The reporter cornered her near the paint crew, microphone already in her face, and didn’t bother with small talk. “Despite your efforts like this, your approval rating is at 37%. That is President Donald Trump territory. Why do you think that is?
”
Mayor Katie Wilson blinked, then smiled thin. “I’m not going to speak to that. Anyone can do a poll. People can look at the poll and interpret what they want.
My priority right now is delivering for the people of Seattle, and that means projects like this—putting paint on the ground and improving our transportation. ”
She gestured at the fresh crosswalk as if it answered everything. The reporter didn’t let her escape. The Fulcrum Strategy Group had interviewed 500 Seattle voters the week before.
The result was brutal: 37% favorability, 62% unfavorable. Even worse, the slide wasn’t coming from her opponents. Self-declared progressives had shifted 17 points against her. Liberal Democrats had moved 22 points in the same direction.
Meanwhile, the city council and police department held steady in the same polls. The people who should have been her strongest supporters were walking away. The reporter pressed again. “The same poll says a 20 point drop in just a matter of months.
How do you explain that? ”
Wilson shifted her weight. “There are a lot of concerns right now about public safety, which I understand is an extremely high priority for my office. We’re just about to start a search for our new police chief.
I understand we’re in a moment of uncertainty in the city where a lot of people want to see action, and we are going to be providing that action. ”
The reporter followed with another sharp question about interim police chief Andre Sales. Wilson deflected again, repeating her talking points about public safety, transportation, homelessness, and affordable housing. The media kept pushing.
She kept repeating the same phrases. The camera showed Mayor Wilson focused on a single project—paint on the ground—while her approval ratings collapsed. Her own base was abandoning her. Her own people didn’t like her anymore.
And that was just the polling. A recall petition was moving through the courts, aiming to kick her out of office entirely. A civil judge was preparing to review the case in about a week and a half. The petition cited crime in the North Aurora neighborhood and the Chinatown International District, the firing of police chief Shawn Barnes, and Wilson’s handling of the city’s CCTV cameras.
When asked if she would attend the upcoming hearing, Wilson was direct. “I personally will not be there. I will be represented by counsel. ”
In her mind, it was a legal process that would play out on its own.
She said she was focused on leading the city and making it affordable. The petition had been assigned to a King County Civil Superior Court judge, who would decide whether the allegations met state recall laws—specifically, whether the mayor had broken the law or committed serious misconduct, and whether the ballot summary was adequate. Neither side was required to appear, but the petitioners would be there. Wilson would not.
The recall effort gained traction after a weekend shootout in Pioneer Square, where cameras had been turned off after the World Cup. A poll showed 75% of voters supported public safety cameras. Wilson’s response was cautious. “There’s an audit being conducted of our privacy, data security, storage, and sharing practices for our CCTV system.
We expect the results of that audit to come out around the end of September. ”
Decisions on any expansion would wait until then. The city waited. Voters waited.
And her numbers kept falling. The media made a point of comparing her approval rating to that of a former president who had left office with historic lows. Wilson tried to shrug it off, calling the polls just numbers. But the numbers told a consistent story, and the story was that she was losing the people who elected her.
She stood at the podium, repeating the same promises, offering the same future. Behind her, the city was struggling with violence, empty storefronts, and a growing budget deficit. Businesses were leaving. Historic vacancies mounted.
And her administration appeared unable to turn it around. In the end, after the press conference ended, after all the questions about her failures and her future were left unanswered, that was the state of things: the mayor stood alone in front of the cameras, insisting she was focused on delivering for the people of Seattle, while the people of Seattle made it increasingly clear they wanted someone else to do the delivering.
