Seat­tle May­or Jen­ny Durkan announced today that she will not seek reelec­tion in 2021, becom­ing the city’s third con­sec­u­tive chief exec­u­tive to serve a sin­gle term or less, after pre­de­ces­sors Mike McGinn and Ed Murray.

Durkan cit­ed the pan­dem­ic as the impe­tus for her decision.

“I can spend the next year cam­paign­ing to keep this job or I can focus all my ener­gy on doing the job — a job that will face all the sim­i­lar dif­fi­cul­ties of 2020,” Durkan wrote in a Seat­tle Times op-ed.

“There was only one right choice for our city: doing the job. Next year will be con­se­quen­tial to our recov­ery and the tra­jec­to­ry of our city.”

Durkan also released a video in which she made sim­i­lar com­ments.

“I thank May­or Durkan for all she has done for Seat­tle,” said Wash­ing­ton State Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee in a state­ment. “Jen­ny has led through tumul­tuous times and had to make dif­fi­cult deci­sions with grace and dig­ni­ty. She has always worked to rep­re­sent the needs of all Seat­tleites and helped to make the city a world-class place dur­ing a time of strong eco­nom­ic transition.”

“The Durkan admin­is­tra­tion has led the way on invest­ments in afford­able hous­ing, expand­ed high qual­i­ty pre-school and pio­neered the Seat­tle Promise pro­gram to pro­vide free col­lege to thou­sands of pub­lic high school stu­dents. She has been a great part­ner with the state through the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic through expand­ed test­ing and eco­nom­ic help for restau­rants and small businesses.

“May­or Durkan cares deeply for Seat­tle and her ser­vice and ded­i­ca­tion will have a last­ing lega­cy. I wish her the very best in what­ev­er chal­lenges she takes on next and l look for­ward to our con­tin­ued part­ner­ship over the com­ing year.”

“I thank May­or Durkan for the years of ser­vice she has pro­vid­ed to our City. While May­or Durkan and I have had sev­er­al dis­agree­ments on gov­ern­ing and pol­i­cy over the last three years, we have also been able to find com­mon ground to work on crit­i­cal issues, and the com­mu­ni­ty, work­ers and small busi­ness­es in this City are bet­ter for it,” said Coun­cilmem­ber Tere­sa Mosque­da.

“May­or Durkan has espe­cial­ly shown lead­er­ship for our City’s youth, low-income work­ers, and on emerg­ing needs through her work on the Seat­tle Trans­porta­tion Ben­e­fit Dis­trict, the Fam­i­lies and Edu­ca­tion, Preschool, Promise levy and Seat­tle Promise, and Trans­porta­tion Net­work Com­pa­nies legislation.”

“This year has been filled with tur­moil — a pub­lic health cri­sis, racial reck­on­ing, and eco­nom­ic down­turn. Any­one who serves in pub­lic office, in par­tic­u­lar, through 2020, is to be com­mend­ed and I appre­ci­ate her years of ser­vice, and wish her luck in the next endeavor.”

“I have known May­or Jen­ny Durkan since 2007, when we worked togeth­er on a police account­abil­i­ty and reform pan­el under then-May­or Greg Nick­els,” said Coun­cilmem­ber Lore­na Gon­za­lez.

“As a young lawyer, I fol­lowed May­or Durkan’s career, and I have worked close­ly with her on many shared leg­isla­tive pri­or­i­ties dur­ing my time on the City Coun­cil.  These poli­cies include ongo­ing fund­ing for the immi­grant Legal Defense Fund, increased fund­ing for afford­able hous­ing, sex­u­al-assault pro­tec­tions for thou­sands of hotel work­ers, and vot­er-approved fund­ing for ear­ly learn­ing, K‑12 and free col­lege pro­gram­ming for our pub­lic school students.”

“In 2017, Seat­tle vot­ers made his­to­ry when they elect­ed May­or Durkan as Seattle’s first female May­or in near­ly nine­ty years,” Gon­za­lez added.

“I under­stand and respect May­or Durkan’s deci­sion not to seek a sec­ond term.  Dur­ing these unprece­dent­ed times, the May­or and I have worked dili­gent­ly to put City gov­ern­ment on a path of pro­duc­tive and col­lab­o­ra­tive policymaking.

“Even dur­ing May­or Durkan’s tran­si­tion year, the Leg­isla­tive and Exec­u­tive branch­es will con­tin­ue to work togeth­er to effec­tive­ly address the most press­ing issues fac­ing the peo­ple of our city as we look to recov­er from COVID-19 and build an equi­table, just, and cli­mate-resilient Seattle.”

Durkan’s dis­as­trous response to last sum­mer’s protests against sys­temic racism and mass oppres­sion like­ly has more to do with her deci­sion not to seek reelec­tion than the pan­dem­ic does. The may­or has been crit­i­cized from every direc­tion regard­ing the deci­sions she made, par­tic­u­lar­ly ear­ly on.

“I will nev­er for­get Jen­ny Durkan telling a group of a few hun­dred of us that she could­n’t promise us that she would have SPD stop using gas. A few hours lat­er SPD filled Capi­tol Hill with tear gas,” recalled James Tay­lor.

“I believe we lost a lot of ground under Durkan in these past three years,” Durkan’s 2017 gen­er­al elec­tion oppo­nent Cary Moon wrote in a Sep­tem­ber op-ed.

“At the most basic lev­el, she has been slow to grasp how cities work and has an ostrich-like blind­ness to the dynam­ics that are caus­ing harm. She has nev­er laid out a vision for the future of our city nor had the capac­i­ty to invite us in to ral­ly togeth­er toward that vision. She hasn’t built esprit de corps or a cul­ture of cre­ativ­i­ty and appre­ci­a­tion among city depart­ments, and takes sole cred­it much too often, which is real­ly dis­heart­en­ing for staff.”

Durkan’s most stri­dent crit­ics are con­vinced that had Durkan been sub­ject­ed to recall, vot­ers would have oust­ed her from office. (Their attempt to recall her with less than a year to go before Seat­tle’s next reg­u­lar­ly sched­uled may­oral elec­tion was foiled by the State Supreme Court a few weeks ago.)

“I could run again — and I would win,” Durkan coun­tered in an appear­ance on KUOW. Of course, since she’s already cho­sen not to run again, we’ll nev­er know what would have hap­pened had she chose to run. How­ev­er, the avail­able body of pub­lic opin­ion research sug­gests Durkan would have had great dif­fi­cul­ty secur­ing reelec­tion giv­en how she respond­ed to the events of last spring and summer.

Actions speak loud­er than words. Even before last May, there were signs that Durkan might not run again, as Eri­ca C. Bar­nett report­ed today.

Instead of seek­ing a sec­ond term, Durkan is bow­ing out.

It’s a sen­si­ble move that sets up a more grace­ful exit for Durkan than she would have had if she had run again and lost, and it cre­ates a pret­ty wide open race for may­or next year in Wash­ing­ton State’s largest city. As in 2017, it’s pos­si­ble we could see a rather large and diverse field of con­tenders emerge.

Here’s a look at the field of can­di­dates who com­pet­ed in the August 2017 Top Two elec­tion dur­ing the last may­oral elec­tion, and where they finished:

Coun­cilmem­bers Tere­sa Mosque­da and Lore­na Gon­za­lez both rep­re­sent the city at large, like Durkan, and each has been float­ed as a poten­tial suc­ces­sor to Durkan. We could also see state leg­is­la­tors and com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers enter the field.

The elec­tion for may­or will take place on Novem­ber 2nd, 2021, and the new may­or will take office in a lit­tle over a year. The dead­line to file is May 21st, 2021.