Candidates For Seattle Mayoral, Council Races File For August Primary

SEATTLE, WA - Monday was the first day of "filing week" for candidates looking to get on the ballot for the August King County primary election. Although candidates have all week to file to get on the ballot, some hopefuls and incumbents for for Seattle mayor, City Council, and City Attorney filed first-thing Monday. We'll be updating this list all week, but here are the first candidates to file:

Seattle City Attorney

• Pete Holmes

Holmes is the incumbent and is currently in his second term. Scott Lindsay, a public safety adviser to Mayor Ed Murray, is expected to file a challenge to Holmes.

Seattle City Council, Position 8

• Teresa Mosqueda

This at-large seat on the Council is expected to be a pretty hot Council race this year. It's wide open since Councilman Tim Burgess announced that he won't run for reelection. Mosqueda is political director for the Washington State Labor Council. Other candidates expected to file this week include former Tenant's Union director Jon Grant, activist Mac McGregor, and attorney Sheley Secrest.

Seattle City Council, Position 9

• M. Lorena González
• Pat Murakami
• Ty Pethe

González is the incumbent, but there had been some speculation that she would also jump in the mayoral race. Those rumors were put to bed Tuesday with her filing. Murakami is a member of the South Seattle Crime Prevention Council. Pethe is the president of the WFSE local 304 union at Seattle Central College.

Seattle Mayor

• James W. Norton, Jr.
• Casey Carlisle
• Cary Moon
• Jason Roberts
• Alex Tsimerman
• Jessyn Farrell
• Harley Lever
• Mary J. Martin
• Jenny Durkan
• Keith J. Whiteman

With last week's exit of incumbent Mayor Ed Murray, the Seattle mayoral race is going to be pretty nuts this year. There might be as many as 14 candidates on the ballot come August. Cary Moon, an urban policy activist, is one of the more highly-touted candidates in the race. "I have filed today – the first day of filing week – because Seattle’s voters are ready for a leader who is ready to implement solutions to our skyrocketing rents, surging homelessness, and unending traffic," Moon said in a statement Monday.

Although the mayoral race is non-partisan, Carlisle might be the only Libertarian in the race. Jason Roberts is a small business owner running on "public health and safety, fiscal responsibility, governmental transparency, and the growth of small business." Tsimerman emigrated to Seattle 30 years ago from the Soviet Union.

Farrell and Durkan are two of the more recent candidates to enter the race. Durkan is the former U.S. Attorney in Seattle, and Farrell is a state representative in northeast Seattle. Lever is a neighborhood activist in the Magnolia area focusing on removing homeless people from public spaces; he is one of the founders of the group Safe Seattle.

We'll update this information when new candidates file. For all local filings, including county and state races, visit the King County Elections website.

Image via Patch.com