Extra Fizz

By Josh Feit, Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 9:29 AM
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1. If he decides to jump in , one thing that could help a state Sen. Ed Murray write-in-for-Mayor campaign is R-71, the anti-gay rights initiative. If R-71 is on the ballot in November, the anti-R-71 backlash in Seattle could energize Murray supporters.

Murray is the leading gay rights advocate in Olympia—he ushered through the domestic partners legislation that R-71 is looking to overturn.

So, irony: Murray fans better hope R-71—where the signature-check rate is lacking —makes it onto the ballot. Bigger irony: Anti-gay rights activists could help elect Seattle’s first gay mayor.

2. Chris Grygiel has a piece over at the PI.com pointing out that T-Mobile—where mayoral candidate Joe Mallahan is a VP—battled against neighbors and the Nickels administration in 2003 to put cell phone towers in Seattle neighborhoods. It got ugly:

"Some people felt there were predatory practices, in terms of trying to convince property owners that they should have (cell towers) on site and get a monthly payment," Diane Sugimura [head of the City's planning department] said. "There were some people that were saying it appeared they might be targeting low-income people, or people that maybe (had) English was a second language. Those are the kinds of stories we heard."

Sugimura didn’t name specific companies, but in media reports from the time residents complained that T-Mobile was moving ahead to strike deals with neighbors, despite the fact that the agreed-upon public comment period to voice concerns about such projects had yet to expire.

Mallahan’s campaign spokeswoman Charla Neuman tells Grygiel that Mallahan didn’t have anything to do with the cell phone tower debate.

She doesn’t however say what Mallahan’s position is on putting cell phone towers in residential areas. Nickels proposed legislation in 2003 banning cell phone towers from residential areas. However, loopholes allowed a batch of cell phone towers to go up.

PubliCola has a call in to Mallahan’s campaign.

3. PubliCola advisory board member  and former Seattle PI edtior Mark Matassa has taken a paying job as a part-time editor and writer with Crosscut .

Anytime someone can get a paying job in journalism these days is cause for celebration. So, congrats to Mark.

Matassa will be stepping down from our advisory board—which in addition to lending a hand on our endorsements and providing a sounding board on business issues included, in his words, "always advis[ing] the Bombay Sapphire for those Publicolists contemplating gin."

  • Timothy
    @19...because it will be important to elect someone who can advocate for Seattle without the pretense of having locked themselves into supporting the tunnel.

    This "write-in" campaign is merely fodder for online discussion amongst political insiders. Whomever wastes their money on such a venture will show themselves as politically naive.

    And, Murray? If you want to be Mayor, run for Mayor. We had months and months in which we asked several individuals to stand up and run for Mayor. Everyone else shied away. But, completely unexpected, Mike McGinn threw himself into the race. He built a campaign based on volunteer effort, crafted a message that resonated, and won the damn thing.

    My support goes to McGinn. Let's shake things up, but let's at least do so with someone who decided to take the risk and actually run for the job against perceived odds.
  • @18 Do you serious think there's a chance a poll will be conducted that "shows Murray as a write it at anything above 40"?!

    A far smaller proportion of Seattle voters even know who the fawk he is. (Just as with McGinn & Mallahan.)
  • @17, then what is the point of voting for McGinn?
  • Ed Murray's *state* bills sponsored and co-sponsored
    http://www1.leg.wa.gov/Senate/Murray/SponsoredB...

    What are McGinn's municipal bills? Mallahan's?
    I know those have more knowledge and understanding when it comes to local issues.

    Murray is on three committees:
    Health & Long-Term Care
    Rules
    Ways & Means

    The Drago votes are not going to McGinn, I do not see the Nickels votes going to McGinn.
    The pure anti-Nickels votes might not all have a natural home (people voting against more than wanting to vote FOR a candidate).

    If a poll shows Murray as a write in at anything above 40 then there is no reason not to run (unless he does not want the job).
  • Timothy
    For those of you who think the tunnel is a done deal and that it will only come up for discussion if a new mayor challenges it, I think you're delusional. The "agreement" on the tunnel, best I can tell, is merely a placeholder that allowed the politicians in Olympia to pretend it's off their plate, delaying yet again the finality of their decision. They were just tired of dealing with it, so crafted a way to put it on hold while telling the public that it is a done deal. It's not a done deal. There are so many holes in the plan, that it will naturally surface again for re-examination.

    The tunnel will never be built.
  • Johnny
    So dude "heard stories" that "some people were saying" T-Mobile wanted to build towers?

    Ridiculous hit piece.

    Go Joe. We don't need four more years of fighting over the viaduct so it can pancake a bunch of buses and Mike McGinn can feel rosy about riding his bike to work.
  • Brian Apple
    Oh good lord -- Murray would be a disaster! He is a two issue politician -- gay rights and transportation (which he really hasn't been that effective at at all).

