Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan Won't Run for Re-Election
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/seattle-mayor-durkan-pandemic/2020/12/07/id/1000443/Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, a moderate Democrat who faced criticism from the right and left this summer over her handling of policing protests and the city's so-called “autonomous zone,” said Monday she will not run for re-election.
Instead, she said, she wants to spend the rest of her term dealing with challenges brought on by the pandemic.
“We know stopping the spread of the virus, protecting jobs and focusing on the economic recovery — especially for downtown — is going to take everything we’ve got,” Durkan said in a video message. “I could spend the next year campaigning to keep this job or focus all my energy on doing the job. There was only one right choice for our city: doing the job.”
Durkan, 62, a Seattle native, longtime lawyer and former U.S. attorney, is Seattle's first female mayor in 89 years. She was elected in 2017, after Mayor Ed Murray resigned amid allegations of child sex abuse. Her decision leaves an open field for next year's mayoral election.
Talk about unmitigated disaster.
Though the city cleared out the area in July, Attorney General William Barr later branded Seattle an “anarchist jurisdiction” and threatened to withhold federal funding.
Seattle, along with its fellow “anarchist jurisdictions" of New York and Portland, Oregon, sued over the label.
In a written statement Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee thanked Durkan for her service to a city she loves.
“Jenny has led through tumultuous times and had to make difficult decisions with grace and dignity,” Inslee said. “She has always worked to represent the needs of all Seattleites and helped to make the city a world-class place during a time of strong economic transition.”
Seattle City Council President M. Lorena González noted that she first met Durkan in 2007, when they were both working on police accountability issues, and that they continued to have many similar priorities even as they differed on the police response to the protests and other issues.
