As the race for mayor of Seattle heads into its final days, there are two competing messages that can inundate voters within the Emerald Metropolis.
The primary, coming from the marketing campaign of challenger Katie Wilson, will assert that incumbent Mayor Bruce Harrell is just too cozy with the wealthy enterprise pursuits which might be pouring cash into his re-election effort.
The second, pitched by the Harrell marketing campaign, will probably be that Wilson has an embarrassingly quick resume and never practically sufficient expertise working any massive group, not to mention a significant American metropolis.
That is what has change into a typical political battle in Seattle: On one facet, a liberal Democratic politician who strives to implement mildly progressive applications, however who is aware of these good efforts can’t be paid for with no wholesome city economic system and worthwhile companies; on the opposite facet, an rebel from the left, somebody raised up by the activist neighborhood, who distrusts native capitalists and has an idealistic plan to rework our city right into a mannequin for social justice.
In different phrases, a pragmatist versus a dreamer, and, no less than within the case of Harrell versus Wilson, a veteran versus a novice.
Wilson got here out of the first with a ten% lead over Harrell, a outcome that shocked the enterprise neighborhood into opening their financial institution accounts for the politically endangered mayor. Whether or not that will probably be sufficient we’ll quickly study. The smaller variety of people who vote in primaries are usually extra engaged and ideological, and that was a bonus for Wilson. Within the normal election, extra pragmatists might solid ballots, which could enable Harrell to shut the hole.
Seattle’s political pendulum swings from the middle to the left and again once more with maddening regularity, usually giving nobody in both camp sufficient time to hold out a coherent program. That pendulum is swinging once more, however which means is it going?
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