‘She doesn’t have to repay favors’: Curley says Katie Wilson’s independence is fueling the backlash against her

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson has been facing backlash on all fronts. Black community members rallied, calling for her to reinstate now-former Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes, and more recently, Seattle business leaders and event organizers urged her to turn the CCTV cameras back on in Pioneer Square and the Stadium District.

KIRO host John Curley said on “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio that the backlash isn’t surprising. He explained it’s the result of Wilson never seeking endorsements or support from unions or community groups when she ran for office, leaving her free from political debts but also without allies to back her up.

“She doesn’t have to get anything,” Curley said. “So now, and the same thing with leaders, quote unquote, leaders of the black community, she didn’t go to them to get something. Maybe she asked for an endorsement, but didn’t get the endorsement.

“But now they’re coming back, and they’re asking for something,” he continued. “She’s not beholden to anybody in this regard, and that’s the problem. And that’s also the freedom for her. She doesn’t have to kowtow to somebody. She doesn’t have to repay favors, and she doesn’t have to do that. Now the problem is then they can easily circle the wagons around her.”

Curley gives Katie Wilson an A as a novice but a C-minus at the podium

Curley recapped his initial conversation with Wilson before she was elected mayor, where he asked her if she realized the gravity of winning — overseeing 12,000 employees, an $8 billion budget, and a city still reeling from a business exodus. He added that her reaction was very nonchalant.

“Her reaction was sort of like, ‘Yep, well, that’s what I signed up for,'” Curley said. “So here she goes. So you’ll see the unions going after, and the media is now blood in the water, because it’s kind of fun, you want to follow everybody, ‘Aren’t you insulted? Aren’t you upset that she’s not transparent enough? She’s not telling us everything.’ I’m sure they’ve filed some freedom of information requests, so they want to know more about it.

“But at a certain point, and I understand the value of having someone, I’ve read the studies,” he continued. “If you feel that you can relate to that person because of the color of their skin and the culture that they’ve come from and their upbringing, we all relate to one another. There are studies that show that if an employer needs to hire one person or another, if his name is John Smith, there’s a pretty good chance he’ll hire somebody who has similar initials to him. It’s crazy. It’s the built-in bias that we all have. You want to choose the best people, but if everything’s through the filter of race, is that the best person? Who knows? But you’re not going to get Wilson having to go to certain groups in the community and then say, ‘OK, now it’s payback time. We’ve given you the endorsement. Now you need to do this and this for us.'”

Curley gave Wilson an A as a novice but a C-minus for her performance at the podium.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

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