You get a tequila! You get a tequila!
You get a tequila! You get a tequila! Photo by Nate Gowdy, Photoshop by Steven Hsieh

If you missed yesterday's Candidate Survivor forum at Neumos, hosted by The Washington Bus and The Stranger, you missed mayoral frontrunner Jenny Durkan impersonating Melissa McCarthy impersonating Sean Spicer roasting her opponents. For those unfamiliar with the recurring Saturday Night Live sketch, McCarthy plays Spicer as an over-the-top, petulant yeller, who uses props to illustrate basic concepts to the press. Durkan showed some comedic chops, nailing down the voice and mannerisms of McCarthy's popular character.

Her problems began when she brought out her own props. Before roasting State Senator Bob Hasegawa, who is running a campaign focused on the idea of a municipal bank, Durkan pulled out a paper bag filled with miniature bottles of tequila. "Why tequila? Because you people should get to take a shot every time he says the word bank," Durkan said.

She proceeded to toss the 50 ML containers of Jose Cuervo into the audience. The only problem: Not everybody attending the event was over 21. At least one attendee took note:


Check out Durkan's performance at 26:21:

The Stranger advertised the forum as an all ages event.

A spokesperson for Durkan said, "Of course Jenny doesn't condone underage drinking. The campaign mistakenly thought it was a 21+ show at Neumos and would not have included alcohol otherwise. We apologize and will do better research on venue guidelines in the future."

Management at Neumos was not pleased with Durkan's stunt. A senior employee of the venue told The Stranger, "I sent security out into the crowd to retrieve them and politely voiced my extreme displeasure to her assistant or campaign manager ... Then she came up to me and said, 'We didn't know it was all ages.' And I said, 'Well, even if it weren't, it wouldn't be legal to throw bottles of booze that you snuck into an alcohol-serving venue into the crowd.' And she said, 'Oh, okay.'"

"Seems to me to put the small business hosting you in direct violation of Washington State laws is ignorant and careless," the employee continued. "It shows little awareness of her surroundings and or small business."

Chris Esh, program director for The Washington Bus, told The Stranger that the group instructed every candidate to give advance notice of their plans for the talent show portion of the evening, which is when Durkan performed her sketch. At no point, Esh said, did Durkan inform the organization of the tequila stunt. "Had we been informed, we would not have allowed it to happen. Immediately after it happened, Bus staff and Neumos security promptly retrieved the mini bottles," he added. "Following the event, a spokesperson from the Durkan campaign sent an apology over email to Washington Bus staff."

UPDATE, 2:46 p.m: This post has been updated to include a comment from Jenny Durkan's campaign.