‘She has not disappointed’: Political strategist says Wilson is tackling problems others couldn’t

As Mayor Katie Wilson continues to work through her first term, she’s already had to make impactful decisions on various topics, such as addressing the city’s homelessness and the use of Seattle’s surveillance cameras during the FIFA World Cup and beyond.

Kathy Allen, a 30-year veteran political strategist and campaign manager, joined “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio to provide some insight into how Wilson has handled the first few months in her new position, and why she’s been “admirably brave” working through some of her “crummy ideas.”

“I watch her every day, and I was watching her even today. She’s running in a world right now where she’s won her first office, and those are tough ones,” Allen said. “My friends and I all sit and talk all the time about [how] you just can’t be a first-time candidate and think you can do anything you want to do. What you have to do is concentrate every single day on building actual kinds of individual packs of people that you bring to you.

“She also has some really crummy ideas that she has to be able to sort of, I mean, it’s not like, ‘I’m going to go take care of all of the homeless in town,'” Allen continued. “That’s not a crazy idea, so much as that, ‘Oh my gosh,’ but the road to get there, how we’re going to do that, all of it, I think she’s admirably brave. Looking at everyone that was running, I thought this is going to be a trial by just taking a look at who survives the last standing, and [Wilson] did.”

Strategist urged patience, asking critics if they’d take on the job themselves

Allen also noted that even though Wilson is buffing out the kinks early on, she hasn’t disappointed when faced with adversity, and begged her critics to visualize what actions they would take when staring down some of the same issues Wilson has taken on.

“I was surprised when Bruce Harrell did not win, but more importantly, she has not disappointed,” Allen said. “What she has done has been real. She has been the kind of person who’s dealt with problems that I couldn’t solve. If I, who have been here for 30 years in public policy, if I can’t come up with a better idea, I’m sitting there saying, ‘OK, you go ahead, girl. I’m following you.’ Now I’m getting a lot of crap for it, too.

“She deserves time, she deserves patience,” Allen continued. “I’ve said this hundreds of times when it comes to her, ‘All right, smartie, would you do that job?’ And everyone says, ‘Not me, hell no, I would never do this job.’ Now, with the fact that we’re really having the hardest time finding competent, interesting, leadership-minded candidates. They’re not there.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

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