Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson recall effort dismissed before it got off the ground

Nicholas Deshais, The Seattle Times on Aug 27, 2026

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SEATTLE — A recall effort against Mayor Katie Wilson was dismissed Thursday at the behest of the people who started it.

Melinda Jacobson, who spoke for her and her husband Dale Osterud, who she filed recall “charges” with, told a King County Superior Court judge she wanted to withdraw the charges after a back-and-forth during which the judge got increasingly annoyed.

Jacobson and Osterud had missed an important filing deadline Wednesday but still showed up to court Thursday. Jacobson said they have now retained a lawyer to help restart the process, which she said would be in days.

The lawyer was not at court Thursday.

Wilson was represented by two personal attorneys who supported dismissing the charges. Wilson is funding her defense against the recall, not the city. Her attorneys called the charges “frivolous” and warned Jacobson they might seek sanctions against her if she restarts the recall effort.

All of this happened before the recall gained steam. “Filing charges” is the first step to recall an elected official. The charges are essentially the reason the official should be kicked out of office.

Jacobson and Osterud cited the mayor’s handling of the Bite of Seattle shooting that killed three people; persistent crime around downtown, Aurora Avenue and the Chinatown International District; and a decision to turn off CCTV cameras after the World Cup.

They were set to go before a judge Aug. 31 to argue whether the acts stated in the recall charges meet the criteria for a recall petition, defined by state law as “malfeasance,” “misfeasance” or a violation of an oath of office— a legal threshold that is generally considered a high bar.

In Washington, few recall charges get to the stage of signature gathering and nearly none result in a recall election.

But this time, the effort didn’t make it to the first hearing.

If Jacobson and Osterud try again, and the judge agrees their charges meet the bar, recall supporters will have 180 days to gather signatures for a recall election — in this case, the effort would need roughly 69,000 eligible signatures. If King County Elections determines that enough verified signatures have been collected, a recall election would be conducted.

In 2020, the state Supreme Court shot down a recall effort against then-Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan after the Seattle Police Department’s use of tear gas following protests over police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. Before the state’s highest court nixed it, a King County court had allowed the recall to move forward on narrower grounds than the original charges.

Former Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant survived a recall election in 2021 after a judge allowed it to move forward.

And in 2022, recall charges were filed against then-Gov. Jay Inslee by a group over his use of emergency powers to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. A Thurston County court and the state Supreme Court ruled against the recall effort.