(Image: Bruce for Seattle)

With incumbent Jenny Durkan opting to step aside and not seek reelection, a Seattle political veteran is now the most downtown chamber-tolerable frontrunner in the 2021 Seattle mayor’s race.

Former city councilmember — and one-time five-day Seattle mayor — Bruce Harrell is announcing his candidacy for the mayor’s office Tuesday in a press conference with “a small number of family and supporters” outside the Central District’s Garfield High School, the political veteran’s alma mater and part of the old school Seattle base on which his personality and career as an elected in the progressive city has been built.

“Seattle needs a mayor committed to a real recovery, rooted in uniting everyone around our progressive values,” Harrell says in a video introducing his campaign.

“Committed to building equity and opportunity for every family, I was elected to the city council where we accomplished big things, raised the minimum wage, invested in transit and affordable housing,” the candidate says. “Now after divisive politics, a racial reckoning and a terrible pandemic, I’m running for mayor to help lead Seattle forward, to come together and work together. I know we can and will fix our city.”

UPDATE: We have added Harrell’s “open letter” announcing his candidacy and early platform proposals to the end of the post.

Included in the letter is a swipe from the council veteran at #defundSPD efforts. “We need to move beyond arbitrary and divisive public safety budget debates and align the needs of our entire community with the mandate of ending bias, improving response times, and reducing crime,” Harrell’s letter states. “We need the right kind of personnel to respond—like social workers and addiction specialists when an armed officer isn’t needed or appropriate. Accountability and training—and appropriate staffing for our growing city—require resources and reforms. We can do both.”

Harrell’s political career and long ties to the city and its Black community vault the candidate into a neck and a neck race with Lorena González, the current council president and biggest name so far in the run to replace Durkan after leading the city’s legislative body through the tumultuous 2020 political battles over COVID-19 crisis and recovery and the fight to reduce spending on the Seattle Police Department. In anticipation of Harrell’s run, González’s campaign is issuing “a public call for other candidates in the race to reject corporate PAC money and corporate independent expenditure assistance.”

Chief Seattle Club executive director Colleen Echohawk has also joined the race while Capitol Hill architect Andrew Grant Houston has made waves among progressives with an urbanist and social justice focused campaign. Meanwhile, Nikkita Oliver, another community leader many hoped would consider a run for mayor, instead is making a push to join the city council.

Harrell is cut from different cloth entirely. A standout high school athlete who grew up in 1970s-era Seattle, Harrell seems to approach his take on politics with a jock’s swagger and a habit for quips and jokey asides.

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In 2013 as Harrell mounted a challenge for mayor — he came in a distant fourth in the primary, CHS called his background something “a novelist would conjure for a homegrown Seattle politician.” With Black and Japanese ancestry, Harrell was born and raised three blocks from 23rd and Union and walked to T.T. Minor Elementary and Meany Middle schools. He was valedictorian at Garfield High School, and then went on to win a Rose Bowl as a leading defensive player for the University of Washington. After a decade in corporate law in the telecommunications industry and as chief legal advisor to Capitol Hill’s First A.M.E. Church and First A.M.E. Housing Corporation, Harrell went into private practice.

According to voter registration records, he is a Seward Park area resident.

In 2007, Harrell was elected to the Seattle City Council — but only after reversing a big gap thanks to his opponent’s DUI arrest. She was later found not guilty. He solidified his place on the council with another victory in 2011 but was rebuffed in his quest for the mayor’s seat in 2013 as Ed Murray rose above his challengers. Murray’s downfall in 2017 led to then-Council President Harrell’s peculiar five-day term as interim mayor. To stay on through Murray’s term, Harrell would have had to give up his seat on the council. Tim Burgess stepped in instead.

A prop CHS found inside Harrell’s 2013 campaign headquarters at 23rd and Union

Much will likely be made of the Murray episode and his defense of the mayor even as most allies called for him to step down.

Much will also be made of Harrell’s wealth — $13.3 million according to most recent disclosures.

“I’m happy to welcome former Council President Bruce Harrell back to the campaign trail,” González said in a statement sent to CHS. “Seattle’s next Mayor must be accountable to the people first and foremost, so I hope he’ll join me in pledging to take democracy vouchers, turn down all corporate contributions, denounce any corporate-backed independent expenditures, and refrain from funding his own campaign. I look forward to a healthy debate on how to lead Seattle into becoming a world class city with opportunities for everyone, not just the super rich.”

González tallied a net worth of just over $171,000 in her recent filing, part of a trend of less wealthy representation the council.

Harrell’s approach to politics might best be described as pragmatic. “When we start talking about that kind of harm and we start talking about stripes on the sidewalk, or LED lights, or things like that, they seem somewhat removed, but I just want to impress upon you that, as a policymaker, as a city council member, we’re trying to look at everything,” Harrell said in 2019 as his council tried to address Central District gun violence.

On homelessness, Harrell showed a preference for permanent housing and funding mental health services. “We should have the highest standard and, in fact, share a common goal of striving to help all individuals experiencing homelessness transition into permanent housing and providing help to those with mental illness,” Harrell said in 2018. But earlier that year, Harrell oversaw the council’s backtracking on a head tax on large companies like Amazon to help the city pay for services and housing.

We’ll soon see how Harrell’s vision for the city plays in a citywide election. In his most recent dance with the voters in 2015, Harrell barely overcame challenger Tammy Morales, winning by only 344 votes to take the District 2 seat as the city switched to district elections. Morales now holds the seat after Harrell’s joined two other council incumbents in deciding to step down in 2019.

You can learn more at bruceforseattle.com.

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Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.