Two Slates of Candidates Have Formed in Seattle’s City Races – Slog

City Attorneys Attorneys Nicole Thomas-Kennedy and Ann Davison have shared a self-proclaimed progressive city. Screenshot from the Zoom meeting

Last night, the Seattle Times We Are In coalition and regional funders ended their second evening of debates between the Seattle and King Counties candidates. The focus of the talks was the defining topic of the local elections, the homelessness crisis.

On the first evening, mayoral candidates Bruce Harrell and Lorena González competed in the second forum on homelessness that day. The next night, candidates for position 3 of the King County, city attorney, and position 9 of the city council were put on the hot seat.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, homelessness has become more visible. A survey of researchers and students at Seattle Pacific University and the University of Washington found that the number of tents in the most densely populated areas increased by 50% from winter 2019 to summer 2020. That summer, Seattlites couldn’t get to a public park or grocery store without being pestered by well-paid signature collectors with magenta rainbows on their lanyards. Charter Amendment 29 – which died, tried to revive itself, and died again – divided the city on how we should address homelessness, and the local candidates reflect that split.

During their debate, the mayoral candidates didn’t have much new to say. Harrell and González faced each other earlier that day in a debate hosted by Resolution to End Homelessness, and both have publicly set out their plans to tackle homelessness.

Harrell’s plan is based on the approach of the now defunct Charter Amendment 29. In his first year, he plans to identify 2,000 emergency shelters, get nonprofit partners to scale to offer customized services that are accessible and culturally competent, and restore parks.

González, who sat on the other side of the fence of Charter Amendment 29, wants to create more housing by legalizing apartments in single-family homes, taxing tax companies to build more affordable housing, and creating “custom service plans” for people who sleep outside, so we can find out who is ready to come in and then get them in quickly according to their 100 day schedule.

Both candidates served as President of the Council, and as a short walk downtown shows, neither solved homelessness during their tenure. Given this not exactly ideal track record, the host asked both candidates why Seattle should trust them to solve homelessness as mayor.

Having often claimed to have a straightforward, straightforward campaigning style, Harrell evaded the question by saying he didn’t want to play the guilt game as it doesn’t bring the homeless inside. He does not hold a mayor responsible for the current crisis. González had fewer problems with the assignment of blame: she doesn’t think Seattle had a mayor serious about homelessness, and she described a deadlock between the legislature and the executive on the issue.

Perhaps the most revealing moment came when the host asked candidates who they wanted to vote for in the city attorney race: police and prison abolitionist Nicole Thomas-Kennedy or Trump-era Republican Obama voter Ann Davison ? Recently, some Democrats crossed party lines to rally around Davison.

González said she would vote for Thomas-Kennedy despite some disagreement with her policies and attitudes. “I want to support another democratic woman,” she said.

Harrell said he was in the undecided camp. “Both offer opportunities and both present challenges,” but he is willing to work with both.

The more conservative candidates expressed the same caution in answering the reverse question.

There are many differences between the candidates running for the city attorney. Thomas-Kennedy has four years of courtroom experience as a public defender, and Davison has not seen the inside of the courtroom since the Obama administration. Davison seeks to incarcerate low-level criminals and use distractions when necessary, and Thomas-Kennedy believes the routine incarceration of people for committing poverty-related crimes perpetuates the problem.

Last night, prosecutors even struggled to agree on exactly what the office was doing – Davison focused on executing the law as required by law, and Thomas-Kennedy said “discretion is the duty”.

During the debate, Davison said Seattle was “worse than a Cambodian refugee camp,” described crime as “a form of communication,” and refused to go into the abstract of city politics. Thomas-Kennedy said she wanted to fight homelessness by complying with city-enacted laws on tenants’ rights and not jailing people for life-sustaining crimes.

When it came to sex work, Davison only spoke of protection from people who leave sex work after being trafficked. Thomas-Kennedy wants to completely decriminalize sex work.

The moderator asked about her election for the mayor and for the open city council. Thomas-Kennedy reiterated their support for González and Nikkita Oliver without missing a blow. Davison was more careful.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to say that,” said Davison. “I would have to offer impartial legal advice to anyone who is elected.”

Similarly, Oliver, himself an abolitionist, praised Thomas-Kennedy when asked about her vote for the city attorney. Nelson kept her lips closed.

“I’m not going there,” said Nelson. “The last thing I have to do is make more enemies.”

Like the other couples, Oliver and craft beer lobbyist Sara Nelson had little in common.

“The contrast between our two candidates is pretty clear,” said Nelson. “My opponent wants to abolish the police and I don’t. I focus on pragmatic solutions that help real people lead a real life and struggle with real problems … “

As Oliver said to the stranger in an interview this summer, “the abolition of the police” means for her: “In the next few years we have to further downsize the Seattle Police Department by 10 to 20%, further expand our share of community structures in order to be able to mental health crises, responding to domestic violence, having access to safe houses and affordable housing, providing people with rental and food support. “

Nelson doesn’t think the solution to homelessness is as “simple” as taxing the corporations and the rich. She offered little funding, believing that the city should not “stand” if the majority of the resources were to be turned over to the King County regional authority anyway. She is ready to “fall in step,” as she said. It’s not Oliver.

“It is important to me to offer people security,” Oliver spoke directly to Nelson. “You care about making sure the park is a place that you can comfortably visit without seeing the crisis that Seattle has not responded to.”

It has been clear for some time, but two groups of candidates have formed in the city races. González and Oliver are behind Thomas-Kennedy, who supports them again immediately. The three agreed on Charter Amendment 29. The others – all fans of sweeping people out of parks – were silent about whether they support each other.