from Tuesday night.” Downtown and Seattle are open for business again.

This is because the gaps in important races are significantly larger than in previous elections.

Bruce Harrell is the mayor-elect, with a gap of nearly 30 points between him and the challenger and current city council president Lorena Gonzalez. The latter was a proponent of halving the police budget in summer 2020 and is considered more progressive of the two.

Harrell ran into restoring public safety and eliminating public homelessness, key parts of his platform, and he repeated it Tuesday evening.

“We’ll be very aggressive about moving people out of parks, playgrounds and homes,” he said.

The numbers haven’t shifted much after the ballot papers were counted on Wednesday, with larger “ballots falling” on Thursday and Friday. But even compared to the 2017 and 2019 elections, the gaps also seem insurmountable in other important races. Sara Nelson claimed almost 20 points ahead of self-proclaimed socialist Nikkita Oliver in an open council race. Ann Davison continues to lead Nicole Thomas-Kennedy with almost 18 points in the city attorney’s race. Nelson and Davison worked to increase public safety.

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Gonzalez did not make a statement on Wednesday but said on election night that voters who are usually late bend forward and “those votes were not counted.” That may be true, but the recent elections only showed a 9-12 point shift from the progressive votes counted on a Thursday or Friday.

It also creates the conditions for a changing dynamic in the city council. Outgoing Mayor Jenny Durkan often argued with the council over budget, policing, and dealt with and did a large majority of progressives who were threatening to overturn vetoes.

Nelson would join a more moderate bloc from Debora Juarez and Alex Pedersen. Councilors Dan Strauss and Andrew Lewis represent two boroughs, Ballard and downtown, that have been hardest hit by the pandemic and were neighbors who have been the noisiest due to public safety concerns. When including a wildcard recall election from Councilor Kshama Sawant, more moderate Seattle supporters suggest that the election could prove to be mandate, with advice more aligned with Harrell’s shared platform.

“This election,” said Scholes, “is really about wanting to see progress in our city.”

https://www.king5.com/article/news/politics/elections/is-seattle-seeing-a-sharp-shift-by-voters/281-23d1e1eb-b22d-4eb3-84dc-4fadbf9d8342
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