VIDEO: Jessyn Farrell wins ‘mayoral showdown’ @ 34th District Democrats

June 15, 2017 7:29 pm
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(WSB photos and video by Patrick Sand. **Recognize the candidates? IDs at end of story)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Nine candidates showed up for the 34th District Democrats‘ mayoral showdown.

By night’s end, there was a showdown winner – but not an endorsee, as the group decided not to take a formal vote (yet, anyway).

Like most epic events, it began with the national anthem:

That’s tenor José Iñiguez. (The meeting usually starts with the Pledge of Allegiance.)

Some other business ensued before the mayoral forum that began with nine and was whittled to one – the candidates had to get here from another forum across town. But we’ll get to those other items later.

MAYORAL FORUM: 34th Dems chair David Ginsberg prefaced it with, “When we planned the agenda for the spring, we didn’t expect the mayor’s race to be hotly contested” – no one could have foreseen Mayor Ed Murray dropping out; they thought City Council Position 8 would be the real battle. Ginsberg reiterated that all 21 candidates were welcome to participate at least at the start of the event. .

The 34th’s Chris Porter moderated. First, each of the nine got to give an introduction:

(Note – while our video clips are unedited, the text paragraphs below are highlights, not transcriptions, so you’ll want to watch the video to see and hear everything the candidates said. Also, each candidate’s full name, on first reference below, links to her/his campaign website.)

SEN. BOB HASEGAWA described himself as a “longtime social justice activist …I come out of the labor movement.” He said he plans a “transformation” for the city, to address the “cynicism about the current structure,” where people think decisions are being made at the top by people with money leaving “people in the neighborhood wondering, ‘how did that happen?'” He wants to re-engage neighborhood councils as “organizing tools to go into our communities” and empower people to put resources into those groups.

JASON ROBERTS said he’s running “because I believe we are at a critical juncture in the city’s history,” with growing pains leading to problems including unaffordable housing, homelessness, and opioid addiction. He said it’s time to “bring power back to the communities,” which he said should make their own decisions on issues such as upzoning.

JESSYN FARRELL: She described herself as a former state legislator, lawyer, mother of 3, former director of the Transportation Choices Council, and more. She touted her endorsements. “I am running because I am deeply concerned about the affordability crisis facing … our city.” She said she wants to see light rail sped up to get to Ballard, downtown, and West Seattle. And she said she wants to lead on climate change.

TINIELL CATO: Her introduction was the briefest; she described herself as a business owner and a philanthropist, and invited people “to discuss with me how we can merge our influences together, so we can build a powerhouse of leaders” for the community.

JENNY DURKAN: She opened by saying she thought she had doorbelled almost every precinct in West Seattle. She said she wouldn’t want to see this area secede. She noted her appointment as US Attorney by President Obama and that she misses him every day. Noting that she was the first openly gay US Attorney, she touted her achievements in that role and said she’s running for mayor “because I know we can build the future” and that the future has to include affordable housing, a plan for homelessness, and action on climate.

MICHAEL HARRIS: He said he was glad to be in Fauntleroy and recalled being part of the Springer rescue in this area 15 years ago. He touted his background as a “disaster” expert in TV-news production. “The ethic I’ve learned as an ABC News producer is to get in there and immerse,” and said he would do that with many issues, such as homelessness.

JAMES NORTON: He’s a Seattle Police officer who says he’s running for mayor because he loves the city and wants to give back to the community. He says he’s hearing from citizens “that we’re losing our diversity in our neighborhoods” and that he can bring a “unique perspective” to issues. Homelessness, traffic, housing crunch, feelings of helplessness: “Our current local government has forgotten what it means to serve the people of the city … this city deserves a mayor with integrity, accountability, and understanding of its current issues. … I’m committed to making Seattle livable for everyone.”

CARY MOON: She said she’s running “because I believe in Seattle’s potential” – the city is rich, creative, innovative, with a shared progressive set of values, “but we are becoming a city of haves and have nots.” She described herself as an engineer, urban planner, mom, and problem solver: “I’ve been working on some of Seattle’s biggest problems for 20 years” and invited people to her website to read the solutions she proposes for the city’s problems, including homelessness and transit. “I believe Seattle in this time of Trump can be the North Star vision of what a city can be.”

