1. In an affront to environmental poster boy, Sierra Club leader and mayoral candidate Mike McGinn, the King County Conservation Voters have decided not to endorse either candidate in the mayor’s race.
2. In other mayor’s race news: I guess Mike doesn’t always bike—especially when (as we reported last night), he can bum a car ride from his opponent, Joe Mallahan.
3. Conservative blogger Angie Vogt has filed a complaint with the Public Disclosure Commission against King County Executive candidate Dow Constantine for a hit piece that the Service Employees International Union, the Washington Education Association, Washington Labor Council AFL-CIO, and the hotel and restaurant employees union among other labor groups ran on Constantine’s behalf during the primary.
The $50,000 ad actually focused on Democrat Ross Hunter. (Hunter lost to Constantine, who now faces Republican-backed Susan Hutchison).
The labor coalition, which was called the Working Families Coalition, worked on the hit piece with political consultant Moxie Media, a firm that shares office space with Constantine’s consultant, Northwest Passage.
No one has produced evidence of collusion between SEIU and Constantine—it’s illegal for groups that run independent expenditures to collaborate with the candidates they’re supporting—but the shared offices has got the GOP hopping mad.
Asked if they’re now worried that labor might run and independent expenditure against them out of Constantine’s campaign consultant’s headquarters in the general election, Hutchison spokesman Jordan McCarran said, “Yes. We definitely are.”
4. Former Stranger crime newsie Jonah Spangenthal has published his latest scoop in the PI. (This one, published last night, is about a manslaughter case in North Seattle.)
Spangenthal-Lee’s was fired from the Stranger two weeks ago.
This morning’s Morning Fizz brought to you by Washington Conservation Voters.
Isn’t it more appropriately, “an affront to their claimed status as an environmental organization?”
From WCV/WEC’s support for hundreds of miles of new highways, to their relentless sucking up to a thoroughly mediocre governor, now choosing not to support a local environmental leader with a record of success… they just ooze leadership and class all the way.
FWIW, I noticed that the region’s principled enviro leaders tend to be supporting McGinn. (Alan Durning, Peter Goldman, Dennis Hayes, etc.)
Not as bad as when WCV gave an award to Dino Rossi in the middle of the 2004 Governor’s race.
The greatest danger to the environmental movement is when it gets marginalized by a political campaign. McGinn is a polarizing force in this city, that is why many in the environmental community do not support him. And quite frankly, many of his ideas are pretty naive at best, and are embarrassing to more serious people in the field. I’ve been through one environmental movement that faltered, and it was precisely because of people like McGinn, I don’t want to see it happen again. Kudos to the King County Conservation Voters for recognizing that.
@2 Or when they endorsed Dave Reichert after he discovered global warming. Dave seems to make scientific breakthroughs (like stem cells) whenever his female staffers start crying. WCV is still crying over roads & transit 2 years later.
WCV/KCCV just doesn’t want to offend their corporate/establishment donors and board members. They were completely paralyzed by the County Executive race before the primary too.
@1
So – if you are an environmental leader but don’t support McGinn, that makes you unprincipled.
So glad differences of opinion can be respected.
Vlad @ 3 -
I respect your right to disagree on this. However, I see the truly progressive, committed, positive and coalition building environmental folks (as cited by DoctorD @ 1 above).
After watching to yesterday’s Seattle Times mayoral interview, I just can’t see where Mallahan has the insight, experience or intellectual horsepower to be mayor. McGinn’s calmness and depth of understanding of the issues stood out. Mallahan just looked like a fish out of water.
@ 7
Oops. Second sentence should be: However, I see the truly progressive, committed, positive and coalition building environmental folks (as cited by DoctorD @ 1 above) behind McGinn.
@2 I remember that award/reward they gave Dino Rossi – and he had something like a 12% environmental voting record. Meaning that 12% of the time he voted pro-environment in our state legislature. Dino touted that award at every public appearance during the election as evidence of his stellar environmental record.
@ 1 and @5 nailed it. It appears that KCV cares more about insider influence and access to the Governor than our environment; too bad.
I’m not a big proponent of McGinn. And on some days when I forget how profoundly unintelligent his opponent is, I will even briefly consider voting against him.
But no matter where you stand on the mayor’s race, KCCV is a disgrace. Seattle progressives would be better off if it disbanded. And that way WCV could focus its resources on elections in suburbs and rural areas where even its greenwash is better than what Republicans put forward.
I’m confused! Comments have been on KCCV and WCV. They aren’t the same thing, are they? Maybe someone could explain exactly who are KCCV?
KCCV is the local face for WCV. They are one and the same.
Interesting, though, that they are sponsoring Publicola and this post!
Jonah sighting!
Not sure he’s “back”. The PI piece could have been a one-off. But I hope it somehow leads to some sort of steady role for him.
you folks do know that organizations “stay out of races” not b/c they choose to but in some cases b/c a specific candidate does not get a majority? kinda how democracy works. crazy, i know.
I’m a big supporter of WCV and KCCV, having given them close to $1,000 over the last 3 years. But I’m not giving this year. I feel like their endorsements are a drive through green wash for most candidates. Their endorsement lists have more overlap with the Alki Foundation than the Sierra Club. Insiders say it’s becoming the one stop shop for Chamber of Commerce candidates to get their green on. Four come to mind: Bagshaw, Carr, Royer and Albro.
And now here comes their breakfast next week (as advertised on Publicola) where they will raise tons of money from the same business community folks. I will probably go, but not contribute this year.
@2 and @9 – WCV worked their tails off to re-elect Gregoire in 2004 and make sure that voters knew that Rossi had a BAD score on the environment. There was no award.
