With that campaign-style video, Mayor Jenny Durkan has just announced she will NOT run for re-election next year. The emailed announcement quotes her as saying, “”We know stopping the spread of the virus, protecting jobs and focusing on the economic recovery — especially for downtown– is going to take everything we’ve got. As Mayor approaching the last year of my term, that meant a choice. I could spend the next year campaigning to keep this job or focus all my energy on doing the job. There was only one right choice for our city: doing the job. I have decided not to run for reelection because Seattle, we still have some tough months ahead.”
ADDED: Durkan, a former U.S. Attorney, beat Cary Moon in 2017 after the two emerged from a 21-candidate primary. Three candidates have registered campaigns with the city so far – Lance Randall (who filed months ago) and two recent filers, perennial candidate David Ishii and William Kopatich.
Seattle hasn’t had a two-term mayor since West Seattle’s Greg Nickels, who left office a decade ago.
(WSB photo, October 2019)
Durkan has visited West Seattle for more than half a dozen walking tours and town halls since taking office three years ago. Before the West Seattle Bridge shutdown, public safety was the most-frequent topic, and she returned time and again to The Junction to talk with business owners. That’s also the topic on which she and City Councilmembers clashed last summer, with their push to cut the SPD budget leading to the departure of SPD Chief Carmen Best. But more recently, she did not challenge the cuts and changes that made it into the 2021 budget she signed last week.
Her highest-profile action regarding West Seattle, of course, was the decision announced last month to repair rather than replace the cracked high bridge, now in its ninth month of closure. Since Durkan’s term won’t end until late 2021, she’ll still be presiding as most of the repair process plays out.
We’ll update with any post-announcement developments of note throughout the day.
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