The margin of primary votes separating incumbent Everett mayor Cassie Franklin from challenger Scott Murphy was thin, as Murphy tallied only a 65-vote edge over Franklin.

The current leader in the polls, Murphy, addressed the city’s need for an expanded police workforce and its relation to the recent Fred Meyer closure, as well as the growing homeless population under Franklin’s leadership.

“One of the reasons I’m running is that for the last eight years under Mayor Franklin’s leadership, our police department has been chronically understaffed,” Murphy said on “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “In the police department, we’ve had anywhere from 25 to 35 officer vacancies in our budget. I have been screaming from the rooftops for a year since I filed to run that this is one

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