MIKE McGINN: The former mayor said, “I’ve done this before – you might ask why do it again?” He ticked off things he thinks have gone wrong since he left – the city budget increasing 25 percent but somehow not having enough money to handle homelessness, and adding new “regressive tax(es).” He says he would “reprioritize the budget” if elected, “hold the line on sales taxes and property taxes” and “fully engage the community.”

After all nine candidates who were here gave their intros, there was a yes/no “raise the paddle” lightning round of questions (sorry, we were both out of position for capturing the questions and responses).

Then, the 34th members voted to determine which three would move on to the next round. We tweeted the results:

The forum’s second section began with a quick lightning round for Durkan, Hasegawa, and Farrell, and then questions (drawn randomly) for longer answers. (This time, our video does include the yes/no round as well as the rest.)

Question: How will you address homelessness crisis if you’re elected?

FARRELL: “Housing is a human right … (also) a complex issue.” In the very short term, she would “take action urgently to be sure people are safe … as we move into the next rainy season … including sanctioned encampments that have services there … an approach that leverages the energy around tiny homes …” Then, she would “address the affordability crisis … (with) a plan that … uses a whole array of affordability tools” especially to increase the housing supply. Third, she said addressing the mental-health crisis would be important.

Then a question that the crowd objected to: Who is less deserving of the city’s help, homeless children or homeless men?

HASEGAWA: He didn’t answer the question but instead said he recognized it’s mostly about the homelessness issue itself. First rule is … keeping people in their homes. He noted that half the homeless people over 55 lost their homes. Second, he said, is that a “fundamental problem of housing costs” is that supply outstrips demand, so “we really need to take a serious look at … increasing the public-housing supply.” He said he has a plan to finance it through a “publicly owned municipal bank.” There could be a billion dollars worth of construction capacity, he said.

Should the city have police officers in schools or should schools have their own personnel to work on justice issues?

DURKAN: She started the reply talking about police reform and police use of force, and the training that led police to become more knowledgeable about crisis intervention. So “when we look at police officers in schools, what’s the need we’re trying to serve?” She believes it’s to keep kids out of the criminal-justice system because when they go into it, “their lot in life is decided.” She says it’s “not a one-size-fits-all” solution.

Next round of questions had 30-second time limits on the answers.

First was about the proposed city income tax supposedly costing people money even if they’re not eligible.

FARRELL: “We have an upside-down tax system that does not reflect values in this city.”

Next, how will you encourage an inclusive culture in our city, “even for Republicans?”

HASEGAWA: He said he works well across party lines and passed more bills than others in the last session.

Then: Give a snapshot of your vision of Seattle in 25 years, and how will we get there?

DURKAN: “I won’t recognize it but my kids will be living here. I want a city with as eclectic neighborhoods as we have today … We have to have transit and developments around it so that (they become neighborhoods) … the rich, beautiful Seattle that I love.”

Then it was time again for another vote. It was closer:

Here’s how the final faceoff between Hasegawa and Farrell went:

This time, Porter explained, the candidates were to “consider each other’s response” in their replies.

First question was about Seattle’s rapid growth and how the federal government might be withholding money from our city.

FARRELL: “I believe deeply in the power of cities and how that translates into political power for people like us. … I’ve been fighting my whole career for transit systems that work.” She touted her experience in transit advocacy, including fighting for Sound Transit 3 at the state level.

HASEGAWA: “We’re going to have to figure out how to increase our financing capacity.” He said the municipal bank would be a perfect solution – “it would drastically increase our capacity to fill a lot of these holes” if the feds do withhold money. He also noted that he has a Teamsters background that gives him transportation knowledge. “If we create our own publicly owned bank we could probably restructure Sound Transit bonding” and get light rail to West Seattle sooner.

FARRELL: She gave Hasegawa props for his view, calling it a “really great” idea, and said the big question is capitalizing a public bank.”The way you get to yes on things like that is by organizing, working with community actiists, stakeholders across a variety of beliefs … the next step is to implement it and … bring those real-world skills to deliver a fully capitalized (public) bank.”

