Several Seattle Democratic Districts banded together and held a mega-candidate forum last night at the Labor Temple on First Ave. in Belltown. The moderators asked a lot of good questions (“Name two things you’ll do to get more cars off the road” “How will you serve both urban and suburban constituents?”), but I left the sweltering, crowded hall two hours later with a lot of questions about the candidates’ answers.
1. Why are the candidates for King County Executive so much better qualified than the candidates for mayor.
Seriously: Mayoral candidate James Donaldson was openly reading from a typed script all night. Meanwhile, all the County Executive candidates—Dow Constantine, Fred Jarrett, Ross Hunter and Larry Phillips—were talking in nuanced specifics about budgets, Metro, emergency preparedness, and health care.
P.S. I must give smartest answer of the night to Phillips who completely reframed the hot button topic of King County employee health care coverage. Liberal Constantine talked about making management richies pay their fair share while standing by County workers’ right to bargain. Conservative Jarrett backs a Republican council plan to, apparently, toss workers rights and make everybody pay more.
Phillips on the other hand got to the real issue of lowering healthcare costs and touted the County’s “Healthy Incentives” plan—getting workers to live healthier lives—which has already lowered costs (in concert with lower usage) by $10 million.
2. Why is Mayor Nickels so subdued? Quote: “You make mistakes. You have to learn and don’t repeat them.”
3. Why are we spending $4.2 billion on a waterfront highway tunnel that will increase global warming and siphon money away from implementing things like the Master Bike Plan and the Master Pedestrian Plan?
This question is brought to you (repeatedly) by Mayoral candidate Mike McGinn who is capable of boiling every issue down to Mayor Nickels decision to build the deep bore tunnel. “Why aren’t we putting our money where our beliefs are?” McGinn asks.
4. What the hell creepy program was Mayor Nickels talking about when he said the City had identified “800 kids who will be victims or perpetrators of violence?”
5. Why was Eastsider Fred Jarrett the most articulate K.C. Exectuive canditate (as opposed to Seattleites Constantine and Phillips) about the 20/40/40 Metro service split that screws Seattle. Jarrett called the whole equation (which allocates 80 percent of all new bus hours to the two suburban regions of King County and only 20 to Seattle) a “false concept” and a “political compromise.”
6. Did you know there’s “a war on cars” in Seattle? So said Mayoral candidate Elizabeth Campbell, who added that we must keep our “freedom of economic choice and maintian [car] capacity.”
7. Why did the City “dismantle or ‘reorganize’ the gang unit?”
This question was asked with biting sarcasm by Jan Drago, who lambasted Nickels for cutting the unit, something she fought against in 2002. Drago’s emotional speech about the gang unit was her only effective moment in her otherwise lackluster debut as a Mayoral candidate in which her answers got about as specific as this one: “We need more transit. We need more money for transit. Because we need more transit.”
8. Why was the gang unit “disabanded?” This question was (also) asked by newly-stand-up-and-be-energized Mayoral candidate Joe Mallahan who was on the attack all night, calling Seattle “fundamentally broken” and saying “Nickels has proven he isn’t a good manager.”
(Mallahan, however, still isn’t providing a compelling reason that voters should vote for him instead. He had some belabored private-sector-experience-equals-I’m-qualified story about making sure pre-paid T-Mobile customers got service during a hurricane. But at least as opposed to Drago, he was hitting Nickels.)
9. Why didn’t Mayor Nickels address the gang unit issue?
10. Why does City Attorney candidate Pete Holmes keep hammering away at the issue of “alternatives to incarceration” when City Attorney Tom Carr’s record on it—creating a community court, diverting first time offenders, electronic monitoring—is pretty impressive. Indeed, Carr’s programs have reduced the average daily jail population by 37 percent. I’m not saying Carr’s record is perfect, but Holmes’ attack isn’t working: He talks in sweeping generalities while Carr hits back with lots of details.
11. Why does City Attorney candidate Pete Holmes keep proclaiming that he’s against building a new jail? Carr is too. (And Carr’s take is much less sound bitten and more honest. After the debate, I asked Carr why, unlike Holmes, he didn’t flat out say he was against a new City jail. Carr said: “It’s a false question. If the County won’t house our prisoners, I can’t just tell people I’m not going to.”)
12. Why didn’t a single Mayoral candidate bring up improving Seattle schools when they were asked about the problem of youth violence. Taking over the Seattle schools was even one of McGinn’s campaign platforms. Instead, McGinn brought up his work on the parks levy. Didn’t a teenager just get shot in a park last week?
13. How come Ross Hunter is willing to complain about Speaker of the House Frank Chopp now—”Frank really really wanted us to vote with the Republicans so we’d look like we were being really tough on Sex offenders”—but not during the legislative session?
Hunter didn’t vote for the bill—which Chopp feared would get Hunter—the first Democrat elected from his Eastside district ever—booted. Hunter voted against the bill. He didn’t get booted.
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Was Nickels “subdued” or sedated? He appeared totally disinterested in being there, while Campbell seemed nutty, Donaldson unprepared and Drago tired.
