Pete Holmes, now in his third term as Seattle City Attorney, is the only elected city attorney in Washington State. He supervises an office of over 100 lawyers and 85 legal professionals and has sole supervisory control of all of the City’s litigation.
Pete has been an outspoken critic of the War on Drugs, dismissing all pending marijuana possession cases upon taking office on Jan. 1, 2010, and declining to file any subsequent charges. He was a primary sponsor of Initiative 502, culminating in Washington’s 2012 vote to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana for adult use. He also moved to vacate the criminal records of those previously convicted for simple marijuana possession.
His office prosecutes misdemeanor crimes including domestic violence, assault, property theft, and DUIs. Pete also champions the use value of community-based alternat
ives to incarceration (like the L.E.A.D. program), especially for young people, as a criminal record can carry lifelong consequences.
Pete has two adult children and is a longtime resident of the Seward Park neighborhood in Seattle along with his wife, Ann, and their beagle, Lucy.