Tangney: World events bigger than Mayor Durkan bargained for

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan announced on Monday that she would not run for reelection in 2021. Rather than spend her last year campaigning, Durkan said she’d rather work on problems that Seattle faces.

“I really believe I had a choice to make. I could either spend the year campaigning to keep the job or spend my energies focused on doing the job,” Durkan said. “I believe there’s only one right thing for Seattle and that’s to do the job.”

“How much does it take to campaign? Is it really that difficult, that you can’t do both?,” KIRO Radio’s John Curley asked.

He added that Gov. Inslee was able to fly around campaigning for president while also serving as governor, presumably a much more difficult job than mayor.

Tom Tangney suggested Durkan likely wouldn’t have made the same announcement had she been riding high in the political polls.

“My theory is she is our latest version of Paul Schell. Paul Schell was another mayor that I thought was very smart, a great guy, I really liked him, but circumstances overwhelmed him,” Tangney said. “He was the mayor, if people don’t know, during WTO. There were just too many things happening in the world, that he, as a little ole mayor, could not overcome.”

Tangney pointed out that Seattle also lost its police chief, Norm Stamper, during Schell’s tenure. Durkan’s police chief, Carmen Best, announced in August that she was leaving the department.

“The events were bigger than they bargained for when they became mayor,” Tangney said.

Furthermore, who would even want that job?, Curley posited.

“Nobody wants that job,” he said.

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