Floodgates open, as trio of Seattle mayoral candidates gets spending limit lifted

A voucher for democracy in Seattle. (AP Photo / Ted S. Warren, File)

The floodgates for the mayor’s fundraiser could very well have opened as three candidates were released from the city’s $ 400,000 spending limit last week.

Seattle mayoral candidate Andrew Grant Houston was the first to receive approval, and was quickly followed by Colleen Echohawk and Lorena Gonzalez.

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Typically, mayoral campaigns participating in the city’s Democracy Voucher program are capped at $ 400,000 for the primaries and then to $ 800,000 between the primaries and general election. Houston first moved last Monday to lift this cap, pointing to the combined spending between opponent Bruce Harrell and an independent spending committee (IEC) on his behalf.

Houston was consistently a leading fundraiser in mayoral campaigns as the first candidate to reach the $ 400,000 cap. Ultimately, the SEEC unanimously voted to allow him to spend beyond this limit.

Since IECs operate without their own caps or boundaries, IECs can raise and spend large sums of money in support of whoever they choose, provided the candidates are not directly involved or solicit money on their behalf.

To date, the joint editions between the IEC “Harrell for Seattle’s Future” and Harrell’s current campaign have already passed the $ 400,000 mark. And although the Harrell campaign is not coordinated or directly affiliated with the IEC, the city still allows opposing campaigns to use this combined sum as a justification for lifting their own spending caps.

“In this case, at least, I would think that any issue by this committee should be viewed as an issue in support of Bruce Harrell,” Wayne Barnett, executive director of the Seattle Ethics and Election Commission, said at a meeting Friday.

Meanwhile, candidates have also raised concerns about the IECs’ ability to promote candidates outside the confines of the Democracy Voucher program.

“Our campaign doesn’t need or believe in PACs,” a Houston campaign spokesman told MyNorthwest. “By participating in this program, we made a commitment not to take large corporate funds, hit the cap first, with the highest coupon-to-cash ratio of any of our competitors. (Houston) has a net worth of $ 0 in a field of candidates like Mr. Harrell (who is worth millions) who have inherent ties to big money in our city. “

“Seattle passed groundbreaking law in 2015 with the voucher program, and I think it’s a shame that special interest groups are short-circuiting the citizen-based voucher program we are introducing,” agreed Mayor candidate Colleen Echohawk.

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Last week’s SEEC ruling appears to have opened things up to other candidates in the meantime, with Barnett stating that all subsequent motions can go straight through his office.

“I can give the releases under the law,” he said. “I moved this to the Commission because it was the first clearance process – I will be able to make the decision based on this precedent in the future.”

With that, both Echohawk and Lorena Gonzalez Houston followed suit and got OK to lift their own spending caps starting last Friday.

Currently, Echohawk is the only other mayoral candidate besides Houston to raise $ 400,000, though both Harrell and Gonzalez are rapidly approaching that number.