Incumbent Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has erased challenger Katie Wilson’s surprising post-primary lead in political money. Harrell’s campaign has pulled in roughly $400,000 since the primary, compared to about $320,000 for Wilson’s campaign. Harrell has now raised more than $846,000 overall, compared to $791,000 for Wilson.
Most of that money comes from the taxpayers via the city’s democracy-voucher program, which also imposes strict limits on spending and how much individual donors can give. (Candidates can opt out, but both Harrell and Wilson are still playing nice in the democracy-voucher sandbox for the time being.)
However, things start to get lopsided when you count the limit-free money raised by PACs supporting both candidates. Bruce Harrell for Seattle’s Future has raised more than $772,000 thus far, including about $470,000 since Harrell finished 18,000 votes behind Wilson in the primary. Katie Wilson for an Affordable Seattle, meanwhile, has raised just $41,000 so far, per recent filings with the Public Disclosure Commission.
The PACs can’t legally coordinate with the campaigns, but it’s customary for the negative campaigning to come from the independent committee, and the Harrell side is loaded to launch some broadsides at Wilson.
The biggest check written to the pro-Harrell PAC, a cool $100,000, came from the Affordable Housing Council, the political arm of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties, which works to “make a positive political environment for the homebuilding industry in the Puget Sound region.” If you’re in the business of building for-profit housing, the prospect of Mayor Katie Wilson looks like rent control, tougher renter protections, and an aggressive push for more taxpayer-backed affordable housing.
The PAC also got $50,000 each from John Stanton, the majority owner of the Seattle Mariners, and his wife, Theresa Gillespie. (There’s no limit on contributions to PACs like this, but for some reason these his-and-hers checks are commonplace in this rarefied political air. A single $100K check would have been tacky?) The Washington chapter of NAIOP, a commercial real estate development association, and HomeStreet Bank both chipped in $25,000.
The most interesting thing in the pro-Harrell PAC’s financial disclosure for August was $20,000 spent with EMC Research for focus groups. That’s likely a messaging exercise in search of lethal ammunition for the negative campaign push closer to Election Day.
This story also appears in the author’s website, The Washington Observer.
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