Based upon last night Mallahan, McGinn and Sigler are the only candidates with a chance of getting my vote.
McGinn shined, that’s for sure. Campbell confuses me. Hunter said at the Inspire forum that he basically didn’t buy reducing car hours because people commute and will continue to do so. I wish that had been a topic last nite.
On Holmes: it’s important to understand how much of our budget is allocated, under Carr, to misdemeanors. Non-violent offenders. A completely different strategy away from the puritanical approaches we’ve been working. At least that’s the way I understand the debate so far. That’s the issue – not incremental gains in tangential categories.
The extention of that argument is not about the building of the jail, per say, which is a simplistic reading from Carr – it’s the way we prosecute and set policies that sustain and grow the NEED for new jails. Change that and we don’t need new jails. See?
Why does it seem the King County Executive candidates are better? Because those 4 people collectively have more than 100 years of government experience, or are millionaires.
The mayoral candidates may not be as slick, polished, or have undergone thousands of dollars worth of issue briefings and speech coaching, but they are more authentic. There aren’t a lack of ideas, but it’s tough to lay out a platform in one minute answers to our city’s tough problems. Unless you speak in soundbites, like 3 out of 4 county exec candidates.
Re: “the sweltering, crowded hall”
I’m beginning to think that the way to guarantee high temperatures in Seattle is to schedule a big political candidate forum.
Tonight’s sweltering, crowded hall will be South Park Community Center, 8319 Eighth Ave S, where Port of Seattle Commission candidates will be on stage at 7pm.
Filing day is Friday, right? It’s not too late for Constantine to switch to the Mayor’s race.
“Phillips on the other hand got to the real issue of lowering healthcare costs and touted the County’s “Healthy Incentives” plan—getting workers to live healthier lives—which has already lowered costs (in concert with lower usage) by $10 million.”
Yet Larry killed Ron Sims’ plan to offer a benefit to bike commuters… while we as taxpayers continue to pay for the County’s downtown parking garage.
“Why are we spending $4.2 billion on a waterfront highway tunnel that will increase global warming and siphon money away from implementing things like the Master Bike Plan and the Master Pedestrian Plan?” Don’t forget about the cuts we’re making to education, health care and social services at the State level (and don’t give me any of that “we can only spend gas tax $$ on roads” argument, that’s an excuse, not a solution). “Why aren’t we putting our money where our beliefs are?” Because we continue to elect politicians who can’t seem to connect the two.
@#7
RE: Not spending gas tax on anything but roads, “an excuse, not a solution.” Sorry, you are incorrect. Our state constitution requires that gas taxes be spent, not merely on roads, but on highways. Look it up: Amendment 18, crafted by the oil & asphalt industry about the same time that industry lobbied to tear up 200 miles of trolley lines from Tacoma to Everett.
@8 It is not just highway dollars that we’ll be spending on the tunnel. Seattle residents are forced to pick up all of the cost overruns, Drago and Nickels are willfully forcing Seattle to spend over a billion dollars because of this.
Oxford professor, Flyvbjerg’s study of cost overruns in 258 mega-transportation projects showed that 9 of 10 mega-projects worldwide go over budget w/ an average overrun of about 30 percent.
30% of $4.2 billion means Seattle pays over 1 billion in cost overruns – at the expense of schools, transit and more.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/dannywestneat/2009123442_danny26.html
@Becky,
My worry is that the project isn’t even spec’ed out, yet. It’s 2% along in engineering. It defies logic that we even have enough of a scope and sequence to take a short in the dark about how much it will cost. Much less, inevitable overruns.
Over 1 billion is a problem. Don’t we have a taxation cap? Doesn’t that mean everything other need has to be table if it needs special taxation?
Why are the candidates for mayor so bad, and the candidates for county executive so much better? Cause our democracy is anemic. Open seats bring out the qualified ambitious, who all basically run on the same poll-tested message with a tiny bit of wiggle room. Incumbents get away with murder in one party towns, because no one will take them on except for idealists not scared of losing. In our power-obsessed world, ambition is given respect, idealism not so much.
The tunnel promises that Seattle will be trapped in car exhaust and debt. I don’t want it, I want our city to be able to afford good schools, walkable neighborhoods, and meet/exceed Kyoto greenhouse gas standards.
Michael McGinn is the only candidate that will get us there. The decision for Mayor of Seattle is easy.
@6
How are taxpayers paying for the county garage?
Everyone, including elected officials, pays market rate to park there.
I think Greg Nickels had a few too many Dicks Deluxe before he arrived–he was totally mid-food coma. And his love for Dicks manifests in odd ways. Look at the color scheme of his campaign signs!
The only thing stranger last night than Nickels’ drowsy demeanor was James Donaldson using the mini, ankle-high urinal.
@8 Change the constitution. We’ve done it before and we will do it again; again, an excuse, not a solution.
@12
Becky, how will Mike McGinn get us there? Does he have experience managing anything the size of the City of Seattle, or perhaps directing an organization of comparable size and structure to City Hall?
