Seattle residents begin process to RECALL Mayor Jenny Durkan

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan is finally on the hot seat as 5 Seattle residents have begun a petition to get her recalled from office. Durkan is trying to get the courts to stop the process but so far she hasn’t been successful:

SEATTLE TIMES – Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan is asking the Washington state Supreme Court to reverse the decision of a King County judge that has allowed a recall effort to go forward that could result in her being removed from office.

Five Seattle residents have filed a petition seeking to recall Durkan over her role in the police response to the protests that have dominated the city this summer.

King County Superior Court Judge Mary Roberts has twice allowed the petition to go forward. Of the seven charges filed by the petitioners, Roberts initially dismissed six, but allowed one to go forward “more narrowly than alleged.”

Durkan asked Roberts to reconsider. Roberts declined.

Now Durkan is asking the state’s highest court to weigh in. Her notice of appeal, filed Wednesday, contains no new arguments. It just asks the Supreme Court to reconsider Roberts’ decision.

Durkan’s spokesperson actually said this in response to the recall effort: “In the midst of unprecedented challenges for the city, Mayor Durkan has consistently acted to protect the public health and safety of residents during the pandemic, economic devastation, and demonstrations for justice.”

We all know this is a laughable statement. Durkan allowed Chaz to go on for weeks, putting politics over the safety of her residents.

The petitioners, in turn, took the opportunity to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider two of the charges that Roberts dismissed and to broaden their charges against Durkan.

Roberts’ role is to assume the charges, as filed against Durkan, are true, and to determine whether they’re both specific and serious enough to allow the petition to proceed. The charge she allowed to go forward alleges Durkan failed to implement new policing policies after tear gas and other chemical agents were used on protesters in May and June. It accuses her of “misfeasance, malfeasance and violation of the oath of office.”

Hilarious. She’s being attacked from the left!

Here’s a little more on the recall process itself:

The recall process is a long one. If the state Supreme Court upholds Roberts’ decision, allowing the process to proceed, Durkan opponents would have to collect more than 50,000 signatures from Seattle voters — one-quarter of the votes filed in the last mayoral election — before a special recall election could be held.

A recall election would be a simple up or down vote on Durkan, with no opponent on the ballot. If the recall succeeded, the City Council president, currently M. Lorena González, would become mayor.

Assuming the residents succeed I hope they end up ousting Durkan from office with a large majority of the vote. She’s been a horrible mayor and deserves to be out of a job, whether it’s the right or the left that ousts her.


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