The Seattle City Council isn’t the only political group that’s got a female majority. Now our slate of major candidates for mayor is also dominated by women. At least, for now.
Bertha Knight Landes, Seattle’s first and only female mayor, led the city way back in the 1920s.
“The nearly 90-year gap is inexcusable and it’s time to fix it. Can we really be ‘the most progressive city in America’ without addressing this?” Crosscut columnist Knute Berger wrote last month.
So who, exactly, is up for the job? This week, Mayor Ed Murray dropped out of the Seattle mayor’s race over those stunning sexual abuse allegations, and three new candidates stepped in:
- Bob Hasegawa: A state senator who’s been in the state legislature since 2005 and is the son of Japanese Americans who were kept in internment camps during World War II
- Jenny Durkan: A former U.S. attorney and a veteran of the state’s Democratic Party who helped our last governor, Christine Gregoire, get her job
- Jessyn Farrell: An attorney and state representative who’s served since 2012 and just announced this morning
Plus, there are three existing major contenders. Here’s who they are in order of the amount of contributions they’ve raised so far:
- Nikkita Oliver ($34,360): An attorney, a champion slam poet, and an anti-racist organizer who’s been a force in the city’s Black Lives Matter movement
- Cary Moon ($11,825): An urban planner who led a fight against the Highway 99 tunnel being built under our city
- Mike McGinn ($10,837): Our previous mayor before Murray who wants his old job back
So when’s the deadline to enter the race? Next Friday. Let’s see who else jumps in…