‘It is a high bar’: Inside the petition to recall Mayor Katie Wilson

A judge is set to hear a recall petition against Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson.

KIRO 7 is digging into what that process looks like and the history of recalls in the city.

Seattle has a long history of residents wanting to remove a mayor from office, but most of those attempts haven’t been successful.

It takes a great burden of proof to overturn who sits in the mayor’s chair.

The recall process:

1. Someone must file a petition for removal.
2. The King County Prosecutor’s Civil Office reviews the petition for technical errors, such as improper signatures and whether the filing parties are registered Seattle voters. If the petition passes that check, the petition is forwarded to a judge for a hearing.
3. If the judge decides the case is legitimate, then the petitioners have 180 days to collect 69,000 signatures supporting the recall from registered Seattle voters.
4. If all of that is successful, a special election date would be set, the election would be held, and Katie Wilson’s future as Seattle mayor would be put to a vote.

However, recalls rarely get that far for a myriad of reasons.

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Dean Nielsen, a partner at CN4 Partners, said there are a lot of steps to go through properly.

“It is a high bar for people to cross,” Nielsen said. “You don’t have a lot of recalls in Washington state unlike other places.”

The last time a recall effort even made it to a vote was back in 1975. This was when Mayor Wes Uhlman’s office and the fire department had major budget disagreements, eventually leading to him firing the fire chief at the time. Uhlman ultimately won the election and kept his seat.

However, we have to go back to 1931 to find a mayor who actually lost their seat.

It turns out people weren’t too pleased with Mayor Frank Edwards when he fired the City Light Superintendent, which he allegedly did as a dare after a party.

Prior to that, the last successful recall was in 1911. Hiram Gill was a mayor known for his tolerance of brothels, gambling parlors, and saloon vices in some parts of the city. In 1914, Gill managed a political comeback by reversing many of his positions, but ethical failures, corruption scandals, and prosecution marked his four years in office.

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Many recall attempts have been made against other King County officials over the years — the latest being in 2021 against Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant.

That recall cited a minor campaign finance violation, as well as accusations that she led a march to then-Mayor Jenny Durkan’s home and allowed protesters into City Hall, which at the time was closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Voters ultimately opted to keep her in that seat.

Hugh Spitzer with UW Law School told KIRO 7 it usually takes a lot to convince not only a judge, but thousands of voters to make this big of a change.

“Only if that elected official engaged in substantial wrongful conduct that affects or interferes with performance of public duty,” Spitzer said.

The hearing for Wilson’s recall petition to go in front of a judge is set for 9 a.m. on Aug. 31.