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Serious money has entered the mayoral race. As of last week, Bruce Harrell’s PAC, Bruce Harrell for Seattle’s Future, had raised $1.07 million, and three quarters of that came in after his dismal showing in the primary election. Wilson’s PAC, which was formed shortly after the primary, has only raised around $86,200. Those with the means to do so in our city intend to buy Seattle’s future, as they’ve tried to do every election.
There’s now about $3 million at play, or as much as a Leschi mansion, in the mayoral race. Outside of their respective PACs, Wilson has raised over $921,000. Harrell is hot on her tail with over $899,000 in campaign contributions. In their individual campaigns, the candidates have a $550 contribution limit. There is no contribution limit for PACs. That’s helpful when you have a bottomless pit as a wallet.
Most of the new money comes from real estate developers and big players in the building industry. Tech company CEOs and baseball team owners threw in fat chunks of change, too. The over $764,000 that’s come in since the August primary shows that much of Seattle’s wealthy and powerful are willing to pay out to maintain their status quo.
None of this is surprising, according to Michael Fertakis, a political consultant with Upper Left Strategies.
The What
Business interests pouring money into Seattle elections is a tale as old as Citizens United. The most obvious example is what happened in 2019 when Amazon dumped $1.5 million into a PAC supporting the more conservative candidates vying for Seattle City Council.
It backfired then, and those candidates lost. (“This candidate brought to you by Amazon” doesn’t have the best ring to it.) But they had better luck in 2021, when Harrell and the current slate of city council members won their seats. After the primary that year, Harrell’s win in the general election wasn’t a foregone conclusion. In August, Harrell only led city council president Lorena Gonzalez by 7.1% of the vote in a race crowded by progressive challengers. But then the money started flowing. Between August and November, Harrell’s PAC raised half a million dollars. And that’s when he was ahead in the polls and he wasn’t the incumbent.
That financial influx is happening again, but this time with more urgency since challenger Katie Wilson captured over 50 percent of the vote in the primary compared to Harrell’s 41 percent.
The Who
“It’s, for the most part, the same cast of characters as last time,” Fertakis says.
Leading the donation list with a $100,000 contribution is the Affordable Housing Council, which sounds like a good thing but is the political action committee for the Master Builders Association, which endorses moderates and conservatives in the region whenever they can find them.
Other real estate and housing groups jumped on the Harrell train as well. WA Association of Realtors PAC spent $5,000 before the primary, and $50,000 after. The commercial real estate developers PAC, NAIOP WA State PAC, spent $10,000 before the election and $25,700 after. The WA Multi Family Housing Association PAC, which supports political interest on behalf of the multifamily housing sector, gave $5,000 before and $20,000 after. Jeffrey Gow, president of the PNW Home Builders Group, donated $15,000. So did Private real estate investment groups such as Grousemont Associates LLC. And that’s just the tip of the land-based-wealth iceberg.
What’s interesting is Harrell is not a particularly good mayor for building things. When he was elected in 2021, Harrell pledged to build 2,000 new units of emergency shelter and permanent supportive housing to tackle the housing crisis. The dashboard for visibility into the progress noted the Harrell administration had built 2,016 new units. An Axios investigation found this number was a lie. This is a huge hit for Harrell who made creating dashboards one of his key campaign promises in 2021. Axios found the actual number of new units was somewhere like 1,800.
Plus, his proposal for the plan to lead Seattle’s growth plan for the next 20 years fell short on affordable housing goals and widespread density to increase places for people to live. That track record seems contrary to the interests of these moneyed builders.
He has, however, created a reputation for making it easier for developers to build in the city—and for making owning those buildings as conflict-free as possible. This summer, he issued an executive order calling for comprehensive permitting reform. He also made sure that low-rise buildings didn’t have to bother with affordable housing units and slashed the city funds for tenant assistance, so renters can’t give building owners as much trouble when their living conditions are dangerous or they try to impose an illegal rent hike.
“It has less to do with building affordable housing and more so being asked to pay their fair share for things,” Fertakis says about real estate and builders spending money to keep Harrell in office.
Who Else?
But it’s not just the housing heads who are hellbent on Harrell. The sports team owners like what he’s about, too.
Mariners CEO John Stanton and his real estate mogul wife Theresa Gillepsie both threw $50,000 at Harrell. What, are they starting off season acquisitions already? Not to be outdone, minority owner in the Mariners and Microsoft exec Christopher Larson donated his own $50,000. Don’t fret, the Seattle Mariners aren’t the only ownership group invested in another four years of Harrell. Seems like they’re willing to invest more into owning the mayor than they are into new players for their team. William aka Tod Leiweke, CEO of the Seattle Kraken, donated $10,000. His wife and co-owner of the Sounders, Tara Leiweke, gave $10,000. Are they convinced Harrell is going to somehow bring back the Sonics and that will be a rising tide that lifts all boats? Did they not see his terrible State of the City address with that basketball?
Matt Oppenheimer, the CEO of Seattle tech company Remitly which is making a buck on transferring money internationally, gave Harrell $17,500 since primary day. He already contributed $2,500 before the primary. Oh, and the Wright family that owns the Space Needle gave $15,000.
It’s a lot from people who have a lot and Fernakis thinks it’s just the beginning.
“I frankly expect more money to be coming in over the next couple of weeks,” Fertakis says. And with those funds come the attack ads.
According to the Public Disclosure Commission, Katie Wilson for an Affordable Seattle has raised just over $86,200. But a spokesperson for Wilson’s PAC told The Stranger that an upcoming filing will reflect an influx of cash—though nothing close to what Harrell’s had brought in. The PAC’s donations have mostly come from small donors and unions. Her PAC has received $75,000 from UFCW 3000 and Protec17 and $10,000 from UAW 4121. Those funds come from member dues. Actual fundraising amounts number closer to $350,000. “There’s not a lot of progressives with the ability to drop a $100,000 check into a campaign,” Fertakis says.
The PAC says while they’re getting outspent, they’re going to “make sure to throw some punches back.”