Bruce Harrell for Seattle Mayor
October 6, 2025
by William P. Meyers

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Experience Counts

It is 2025, and Seattle is electing a mayor, and a couple of other city officials. We have a top-two system, which usually eliminates Republicans (but not always Socialists, Anarchists, or Communists) in the primary. In the mayor's race this spring the winner was a Democrat, Katie Wilson. Runner up was the current mayor, also a Democrat, Bruce Harrell.

Although, based on the primary results, Mrs. Wilson is highly likely to win, I am endorsing Bruce Harrell. If Katie wins I will hope for the best. The real problem is not the two candidates. The real problems of Seattle have developed over decades, are being amplified by rule of the Trump mob at the national level, and are in the context of the Slow Motion Apocalypse, which neither candidate is addressing.

Bruce Harrell had working class parents but went to college and eventually earned a law degree. He has served Seattle in many ways, including terms on the City Council.

Katie Wilson has two parents with PhDs, but never finished college. While she has work experience (strangely, remarkably similar to mine when I was young) she seems to have partly been supported by her parents and her husband. She is best known for her paid work, which I admire, organizing the Transit Riders Union. She has never held public office, or even run for one before.

So how did Wilson win the primary? She ran to Harrell's left, which is a very workable, if not guaranteed successful, strategy in Seattle. We had an actual Communist, worse still a Trotskyist, on our city council for years. In most cities, even ones controlled by Democrats, Harrell would be seen as liberal to progressive. Wilson is not that far to the right, or that much more progressive than Harrell. Just enough more progressive to get the mighty Seattle progressive machine behind her.

Why did Harrell come in second? Because he has been the Mayor, and Seattle's problems have not changed much in the past four years (which included the pandemic). Because of Wilson's defund the police campaign during the Black Lives Matter era, Seattle's police department is severely understaffed. So response times are slow. Petty crimes are out of control. Stores are closing, and one reason is excessive shoplifting. And there are about as many homeless people living in tents around the city as there have been for the past two decades. The pandemic era federal funding assistance is running out, so the city is running a severe budget deficit. The incumbent may have name recognition, but he also gets the blame.

So why am endorsing Mayor Harrell? Because I think he has done a very good job with the resources at his disposal. He has worked well with the City Council. He manages a huge bureaucracy. He has put out many fires, including with the leadership of the police department. He has led the city in housing the homeless, but new homeless people, 70% of them originating outside the city, have kept the problem in obvious view.

Seattle needs more housing, but there is only so much money for that, public and private. Wilson has said she will build more public housing than Harrell, but unless she builds cheaper, substandard housing, I don't see how. Because of who elected her, she will be soft on crime, leading to more crime. She will not hire enough police. The people of Seattle will find out, yet again, that the magic wand of socialism loses its power when confined to one city. I support many progressive to socialist programs, like socialized medicine and higher income and capital gains and inheritance taxes on the rich. But the mayor of Seattle is in no position to implement that agenda.

If Wilson had served, and served well, on the City Council, I would be more optimistic about her administrative abilities. The job of mayor of Seattle is not to legislate, though the mayor does have veto power. The mayor, while providing some politiical leadership, mainly has to administrate the laws and bureaucracies that keep the city running. Bruce has proven he can handle the job. Katie has no comparable experience.

Vote for Bruce. Ballots will be mailed out soon.

More information:

Harrell for Mayor of Seattle

Wilson for Mayor of Seattle