I have no doubt McGinn has the best of intentions, however I do question his ability to get things done from the inside. Supporting ballot initiatives is fantastic, but McGinn simply hasn’t demonstrated executive experience in his life. Regardless, anybody but Drago would be better than Greg Nickels. I want someone we can trust to accomplish what needs to be done. Joe Mallahan has a proven record of doing just that.
Josh, you must see the relevance of Joe Mallahan’s work in ensuring prepaid cell phone customers were able to use their phones without paying for more minutes as they evacuated. Juxtapose that with Greg Nickels response to the snowstorm. There is a stark contrast between action and success and inaction and finger-pointing.
@16,
Yeah. I get it. And while Mallahan was much better than usual last night (going on the attack), he didn’t deliver the prepaid story too well.
And in general, I’m sick of the private-sector-to-government schtick. Not from Mallahan in particular, but from everybody.
The anecdotes about their fine-tuned corporate management experience being a plus for changing inefficient government (Fred Jarrett is all about this mantra) isn’t compelling to me.
Government shouldn’t be run like a business. Government is about public service, not about stock markets.
But yeah, I get the analogy.
Here’s what I got out of the forum:
1. Campbell needs to get out of her neighborhood more often.
2. McGinn needs to get of his single issue more often. Come live in West Seattle or White Center for a while, then talk about the viaduct.
3. Donaldson needs to learn the issues well enough not to have to read his responses.
4. Drago… what’s up with her? All the experience and knowledge she has and all she can say about why she’s running is “because I love Seattle.”
5. Mallahan at least has management experience, so he understands complexity and unintended consequences. But if I hear any more whining about the once-in-a-century snowstorm I will scream! This was not Katrina, folks! Oh, and by the way… why does T-Mobile have such high employee turnover?
6. Sigler made great sense, but said nothing about his own qualifications. Seems like a very nice man (not my only criteria for public office, though).
7. And then there was Hizonor. Maybe his strategy is “shut up and just let these folks hang themselves.” If so, must confess that although I’m not a fan, it worked on me. Right now, he would be my reluctant vote.
Isn’t there anyone who has serious management experience and knows utilities, public safety, transportation, housing, human services, federal and state politics and regulations? Ron Sims… come home!!!
@18: Damn, you don’t ask for much, do you? It’s Mayor of Seattle and while I think that a chimp could do an equal job to the current incumbent, what we need most of all is a leader and competent manager. A Mayor doesn’t do the job alone. The person we elect will hire great people to take care of the details (another area, by the way, where Nickels has failed repeatedly). I don’t need someone who is an expert in all those areas. I also don’t want someone like McGinn who is admirable in his single issue, Luddite focus on the tunnel but demonstrates no ability to manage big projects or even a clear understanding of what the Mayor’s role is.
Two people are going to make it through the primary. Drago was surprisingly bad last night (I agree with your assessment). I really like Donaldson but so wish he’d stayed in the City Council race. Sigler has some good ideas, but he’s not a strong voice. (Campbell isn’t even worth talking about.) That leaves Mallahan and Nickels. Bring it on.
@19: A good manager would know that the tunnel is not a single issue, it is every issue. If we blow billions of Seattle’s budget on 1.7 miles of tunnel to move only 40% of the traffic the viaduct takes, we can’t afford the other things that make Seattle great.
And how will we afford to move the 60% that don’t want to bypass Seattle? The tunnel uses up money that could go for any number of things. It is a bad, half-baked, expensive and fiscally dangerous plan.
Ross Hunter has generally been a complete tool of Frank Chopp, which is OK sometimes but could be a huge problem for a County Executive. Just remember that this past year Hunter came out strongly in support of high tolls on I 90 to pay for the outrageously high costs of Chopp’s 520 plan for a rich Seattle neighborhood. Hunter ignored all evidence that points to the impossibility of tolling I 90 anytime soon.
@16 Government is about public service. But if you want the services to get to the public you have to be able to manage their delivery. Business people have experience delivering services while staying fiscally competitive. Greg Nickels is the perfect example of a person with decades of public service experience but a complete inability to deliver those services to Seattle residents. For example, Greg touts the new light-rail line as an example of the fruits of his leadership—he also admits it took him over 20 years in public service to get that done. 20+ years. That’s not leadership, that’s incompetence. Seattle desperately needs a strong executive to get things done now, not in 2030.
@16 And just FYI, I wasn’t trying to imply you “didn’t get it.” I know you get it–you are just dismissing it in this instance where I believe high-level executive/managerial experience is paramount. Outside of the Mayors race this year, I agree other qualities are more important and relevant.
Why does it seem the King County Executive candidates are better? Because those 4 people collectively have more than 100 years of government experience, or are millionaires.
The mayoral candidates may not be as slick, polished, or have undergone thousands of dollars worth of issue briefings and speech coaching, but they are more authentic. There aren't a lack of ideas, but it's tough to lay out a platform in one minute answers to our city's tough problems. Unless you speak in soundbites, like 3 out of 4 county exec candidates.