by Rich Smith • May 7, 2021 at 4:40 pm The game is afoot. Lester Black Many of Seattle's mayoral campaign representatives have praised the city's unique public campaign financing program for limiting the influence of big donors and creating time and space for candidates to run on the issues. But that dynamic will soon change now that an independent expenditure supporting former Seattle City Council President Bruce Harrell has officially filed with the city's elections commission. Campaigns that participate in the city's Democracy Voucher Program face firm caps on fundraising and spending, but fundraising groups called independent expenditures (IEs) or PACs can raise and spend as much as they'd like to support or oppose candidates, so long as they do not coordinate with those candidates. Once PAC and campaign fundraising in any given race exceeds the voucher program's spending limit, other candidates in those races can ask the election commission to lift the cap for that race. Once that happens, the rush for cold, hard cash opens to all; big donors begin to take center stage, and the voice of everyday Seattleites diminishes. It happened in the 2019 city council races, and now it'll happen in the 2021 mayoral races.