Seattle City Attorney is a nonpartisan position, but Ann Davison switched parties to run as a Republican in the 2020 lieutenant governor primary. The City Attorney’s Office handles misdemeanor crimes, while felonies are the King County Prosecutor’s jurisdiction.
In her 2021 campaign challenging then-City Attorney Pete Holmes, Davison promised to take a tough-on-crime approach, in contrast to Holmes’ decision to prosecute fewer low-level misdemeanors.
Holmes’ reelection bid ended in the primary and Davison faced Nicole Thomas-Kennedy, a former public defender and police abolitionist. Reeling from the pandemic, rising public disorder and the growing fentanyl crisis, voters chose Davison over Thomas-Kennedy 51.5%-47.7%.
Davison is making a bid for reelection this year. Three candidates have joined the race to try to unseat her.
Ann Davison
On her campaign website, Davison touts her “close-in-time” filing policy to reduce the lag between arrest and prosecution. While Davison’s office has filed more cases than her predecessor, cases still move through the municipal court system slowly, as it struggles under the weight of high caseloads and insufficient staffing.
Early in her term, Davison ended Seattle’s community court program, which allowed low-level offenders access to services and offered the possibility of getting charges dismissed. Davison recently announced a new alternative court path for drug offenders with parallels to the old community court model.
Davison pushed City Hall to make public drug use and possession a gross misdemeanor to align with the state’s push to recriminalize drug possession. She also lobbied for the Council’s drug banishment zones, which allow a municipal court judge to bar someone arrested for drug offenses from certain blocks in the city core.
Erika Evans
Erika Evans spent almost four years as a federal attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Prior to that she worked for Seattle as an assistant city attorney and assistant city prosecutor.
Evans is running because “Seattle is at a crossroads. We need a City Attorney who understands the law not just as a tool of punishment but as a force for justice — someone with the experience to lead and the heart to serve.”
If elected, Evans wants to renew an emphasis on domestic violence prosecutions, clear the backlog of DUI cases and take a “balanced approach” to property crime that considers both victims and the circumstances of perpetrators. In addition, she wants to reimagine the community court model, expand diversion programs that connect people to services rather arrest, increase efforts to combat wage theft and use the office to fight back against Trump administration actions.
Rory O’Sullivan
Rory O’Sullivan is founding partner of a law firm that helps workers access unemployment benefits. Prior to that he worked as an administrative law judge, a tenant lawyer with the Housing Justice Project and a legal aid attorney with the Northwest Justice Project. O’Sullivan has also worked on democracy reform efforts, helping found the advocacy organization Washington Public Campaigns (now Fix Democracy First) and working on Seattle’s ranked-choice-voting initiative.
O’Sullivan is running for city attorney to “build community, break the cycle of crime and deliver a safer, fairer Seattle for all.”
If elected, O’Sullivan wants to speed prosecution of DUI and domestic violence cases, two of the most serious crimes the City Attorney’s Office takes on. He also wants to help reduce recidivism by revamping therapeutic courts and diversion programs, as well as help protect Seattle residents from the threat of mass deportation by the new federal administration.
Nathan Rouse
Nathan Rouse is a King County public defender. Prior to that he worked in private practice for Davis Wright Tremaine. Rouse wants to be City Attorney to “build a justice system that reflects our values, protects our communities, and offers everyone a chance to thrive.”
If elected, Rouse said he would prioritize crimes that pose real dangers to public safety. He argued that Davison’s office is currently mismanaging cases by filing too often for low-level crimes, which leads to high dismissal rates.
In addition, Rouse wants to bolster rehabilitation and re-entry supports along with diversion programs; build up Seattle’s victim compensation program; and tackle root causes of property crime such as addiction and poverty.
On the civil side, Rouse promises to crack down on wage theft and enforce city labor laws such as those regarding fair scheduling and paid sick leave.
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