Sunday Video: Harrell and Wilson Square Off in KOMO Mayoral Debate
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell and progressive challenger Katie Wilson have debated many times over the course of the general election, and one of the most recent was at Seattle University and co-sponsored by KOMO. Seeking to make up ground after finishing a distant second in the primary, Harrell continued to hit Wilson for inexperience, while she hit the mayor for his broken promises and blunders managing the city’s homelessness response, housing, and the Seattle Police Department.
Wilson noted she disagreed with the promotion of controversial office Michael Tietjen to captain of East Precinct in Capitol Hill (Seattle’s traditional gayborhood), which had leaked early last week, with the Harrell Administration had backtracked and canceled by Thursday. Tietjen has called driven his unmarked SUV into a crowd of protesters in 2020 and called them “cockroaches” and has a number of conduct complaints, including harassing a trans woman with a group of officers, who asked her if she “had a dick under” her skirt.
“We just got the news this week that Mike Tietjen has been promoted to captain leader of the East Precinct,” Wilson said. “This is someone who has multiple troubling incidents on his record, including incidents that evince a lack of respect for the LGBTQ+ community, someone who perhaps should not even be a sworn officer, let alone a captain, let alone in charge of the East Precinct. So I think that we need a little bit more oversight of the decisions that our police chief is making.”
The debate also didn’t happen after Wilson withdrew from the event until such time as KOMO owner Sinclair Broadcast Group reinstated the Jimmy Kimmel show, which it had been censoring at the Trump Administration’s behest. Sinclair ultimately relented, putting Kimmel back on the air and Wilson agreed to participate in the debate. The Urbanist’s elections committee (of which I’m a member) endorsed Wilson.
https://www.theurbanist.org/2025/10/12/sunday-video-harrell-and-wilson-square-off-in-komo-mayoral-debate/