21 candidates crowd Seattle mayor's race

Michael Harris paid a filing fee of $1,951.86 to become the 17th candidate to file for Seattle mayor.

A whale conservationist and TV producer, Harris is fighting to be one of the two candidates who will get past the August primary.

“I've lived in the city for 34 years and I've just seen the government become increasingly ineffectual,” he said.”

Asked what it takes to break through, Seattle University Political Scientist Marco Lowe responded,

“I think you need to be a good candidate as simple as it sounds you have to have that charisma and sometimes things you can't even quite explain that attract voters.”

We asked Lowe to assess the field.

“Top 6, you have (former U.S. Attorney) Jenny Durkan who got in like a freight train. You have former Mayor Mike McGinn probably the best name ID by a mile over everybody else, Jessyn Farrell, 46th district legislator, Nikkita Oliver, you have state Sen. Bob Hasegawa and you have Cary Moon.

So how will voters choose from such a crowded field?

“I think the biggest for me is the endorsement especially of urbanist websites like the Seattle Transit Blog and the urbanist.org,” Zach Lubarsky told us.

Lois Derby said, “Well, address the most glaring problems I think, which would be homelessness, the drug issues.”

Macro Lowe officers advice from a candidate who defeated 16 other candidates in the presidential primary fight

“Grabbing issues that people care about. Not a popular person to cite in Seattle politics, but Donald Trump went right after immigration and right after exporting jobs and people did not have to know much about him to know they wanted to vote for him.”

With filling over, the King County Elections website shows there are now 21 candidates running for Seattle mayor.

Cox Media Group