    What is it with Seattle and it's pipe dreams -- we are going to get what we deserve -- poor leadership and 4 years of broken government.
  • Lurleen
    @13 you're assuming that Murray's against the tunnel. We know nothing about his stances on major city issues. Or at least, I don't.
  • George
    To elaborate a little more on why this hurts McGinn is Murray would actually likely be the most moderate/conservative candidate in the race. Once all of those republicans/conservatives find out what McGinn really intends to do about the viaduct, they'll look for another option. Murray is their man.
  • George
    I think it hurts McGinn because his support in the 43rd district will be decimated by a Murray run. Sen Murray is a popular elected from our district. It's really interesting because Murray is a moderate in Olympia on business/labor issues and strong progressive on social issues. He could line up both business and labor support. He could also find a nice synergy with a pro-71 campaign. Rallying people to turnout and vote for R-71 while reminding them to write him in for Mayor. I don't see how a pro-71 campaign wouldn't go hand in hand with an "elect the first gay mayor of seattle" campaign.
  • grass rooter
    so, having 3 candidates,
    one: enrivo/antitunnel
    another one, the write in: labor/gay pro tunnel
    another one: business/conservative pro tunnel....

    explain please, how does dividing the pro tunnel vote among two credible candidates *hurt* mcginn ?
  • Kathryn
    Who among you do not have a cell phone? Anyone? Should we just have individual mini towers on all of our homes? Actually, pirate cell and internet sounds pretty good right about now with all the bad service we get in the CD.

    I know, I fought the cell tower pan at MLK and Union, but seriously where will they go if we all want great cell service.

    Disclaimer -- my provider is NOT t-mobile.

    Another question: What was Murray's role in the funnel decision?
  • Mickymse
    I don't understand this insistence by some folks that Mallahan is somehow responsible for everything that T-Mobile does.

    He's not the founder of the company or something; he's in management. We should hold him responsible for the initiatives he was actually a part of.
  • JoshMahar
    Ed Murray is a great guy and all but it seems to me that this whole Murray for Mayor thing is just another manifestation of Portland Envy.
  • abc
    "Mallahan just doesn’t know anything about running a giant public sector entity."

    Neither does Murray - he's run an office of 2.

    In either case a pro like, but not, Ceis is hired to run it.
  • @5 I think you're right about Mallahan and right that we'll likely have 4 years of painful go-nowhere under McGinn, maybe even culminating in the Governor closing down the current viaduct as she's suggested she might do. I agree those are the likely options and they suck. Though in my opinion Mallahan sucks far far more, and I think there's potential for McGinn to surprise on the upside. (What McGinn & the Sierra Club pulled off with defeating roads/transit and then passing transit-only the next year was impressive and thought to be impossible.)

    It's just hard to get excited about an uphill struggle to elect a legislator like Murray without any profile on city issues. The types of issues you face as a leg. are very different from the types of issues you face as mayor, and the arrays of interests fighting for leverage are even more different. In fact, many of the opposing forces in city politics tend to be pretty much aligned in Olympia because the terrain of struggle is so much farther to the right.

    So yeah, we know Murray is a progressive in the legislature. But that doesn't mean much about what his stances will be like in city politics. Much like the fact that Mallahan knocked on two doors for Obama doesn't mean shit about whether he'd be a progressive mayor.

    A Steinbreuck write-in campaign I could go for. He has a track record. Murray just doesn't have a record in this area as far as I know.
  • insider baseball
    @3 I heard some polling is going to happen soon.

    I started off yesterday thinking a write in was a bad idea but the more I think about it the more I am becoming a supporter of Ed Murray for Mayor. Actually, I want to know where I send contributions.

    Mallahan just doesn't know anything about running a giant public sector entity.

    A McGinn win will result 4 years of no progress because he would have to try and reopen the viaduct debate bascially making enemies of Labor, Business, Industry, the Governor, the State Legislature, the enviromental community and eveeryone else who negotiated the compromise. McGinn would lose this battle and all his credibility and political clout along the way basically turning him into a lame duck right out of the gate. I think all other progress in the City would stop and the city will languish for four miserable years of arguements about the viaduct.

    I think Ed could be a real uniter of the people and put forth a progressive agenda that people can rally around. Ed can do alot to make sure we get the funding for transit and infrastructure to make our transportation system and neighborhood work more effectively.
  • ap
    @1 You're wrong. In addition to the big office and pay check, Mallahan also was responsible for ideating and saving money by cutting the fat.
  • I actually think R-71 being on the ballot could *hurt* Murray's chances. Murray's base of supporters might feel more compelled to spend their time, money, and volunteer energy on 71 than on a delusional vanity project like a write-in campaign. Also, since McGinn & Mallahan will surely take strong stands in defense of gay rights, the pro-Murray energy might be muted in favor of building a broad coalition around R-71.

    I think the entire notion that a Murray write-in campaign could make serious headway -- despite his lack of any profile on most any *municipal* issue of concern -- is the result of the Capitol Hill in-crowd demographic involved with Publicola. Murray is just not a viable candidate as a write in. If he were looking very viable, I'd expect we'd be seeing some leaked data from the poll by now.
  • Unless I'm missing something, I don't see how a write-in campaign for Murray can have any other outcome than electing Joe Mallahan.
  • hmmm
    By the sound of things it looks like Mallahan was never involved with anything at T-Mobile. What was his job exactly other than occupying a big office and taking home the big pay check.
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