SEATTLE — With less than two weeks until election day, candidates are working to get your vote.
In Seattle, seven city council seats are up for election and three current council members are running to keep their seats. One of those is Tammy Morales, who is currently the city council member for District 2, facing challenger Tanya Woo.
District 2 encompasses southeast Seattle, including the areas of Beacon Hill, Rainier Valley and the Chinatown International District.
Morales calls herself the last progressive left on the Seattle City Council and was a community organizer focused on affordable housing and food access before she was elected in 2019.
Woo is a community activist who runs a community watch group in the Chinatown International District and helps run a hotel that offers workforce housing.
“I have been working and organizing alongside community members in south Seattle in District 2 for over 20 years,” said incumbent Morales.
Morales said her top priority is increasing affordability in the city, so that businesses and families are not displaced.
“I want to work on increasing affordability in the city and to make sure that we're really building healthy neighborhoods where our young people and our elders can navigate safely in the community,” said Morales.
Woo said her top priorities are homelessness, affordable housing, and public safety.
“I have seen the changes in the city," said candidate Tanya Woo. "I see what happens in neighborhoods that don't have a voice and are forced to live with bad policy and I'm running to change that."
“We always talk about policing alternatives, and I actually went and started the Community Watch group, which goes out into the community. We build trust among our small businesses, our residents, and also our unhoused neighbors,” said Woo about the group she formed in 2020.
District 2 has seen high profile crimes the past six months with two mass shootings at a hookah lounge and another which took place outside a Safeway during a community event. The area has also seen a string of violent home robberies.
When asked how to reduce crime with these incidents in mind, Woo said it requires a nuanced approach while Morales talked about community investments.
“I think we need to combat this from a nuanced approach, which includes hiring more officers, changing the attitude and tone of the city going forward. I know that there needs to be reform in the police department, there needs to be accountability,” said Woo, referring to recent reports of racist and insensitive remarks by officers.
Woo said she would have voted in favor of the September ordinance and advocated for it to pass, but said treatment should be the focus
“Criminalization and especially jailing people should not be the first thing. It should always be treatment,” said Woo.
Morales was recently one of three council members to reject legislation that ended up passing, allowing the city attorney’s office to prosecute public drug use cases.
“Well, the challenges are across the city and a lot of the work that we're doing in my office is around gun violence prevention. It's around investing with the community organizations that work with people who are at risk for gun violence,” said Morales.
“There are things we need to be doing to increase access to substance use treatment, more street outreach workers, more facilities for folks. But putting people in jail isn't going to solve these problems for them,” said Morales.
Both candidates are in favor of building more tiny homes and establishing more RV safe lots to combat homelessness. As of Oct. 25, Woo has raised around $187,000 for her campaign, while Morales has raised around $164,000.