Seattle mayoral candidates debate gun violence, downtown recovery as race intensifies

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Seattle’s mayoral candidates grapple with gun violence and policing issues amid a spate of shootings, including shots fired at a candidate outside his home last weekend. And they’ll discuss how to help the city’s economy – downtown and elsewhere – recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The contenders are also sharpening their elbows as they scramble for the position ahead of the August 3 primaries, with only two weeks left in the running before ballots are sent out to voters.

In a candidate forum on Tuesday sponsored by the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility and Grandmothers Against Gun Violence, former city council president Bruce Harrell said if elected mayor he would create a cabinet position to coordinate efforts against gun violence . When asked if they would do the same, M. Lorena González, Jessyn Farrell, Colleen Echohawk and Andrew Grant Houston each agreed.

Police investigated an estimated 22 murders in Seattle this year, including 16 fatal shootings, according to a Seattle Times database compiled with information from the police, prosecutors and the King County Medical Examiner’s Office. Ten of these murders occurred in June, including fatal shootings on Monday night at Alki Beach and on Sunday night at First Hill.

According to the Times database, as of June last year, Seattle had an estimated 21 homicides, including 16 fatal shootings. In 2019, there were 14 homicides as of June, including nine fatal shootings.

González, the current president of the council, campaigned for a law on the safekeeping of weapons, which she worked on in 2018. Farrell, a former state lawmaker, said Seattle should go for a no shootings approach with a public health approach, just like the city is committed to no traffic deaths and said it would set up an entire bureau devoted to combating it of armed violence.

Echohawk, who until recently ran the Chief Seattle Club, said the city should do more gun buybacks and suggested that some people who carry guns for protection while living unprotected would attend. Seattle should make sure all residents are housed and cared for as shootings result mostly from unmet needs, said Houston, an architect.

All five candidates said they would increase funding for community programs designed to prevent gun violence.

One candidate who was not put on the forum was Lance Randall, an economic development specialist, who says he was shot before sunrise by men trying to steal a catalytic converter from a car. Randall says he stepped out of his Rainier Beach house when he heard a sawing noise, and then ducked behind his own vehicle as bullets flew, KOMO-TV reported first.

“I encourage residents across town to think about trying to build relationships,” Randall said in an interview. “You will need our help this summer.”

The Gun Violence Forum excluded candidates with fewer than 1,000 campaign donors like Randall, former Deputy Mayor Casey Sixkiller and site manager Art Langlie, the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility said.

Harrell was challenged to defend his record on police accountability, saying he was pushing for officers to wear body cameras. When asked about her vote (with Harrell) in 2018 for a police union deal that undermined some of the accountability measures she championed in 2017, González said the deal provided for a new civilian oversight and promised to negotiate a better deal next time.

When asked why colored people should trust her to choose Seattle’s next chief of police, Farrell cited her work on the board of Community Passengerways, which serves young people. When asked how he would redistribute police spending, Houston said the city should, among other things, hire more unarmed community service workers and remove them from the police department.

When asked about her relationship with outgoing Mayor Jenny Durkan, Echohawk said she worked with Durkan on certain projects to help the indigenous people. While Durkan “did nowhere near enough” to combat gun violence, “I sucked myself into power. I did and would do it again in a heartbeat because I could do things that no one else could do for my community, ”Echohawk said.

The Chief Seattle Club’s budget grew by millions of dollars under Echohawk’s oversight, “and we did it by talking to people,” including Durkan, councilors, business leaders and philanthropists, she said.

Race intensified

A González campaign advisor picked up the “suck up to power” response and posted the comment on Twitter, although González has also worked with Durkan on a variety of matters. Echohawk supporters responded, and there was sparring on multiple topics on Tuesday, suggesting the candidates are competing for many of the same voters.

González supporters criticized Echohawk for serving (for the Chief Seattle Club) on the board of directors of the Downtown Seattle Association, which opposed tax increases for large corporations, while Echohawk supporters found they sided with González of the community lawyers against the police union from 2018 put contract.

The Twitter skirmishes won’t matter much to most voters, but they could point to points of tension as the campaigns prepare to cover the city with political ads. Echohawk’s campaign released a video last week of Harrell and González being blown up over the 2018 contract.

“They’re trying to occupy the same lane … which will obviously lead to conflict,” said Joe Mizrahi, secretary-treasurer at UFCW Local 21. The union that represents supermarket workers in Seattle has supported González.

That overlap became apparent during another forum on Tuesday sponsored by the Downtown Seattle Association, which represents large corporations, small businesses, and nonprofits. González and Echohawk rejected the use of police “focus patrols” with additional officers to curb crime in the city center.

The city has deployed targeted patrols “year after year,” and spent millions of dollars on police overtime without solving downtown challenges, González said.

“It doesn’t work. So let’s do something new, ”said Echohawk.

Sixkiller called for increased patrols, while Harrell, Randall and Langlie talked more generally about a stronger public safety presence in the city center. However, several candidates stressed that they would not prefer the inner city to other areas. “All communities have an absolute right to feel safe,” said Harrell.

González and the Downtown Seattle Association collided outside the forum. The President-in-Office of the Council declined to answer the association’s candidate questionnaire and opposed what she called “downtown only” for economic recovery. Then she and the association’s president, Jon Scholes, swapped guest editorships at The Stranger, with Scholes accusing González of having a plan for the large job center.

González was pressed on Tuesday, reiterating her opposition to City Hall’s downtown policies that linked her with large corporations.

“The megacorporations that exist in our city, whether downtown or in another neighborhood, don’t need taxpayer subsidies,” she said.

Harrell, Randall and Sixkiller expressed their support for the campaign for a change to the city charter that would require City Hall to provide more shelter for the homeless while keeping the parks clear, while González, Echohawk and Langlie opposed it.

Echohawk initially backed the move, arguing that it would make Seattle’s response more urgent. She is now against it, she says, because it does not include funding and because critics fear it would lead to further clearance operations.

“If that’s what we need” to accommodate people and improve road conditions, “then I’m for it,” said Sixkiller. Langlie respects the idea, “I don’t think it’s good governance,” to incriminate voters, he said.

Reporter Sara Jean Green contributed to this story.

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