Black leaders call on Seattle mayoral candidate Lorena González to remove ‘racist’ ad claiming Bruce Harrell sided with sex abusers

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With just over a week to go, the Seattle mayoral race exploded into vitriol on Saturday as rivals Bruce Harrell and Mr. Lorena González traded accusations of racism and empowerment of sex offenders .

The spark was a new attack ad aired by González’s campaign, which accuses Harrell of siding with sex abusers, including ex-mayor Ed Murray – a late coup described as desperate and racist by Harrell and his allies, including leaders of the black community.

At a virtual press conference hosted by Harrell on Saturday, speakers demanded that City Council President González remove the ad, which juxtaposes footage of Harrell with media accounts of Murray’s sex abuse scandal. The ad features a white rape survivor who says she could never vote for Harrell.

James Bible, a civil rights lawyer and former head of the local NAACP who donated $ 550 to the González campaign, called the ad “heartbreaking” and “a race to the bottom” at the press conference . He added: “Lorena, you just demonstrated that you would do anything to win.”

The 30-second ad seeks to pit González, who was the first Seattle City Council member to publicly call on Murray to consider resigning several months after the 2017 scandal, with Harrell, who made no public demand and sometimes defended the mayor. calls for him to resign.

The new ad opens with the woman, identified only by first name and initial, saying she was raped five years ago and the rapist was never prosecuted.

“It was horrible for me to hear Bruce Harrell defend Ed Murray by saying that people shouldn’t be judged on what they have done in the past,” she said in the ad, later adding, ” Bruce Harrell has repeatedly sided with the abusers and as a survivor I could never vote for him.

Harrell and his allies on Saturday called the announcement blatantly racist, saying it reinforces tropes about dangerous black men and sexual violence and has caused pain to members of the black community, including those who have worked with it. survivors of sexual assault.

“It was more than a dog whistle. It was blatant, ”said Harrell.

Gerald Hankerson, NAACP regional president, went further than others on Saturday, saying González should apologize and step down. “You don’t deserve a job,” he said.

Hankerson compared the ad to the “Willie Horton” ad during the 1988 presidential campaign, which stoked fear of crime among whites by showing a photo of a black man who raped a white woman while he was on prison leave.

Hankerson, like most of the speakers at the event, supported Harrell.

González’s controversial publicity, which comes as it lags in published polls, has resurfaced a painful episode in Seattle history.

Murray resigned in September 2017 after a cousin became the fifth man to accuse him of sexual abuse decades ago. Murray has denied all of the allegations and has never been criminally charged. Three of his five accusers were black, and all were teenagers when they say Murray raped and assaulted them.

Harrell served as chairman during the scandal and briefly served as acting mayor after Murray resigned. González was also on the board and had previously served as Murray’s legal advisor.

In July 2017, González asked Murray to consider resigning before his tenure ended after the Seattle Times reported that an Oregon child welfare investigator concluded in 1984 that Murray had assaulted sexually his adopted son.

Harrell, like most other council members, did not join the call, telling reporters that the mayor was “always doing his job” and adding that the people of Seattle “did not ask us to judge who whether it was for something that happened 33 years ago or that may not have happened. … I don’t want to be judged for anything 33 years ago.

But Lincoln Beauregard, the lawyer who represented Murray Delvonn Heckard’s accuser in the April 2017 trial that exposed the scandal to the public, defended Harrell at Saturday’s event and called the attack a portrait. dishonest and inflammatory.

He accused González of not doing anything substantive behind the scenes to oust Murray, despite his public statements.

González refused to withdraw the ad and doubled down in a statement from his campaign on Saturday afternoon.

“Bruce Harrell has a troubling history of discrediting survivors of abuse and harassment. As President of the Council, he used his position to defend Ed Murray, even after multiple credible charges of child rape. His response to this announcement is yet another example of him denying the facts and discrediting a victim, ”the statement sent by campaign manager Alex Koren said.

The campaign also released a statement from the woman who appeared in the ad. “The facts are the facts. Like so many people, my rape was not taken seriously because of the contemptuous and hostile system created by people in power like Bruce Harrell,” she said.

In support of its publicity, the González campaign also cited an accusation published by Seattle Emerald columnist Lola Peters, who wrote in August that about two decades ago, Harrell had advised the board of directors to ‘a non-profit organization of which she was a part of discrediting people’s reputations. accuse a senior executive of sexual harassment.

But Elma Horton, who served on the same nonprofit board, disputed that account at Saturday’s press conference, saying Harrell had never given such advice. “It is not fair. This is simply not true. And it’s shameful, ”she said.

In addition to its press conference, the Harrell campaign issued an open letter calling the ad a “new dip in civic discourse” and demanding that it be removed. The letter is signed by some 40 leaders of the black community, including the state. Representatives Jesse Johnson and David Hackney, and Michelle Merriweather, President of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle.

“We are writing to ask that you immediately cease the airing of your factually inaccurate and racist advertisement in which a white woman insinuates that Bruce Harrell, a black man, is in some way linked to his trauma as a victim of assault. sexual, ”the letter says. .

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