@4 WCV has not endorsed Reichert. In fact, WCV does not endorse in races for federal office.
WCV is careful about endorsements – that’s called being politically savvy.
Regarding my previous post – quick typo correction – WCV worked hard to re-elect Gov. Gregoire in 2008.
And WCV endorsed and worked to ELECT Gregoire in 2004.
@17–I agree that staying out of races does make you more politically savvy and I don’t see a problem with being cautious in this race.
And so what if they don’t always agree with the Sierra Club? I’m pretty sure they have endorsed Mike O’Brien, who is just as green but a maybe a stronger candidate then McGinn.
So why was Spangenthal-Lee canned?
My favorite WCV Breakfast moment was a couple years back when they showed a film about how much their lobbyist, Clifford Traisman, was loved in Olympia. The head road building lobbyist was featured as one of WCV’s biggest fans.
Is it really such a bad thing to be concerned about having inside connections? Much to the dismay of extremists (be they environmental, liberal, conservative, etc), you can’t always get what you want. You have to be able to make compromises, and make baby steps. When you refuse, all you do is alienate policy makers, and lose your seat at the table.
I see someone mentioned O’Brien here, the reason he will be an effective council member, if elected, is that, while he opposes the tunnel, isn’t making that the centerpiece of his campaign. Instead, he’s talking about better transportation alternatives, ways to make this city more affordable on multiple levels (not just housing, but whether you need a car, how often you have to drive that car, and other COL matters). While I haven’t heard him concede on the tunnel, I have heard him focus on a wider breadth of issues.
I, for one, support the tunnel, and while Mike can be a bit preachy at times, think he would be an excellent City Council member.
I fear I went off on a bit of a ramble there. Comment done.
23 is dead on. O’brien’s campaign went from a one trick pony to something broader and more salient to different audiences, and that was purposeful move on his part.
This hubub has me a little annoyed with the naysayers.
First – endorsements typically require 2/3rds or even sometimes 3/4ths votes of the groups – not a simple majority. Perhaps McGinn’s folks aren’t capable of proving to the requisite number of board members that he should be their guy.
Second – if I’m to believe in the Sierra Club et al – is a requirement of being a ‘good’ environmental group to be lock step with each other all of the time? It feels like the Sierra Club et al are demanding that WCV get on board with them. And then when they don’t – WCV and KCCV are the ones that are unprincipled and so forth.
From what I heard – WCV was in the room when the Governor signed the executive order on climate change. The Sierra Club et al was not. I don’t know everything about politics but I do know that if you don’t have the relationships to get the meetings with the decision makers then I don’t think you have the capability to actually affect lasting change.
@17 Of course they had to work hard to elect Gregoire, they were fighting against their own green award to Rossi.
It should also be noted that two of McGinn’s big three platform positions (schools, fiber optic lines, and hating the tunnel) aren’t environmental issues, and there is a definite split on the tunnel among some environmental types.
Plus, while both Mike O’Brien and Mike McGinn would be strong candidates for City Council, McGinn is running for mayor, so the “is he up to it?” question is a bigger factor in his race than it is in O’Brien’s.
@25 makes a great pt–an endorsement isn’t just “is this person a strong candidate based on our interests?”
In many cases, it’s is also about how well that person would work with others, including the Council, neighborhoods, biz community, etc
@27
Though it could be argued that both schools and fiber optic lines ARE actually environmental issues. School quality is one of the factors that cause many young families to move out of the city. More people in the suburbs means more land getting turned into McMansions and more auto-dependent sprawl. Access to a high quality/high speed network is necessary to enable telecommuting which is an even greener alternative than transit as the best trip is the one never taken.
I think the enviro, labor, and general progressive endorsements (and lack of) demonstrate how truly sad this race is. We have 2 untested candidates with spotty public perfomances, less than stellar (or totally unacceptable) voting records, and challenges with outreach to individuals & constituency groups. What Mallahan has in $ to reach out to others he lacks in knowledge whereas McGinn has the knowledge but lacks staff who know who he even needs to talk to. Argh.
@30: If Nickels and his supporters had actually believed the polls, and not been so arrogant, he would have withdrawn, and other more experienced candidates would have entered the race. But he didn’t, and they didn’t. So here we are, on the cusp of a new era of weak mayor/ strong council in Seattle politics. Not really such a terrible thing in the long term.
No evidence of collusion between Constantine and SEIU? Christian Sinderman’s #1 client is SEIU. D’Oh!
The price of housing has been the major impetus for young families to move out of the city, not the quality of schools. The latter is caused young/middle-aged families with enough funds to put their kids into private schools in the city. They don’t have to go to Lynnwood for that, and those with money don’t want to go to Lynnwood. Helicopter parents are demanding things from schools that weren’t expected years ago; there’s a little lack of realism there. The bigger progblem is adequate low- and moderate-income housing in Seattle, and that’s the proper worry for a mayor, not schools.
Sarah,
The problem is not a lack of affordable housing. The problem is a lack of adequate wages. House prices (bubblemania excepted) have trended pretty much with inflation. Poor and lower middle class wages–not so much.
Yes, a perfect illustration of why WCV no longer gets any money or support from me.
The greatest danger to the environmental movement is when it gets marginalized by a political campaign. McGinn is a polarizing force in this city, that is why many in the environmental community do not support him. And quite frankly, many of his ideas are pretty naive at best, and are embarrassing to more serious people in the field. I've been through one environmental movement that faltered, and it was precisely because of people like McGinn, I don’t want to see it happen again. Kudos to the King County Conservation Voters for recognizing that.