As public safety adviser, Scott Lindsay has overseen efforts on police reform and homelessness.
As public safety adviser, Scott Lindsay has overseen efforts on police reform and homelessness. courtesy of campaign

Well, another local political race that looked like a lock has turned into one worth watching.

One of Mayor Ed Murray's top advisers, Scott Lindsay, announced today that he'll challenge incumbent City Attorney Pete Holmes, who until today did not face any opponents.

Lindsay is currently Murray's public safety adviser. In that role, he has overseen much of the mayor's controversial response to homelessness, including encampment sweeps, a still forthcoming 24-hour shelter, and a coordinated campaign from Murray and multiple city departments to kill a proposal from Columbia Legal Services and the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington that would have limited the city's power to forcefully remove homeless people from where they're camping. He has also worked on police reform efforts and crafted the so-called "9 1/2 Block Strategy" to crackdown on crime downtown. That effort showed some signs of success but nearby neighborhoods reported increased criminal activity, the Seattle Times reported, raising the question of whether it was really just pushing crime around. Lindsay will leave the mayor's office to campaign on May 5.

As city attorney, Lindsay says he would focus on "getting better public safety results with less incarceration." He calls for "bold solutions" to the heroin epidemic and says he supports safe consumption sites. Citing the city's navigation teams—which pair outreach workers with police officers to try to get homeless people living outside to accept services—Lindsay says he would "expand on this model for using fresh approaches to difficult situations. It's not clear what that actually means.

Lindsay's announcement includes a supportive quote from Lisa Daugaard, the director of the Public Defender Association who has sometimes clashed with the Murray administration. Without explicitly endorsing him, Daugaard says she believes Lindsay will prioritize alternatives to incarceration.

"There are too many people going to jail unnecessarily on City of Seattle misdemeanors," Daugaard said. "Meanwhile, we are making too little use of proven alternatives that apply a public health framework to address problems that stem from addiction, mental illness and extreme poverty."

Holmes has already been endorsed by Murray.

Before working for the mayor, Lindsay served as senior counsel to Democrats on the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee and at Seattle law firm K&L Gates.

Holmes, serving his second term as city attorney, has made a name for himself siding with pot legalization activists. In 2010, two years before Washington legalized cannabis possession, Holmes refused to prosecute people arrested for possession. Last year, he vowed to crack down on illegal delivery services he believed were undermining the legal market. Currently, Holmes is suing the Trump Administration over its threats to pull funding from sanctuary cities. His office is also defending the city's landmark legislation allowing Uber drivers to unionize and fighting an ACLU lawsuit challenging the city's encampment sweeps. Holmes is also the one who, with support from Murray's office, hired a private investigator to try to hunt down the source who provided former Stranger reporter Ansel Herz documents related to the city's secret negotiations with the police union. That investigator was paid about $65,000 ($325 an hour) and turned up nothing.

Like the two city council races on the ballot this fall, city attorney candidates can use democracy vouchers this year. That new campaign financing program allows voters to donate public funds to candidates and puts new limits on how much candidates can take from donors. Holmes is participating in that program. Lindsay has not yet responded to a question about whether he plans to.

UPDATE: In an interview, Lindsay said his decision to enter the race was not spurred by the chance that allegations of sexual abuse against Mayor Ed Murray could tank his boss and leave him without a job. He added that he has been considering a run for a couple months.

Lindsay said Holmes has not been the kind of activist city attorney Seattle needs on issues like the opioid epidemic. He said the city attorney’s office should operate more like the office of state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who has actively taken on the Trump Administration.

“Holmes at one point shared that view, at least he shared it very prominently on the legalization of marijuana and I was proud to support him on that,” Lindsay said. “That turned out to be kind of a one hit wonder… He has really tapered off on his engagement on the toughest questions.”

Lindsay, who's married to Port Commissioner Courtney Gregoire, said he would aggressively advocate for expanding drug treatment and alternatives to incarceration like Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD). Lindsay also took issue with my criticism over the last year of the city’s increasing number of encampment sweeps. “Look, I know you’re going to pin the sweeps thing on me,” he said, unprompted, halfway through our interview. He argues that under his leadership the city does more outreach to homeless people than it has in the past, does more to store their belongings, and offers options like city-sanctioned tent encampments instead of just traditional shelters. (Some advocates for homeless people say the city’s options are still insufficient and that sweeps, even with outreach, disrupt already vulnerable people’s lives.)

“They’re actually good options of service,” Lindsay said. “It’s not bullshit anymore… It was an example of how you can take the law—the law is simple here: no camping on public property—and apply resources and smarts and on the ground experience to provide something much more meaningful.”

In the race for city attorney, Lindsay said he will not use democracy vouchers because he worries he would not be able to raise enough money under that program to adequately get his message out. I could not immediately reach Holmes for comment, but he told the Seattle Times he welcomes Lindsay’s announcement.