Announcer: Seattle
City Attorney.
The City Attorney is the head
of the Law Department
and appoints all
assistant city attorneys,
city prosecutors,
and other department staff.
The City Attorney supervises
and controls litigation
in which the city or any
of its departments is a party.
The City Attorney
also provides legal counsel
to all city departments
and to elected
and appointed officials.
The City Attorney is elected
for a four-year term.
I'm Ann Davison, and I'm running
for Seattle City Attorney
because our city must reconcile that it is failing
to meet the needs of the most vulnerable,
as well as the basic functions
of protecting public health and safety.
When I moved to Seattle in 1996
for a job in the Sonics' front office,
our city had found a way to meet those needs.
Before my first child was born in 2008,
walking to the courthouse downtown was safe,
but by the time I had my second child in 2011,
our streets were becoming dangerous.
Now employees and jurors
are told not to use the main entrance
because it's so unsafe.
The same can be said for many of our neighborhoods.
My kids began to ask questions about
why people were living
alongside Seattle's roadways
in unconscionable conditions
less humane than in a U.N. Cambodian refugee camp
where I worked with people fleeing civil war.
Even our children know what's happening
in our city isn't right.
The City Attorney is a critical link
to public safety
downtown and in our neighborhoods,
deciding when to prosecute
many types of criminal activity.
I will provide balanced leadership
that makes us smart on crime,
proactive, not reactive.
I will be a collaborative leader,
bringing compassion, seeking progress,
and establishing working relationships
within our city and region
to restore public safety.
I'm proud to be endorsed by retired
Seattle Municipal Court Judge Ed McKenna,
former King County Prosecutor Chris Bailey,
Seattle Opera Board member Louise Miller,
and Tom Hansen, a Seattle author decades in recovery.
You can see more endorsements at
neighborsforann.com.
By fixing this critical link
of public health and safety,
we begin to see improvement
in the livability of our city.
With your vote, we can create a safer,
more compassionate city for all of us.
My name is Nicole Thomas-Kennedy,
and I'm running for City Attorney.
In my years as a public defender,
I witnessed up close how the city
wastes millions of dollars every year
prosecuting BIPOC,
the poor, and the disabled.
We need a sharp pivot away
from these reactive and punitive models.
They clearly aren't solving
Seattle's most glaring problems.
My office will instead focus
on solutions to larger problems
in order to fulfill the promises
of our city charter --
to protect and enhance the health,
safety, environment,
and general welfare of our people.
While the county deals with serious felonies,
the City Attorney only deals
with misdemeanors -- low-level or petty crime.
I have witnessed hungry people
prosecuted for stealing food
and unsheltered people prosecuted
for things like stealing socks.
This is not money well-spent.
The war on drugs is an expensive failure.
Money spent criminalizing drug possession
should go into community-based
diversion and harm reduction programs
staffed by people who best understand
these complex issues of public health.
By isolating and destabilizing people
for petty crime,
the current City Attorney has undermined
the very things that create public safety.
We must stop prosecuting
the vast majority of misdemeanors
and streamline the budget so these wasted
millions can be reinvested
back into the community.
As Seattle's Attorney, I will work
to stop the sweeps
and overturn the apartment ban.
I will aggressively protect tenants'
rights and workers from wage theft.
My office will undertake litigation
that challenges the ban on rent control
and affirmative action.
Seattle should be a national leader
on climate justice.
We must divest all city pensions
from fossil fuel corporations
and break ties with the banks
that fund them.
We must instead invest in
environmentally responsible companies
that will grow as the world changes.
I'm Nicole Thomas-Kennedy,
and I'm running for Seattle City Attorney
because we don't need to choose between
punishment and safety.
The people of Seattle deserve a candidate
with new, yet practical solutions
to our city's most critical problems,
built on a foundation of justice and equity.
Hi. I'm Pete Holmes,
your elected City Attorney.
As Seattle recovers from the pandemic
and addresses critical issues of policing,
criminal legal reform,
and turnover at City Hall,
I'm proud to provide consistent,
principled, and progressive leadership
for our city at a time when we need it most.
Seattle elects an independent city attorney
to provide important checks and balances
with the mayor and council
and advocate for the people of our city.
Our office prosecutes misdemeanor crimes
and supports victims impacted by domestic violence,
drunk driving, and assaults.
We lead on police reform
and hold powerful corporations accountable.
Now is not the time for an untested voice
in this vital office.
We partner with proven diversion programs
to help people afflicted with addiction,
behavioral health issues, and poverty
to get treatment and support
instead of cycling through jail.
We're removing firearms from our streets
and fighting for stronger gun laws at every level.
As the former chair of the OPA Review Board,
police reform is close to my heart.
I've personally led our decade-long partnership
with the Department of Justice
to reduce excessive force
at the Seattle Police Department
and earned the praise of the federal monitor.
But we have more work ahead,
with a new mayor next year
searching for a new chief
and bargaining a new police contract.
We tackled equity priorities
like vacating marijuana convictions,
fought Trump's racist immigration policies,
and defeated Tim Eyman's attacks on transit.
Now we are defending our right
to tax wealthy corporations,
hold polluters accountable,
and keep people housed post-pandemic.
I'm honored to have the endorsement
of progressive leaders
like Attorney General Bob Ferguson,
Prosecutor Satterberg,
city and county council members,
state legislators,
the Alliance for Gun Responsibility,
MLK Labor Council,
local Democratic groups, and many more.
I'd appreciate your vote.