Porter then asked Hasegawa to talk about the rollout of the bank.

HASEGAWA: “I actually have Tea Party supporters who believe in the bank – people who want independence from Wall Street (etc.).” He said he’d been working on the idea for a long time. He said there’s already some money out there that could be “recaptured” and moved into the “capitalization process.”

Ending that line of discussion, Porter asked about food deserts and how the candidates would address them, particularly considering the lack of grocery stores in Delridge.

HASEGAWA: The Seattle Times called southeast Seattle one of the largest food deserts in the US, he observed. He said he’s in favor of supporting mom-and-pop grocery stores but “the easier way … is to really build out our transit system so people can get to where they need to go, easily.” He said the north-south transit situation means people on Delridge, for example, can’t get easily to the grocery cluster to the west

So, Porter followed up, is transit the answer to addressing food deserts?

FARRELL: She believes “real-market failures” are part of the cause of them, and government should use “incentives and disincentives.” More opportunities to grow food could be helpful, too. Public benefits should be required from stores being permitted in areas like ours.

HASEGAWA: He agreed that there’s a market failure, so “having some limitations, maybe, on the size of these (businesses)” could help.

Porter: So it’s Day 1, you’re in the office, what are you going to do to put into motion resolving food deserts?

FARRELL: Full review of city regulations regarding people getting into businesses … review the city budget process so we are getting ready to support community co-ops and others providing healthy food … look ahead to what’s going to be happening as new stores are permitted in our communities, and (look at) the permitting process.

HASEGAWA: “I would reach out to the community” and find out what people are most concerned about. He mentioned Got Green canvassing southeast Seattle and finding out that access to healthy food was a top issue. “I don’t come to the office of mayor with all the solutions … as I said earlier, it’s about flipping the power structure so the neighborhoods are more empowered to make the decisions.”

The final vote left Farrell the winner of the “showdown” – 53 to 39 – donning a Western hat offered by the 34th leadership:

After that, the 34th members debated whether to take an endorsement vote. One of the people opposed to endorsing last night was former chair Marcee Stone-Vekich, who pointed out that not only is there a profusion of candidates, there’s even been talk of a write-in candidate for incumbent Ed Murray, now that the lawsuit that led him to quit the race has been dropped.

Eventually, “no” won the vote on whether to take an endorsement vote. Will one happen before the August 1st primary? Not clear.

Earlier in the meeting, the 34th DDs did vote to endorse another measure:

KING COUNTY PROP 1, ‘ACCESS FOR ALL’: The 34th Dems endorsed the “Access for All” sales-tax increase that will be on the countywide ballot, after getting a pitch for it. It would increase the sales tax a tenth of one percent. “We’ve built a program that’s worthy of this investment,” contended the supporter who spoke to the group.

Questions included whether the availability of this money would mean that, for example, school districts would then just move the money they spent on this type of access, to something else. The money won’t go directly to school districts – it’ll be disbursed through the fund created by the tax, it was explained. At the end of the Q&A, the measure’s main backer, King County Executive Dow Constantine, bounded to the microphone for a few words of support, and to thank the group for endorsing him earlier this spring in his mostly unchallenged re-election bid.

In subsequent debate, opposition was voiced by Michael Taylor-Judd, who contended that “We cannot as Democrats say we have a regressive tax system that needs change, and keep approving (taxes like this).” He said things like this might not be needed if not for the big bite that existing taxes are taking out of people’s income. “Maybe we should worry about textbooks and teachers before we worry about them getting free bus trips to the opera, the zoo, or the Fifth Avenue Theater.” Another opponent, Liz Giba, said that too many kids live in segregation and if that bigger issue were examined, we would have fewer kids living in poverty overall.

The 34th District Democrats meet second Wednesdays most months, 7 pm, at The Hall at Fauntleroy. Check for updates between meetings at 34dems.org.

**Candidates in our top photo, left to right – Jason Roberts, Jenny Durkan, Bob Hasegawa, Tiniell Cato, James Norton, Jessyn Farrell, Mike McGinn, Michael Harris, Cary Moon

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