Mayoral candidate Jenny Durkan released this new campaign ad today slamming her opponent Cary Moon for her lack of experience:
The first seconds of the ad are from an interview Moon did with KIRO's Essex Porter. The station has already released a statement today saying the clip was taken from a much longer interview in which Moon offers more explanation of her work experience.
The ad draws attention to the Durkan campaign's most potent critique of Moon: the question of what she's been doing for the last decade. As the Seattle Times has reported and Moon has admitted, Moon's experience is "heavy on intangibles." Moon says, basically, that her civic leadership experience can be hard to quantify but that it speaks to her collaborative leadership style. Durkan's camp is making the case that civic leadership is not a real jobâor at least not one that qualifies you to be mayor.
But if you thought the race was going to stick to the qualifications of only the two women running and not become, say, a proxy war between the last two guys who were mayor, think again.
The new Durkan ad links Moon to former mayor Mike McGinn. Both fought the downtown tunnel project and both have criticized Durkan for the flood of corporate money backing her campaign.
"Her main experience: a failure with her friend McGinn fighting the waterfront tunnel," the voiceover in the ad says. "This is no time for another untested novice."
Of course, Moon's not the only one with ties to a former mayor lots of people hate. Durkan proudly accepted former mayor Ed Murray's endorsement despite four accusations of child sex abuse against Murray. Later, after a fifth allegation and just before Murray announced his resignation, Durkan distanced herself from the former mayor. (Murray denies the allegations.)
This is not to equate McGinn's supposed unproductive mayorship with Murray's alleged crimes. It's just to say both candidates have used the strategy of guilty by association.
It's more subtle than the Durkan camp's McGinn link, but Moon's campaign does its best to remind voters of that connection in one of their recent ads:
Whether Moon's campaign will continue down the path of linking Durkan and Murray the way Durkan's camp is linking Moon and McGinn remains to be seen. UPDATE: Here's a new ad from Moon's campaign making the rounds on Facebook. The first line in the ad: "Jenny Durkan stood with Ed Murray."
The Moon campaign is currently $60,000 in the red and facing an ethics complaint from the Durkan campaign.
Ballots have been mailed and are due by 8 pm November 7. If you lost your ballot, get a new one right here.
