Jenny Durkan may be taking a one and done approach in deciding not to run to seek reelection as Seattle’s mayor but a key face in her administration wants to stick around the top floors of City Hall.
Deputy Mayor Casey Sixkiller has joined the crowded field of contenders to be the city’s next mayor and vying to survive as the top two vote getters in the August primary.
In his announcement, Sixkiller said his run will include a platform of equity and a guaranteed basic income program, new housing to address the homelessness crisis, and police reform.
“As a single dad raising three young kids here in city, I want them to see that real progress is possible,” Sixkiller said in his announcement. “I want my kids to grow up in a city that turns the values of inclusion, fairness and equity into action.”
Working with the current mayor, Sixkiller has been the face of the administration as it tries to address the city’s homelessness crisis during the ongoing pandemic. In March, Sixkiller was part of a neighborhood meeting organized by the St. Joseph parish to discuss the homeless encampments at the nearby Miller playfield. “Our challenges here at the city are not just about CDC guidance,” Sixkiller told the attendees of the online session. “It is about access to services, it’s access to housing… We don’t have places for people to go and so as a result folks have found other ways to survive through the past year.” Just over a month later, the city swept the camps and said it was able to refer most people living there to shelter in time for the return of students to the adjacent Meany Middle School.
The son of a star University of Washington quarterback, Sixkiller grew his career as a lobbyist before joining King County Executive Dow Constantine’s office. He made the jump to supporting Durkan in Seattle City Hall just weeks before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sixkiller’s addition to the huge pool of candidates vying for mayor is a small political surprise in light of Seattle political veteran Bruce Harrell’s decision to join the race last month. Both will draw support from more moderate voters seeking more middle ground solutions in the city.
Fifteen candidates have already filed to run for mayor, according to the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission, including SEED Seattle’s interim director Lance Randall, Chief Seattle Club executive director Colleen Echohawk, who would be the city’s first Native mayor, city council president Lorena González, and Capitol Hill architect Andrew Grant Houston. Sixkiller makes the sixteenth.
You can learn more at sixkillerforseattle.com.
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This last name…are you kidding me?
Nice microaggression.
This last name and being someone who worked closely with Durkan (a lawyer for the elite with awful city management ability) seems…fitting. I don’t think you know what microaggression is or you landed a joke in a poor & cringe manor. Unclear.
How is it fitting?
Jenny Durkan was not a “lawyer for the elite.” She was a well-respected federal prosecutor.
His dad Sonny Sixkiller is a legend of UW football. Star QB in the 70’s and rare famous Native American athlete. And of course he didn’t get drafted by the NFL despite being a fantastic QB in college.
He is of Native American ancestry… no need for racist comments on this blog, Derek. No surprise coming from someone whose name originates from Theodoric, meaning “people-ruler”.
I never said anything racist wth?
You’re mocking the name of a Native American because you disagree with who he worked with. Yep, racist.
Disagreeing with Sixkiller’s politics is one thing, but mocking their name — an extension of cultural identity — is both unnecessary and harmful.
As far as I’ve seen, Harrell and Sixkiller are the only two acceptable candidates.
I had hope for Echohawk, but opposing the Miller Playfield sweep immediately killed her candidacy in my book. Anyone who advocates for the continuance of such an intolerable situation is unfit to serve.
To clarify, Echohawk did not oppose the Miller Park sweep, she called for emergency rehousing measures and case management to avoid the need for a sweep.
It’s always the same shield. People oppose sweeps and then say we need to be doing a bunch of other stuff instead, as though that’s a magic wand that the city just refuses to wave.
Case managers and outreach services must have visited Miller Park dozens of times. And they were offered several different shelter options. They refused all of them. You have to draw a line. It’s the people’s property.
I believe Sixkiller is also of Native descent. Just thought I’d point that out because you mentioned it for Colleen Echohawk…
Yeah but Sixkiller works for corporate interests. He’s an auto-“no” for me just being that close to Durkan. Durkan’s entire cabinet around here was painfully inept.
No one cares who you’re voting for or much what you think bud.
I hope you say that to each and every anti-Sawant sockpuppet that comes out of the woodwork for a Sawant article.