1) Last Tuesday—election night—Morning Fizz started out the evening at the Pioneer Square 5th floor office suites of consultant Cocker Fennessy. It was a fancy affair, and anybody who’s anybody in the local political scene was there: Expensive consultants, fancy pollsters, high dollar fundraisers, city council members, the mayor’s staff, the deputy mayor.
I report this not to boast about how hep Morning Fizz is, but rather to report what a difference a week makes. Anybody who was anybody is now nobody.
Take note: Late yesterday afternoon—at Mike McGinn’s crowded Southeast Seattle campaign headquarters where McGinn declared victory to raucous cheers—I didn’t see a single one of the insiders who’d also been at the Cocker Fennessy shindig. Not a soul from the chamber or the Downtown Seattle Association; no council members, no fancy pollsters, or high dollar fund raisers. The people who’ve been running this town for years—who lined up this time behind McGinn’s opponent, Joe Mallahan—were not to be seen.
Yes, some powerful unions were there—the hotel workers, the grocery workers—but otherwise, McGinn’s strip mall headquarters (just a block north of the Othello light rail station on MLK) was jammed with giddy neighborhood activists who’ve likely never set foot in Cocker Fennessy’s suites.
United Food and Commercial Workers union community affairs director Steve Williamson—probably the highest profile dude there—led the cheers.
United Food and Commercial Union members rally round Mayor-elect McGinn
2) McGinn used to be sort of a nobody himself. During the victory party a couple of fitting text messages from my old colleague Amy Jenniges popped up on my phone. (Amy had been my neighborhood reporter when I was news editor at the Stranger. Now she works for the mayor of Portland, Sam Adams).
When Amy started the neighborhood beat (this is back in 2002 or so), I was always pestering her to put together a confab with all the neighborhood activists.
Here are two texts that came in from Jenniges at 5:01.
Remember when McGinn was just a guy in my “neighborhood party” invite list (between Aurora Ave. activist Faye Garneau and capitol hill lady Ann Donovan) ?
And a few minutes later:
Sorry to interrupt the hot local action … if you have a second, could you toss me Mike McGinn’s cell? I have a mayor who wants to congratulate him.
3. With all the election news, I missed this: PubliCola star intern/reporter Jake Blumgart had a piece published online at the Stranger last week about Boeing. Nice job Jake.
4. Back to Mayor elect McGinn news. During his Q&A with the press yesterday, I pointed out that on the major issue of public safety, the city council is lining up to pass a no panhandling ordinance that McGinn has said he does not support (which was one of the two main reasons The Seattle Times gave for endorsing Mallahan).
I asked McGinn how he intended to deal with an adversarial council, which also disagrees with McGinn on another major issue, the $4.2 billion tunnel.
McGinn blew off the question and said it wasn’t appropriate to get into policy now.
5. And a footnote on the first item about who was and who wasn’t at McGinn’s celebration last night.
There was one establishment insisder on hand. Although, he told me he wasn’t there on behalf of his employer, Vulcan, he was there “on behalf of myself”—former Seattle Times reporter and current Vulcan communications director, David Postman.
This morning’s Morning Fizz is brought to you by Worldchanging.
I interviewed Mike way before the primary as he was the only candidate who had much to say about public education. (I write for the Seattle education blog, Save Seattle Schools, saveaseattleschools.blogspot.com)
We met at a coffeeshop and I got there first. He came up on a bike in a drizzle. I was really surprised because I thought that him being a lawyer meant a suit.
We had a very good talk. I was a bit wary because he had said if he didn’t see improvement in Seattle Public Schools, he would consider a change in governance. Those are big words but clearly, he had thought this out. He wouldn’t rush into anything but he knew that the process would be to go to the Legislature and ask for a law (just for Seattle) to allow the Mayor to take control of SPS.
He struck me as thoughtful and well-spoken so naturally I didn’t really think he had a chance. Too many other big, pushy voices out there (read Jan Drago, Joe Mallahan).
But he endured and now he’s Mayor and I couldn’t be happier. We need more ideas and more support from the City for our public schools. One example is that the district is currently crafting a new Student Assignment Plan. One issue – a big one – is being able to walk to school. However, the City is ending its funding of school crossing guards by the beginning of next school year, 2010-2011. We could really use those guards to keep walkability a viable reality for families.
Anybody who was anybody is now nobody? How puerile you are, Josh, how terminally naive. People who have a stake in the city, whatever that stake is, will continue to act in their interests, whatever those interests are. They aren’t going anywhere, and they don’t give a rip who you think is cool.
McGinn will have to deal, and he knows it. Some of his supporters, who think they have a “mandate” — Here’s a hint, they don’t. The election was too close for that — will learn to their discomfort that the earth has not moved so much.
The jury’s still out on whether McGinn’s “agenda” or his “message” or his “vision” won the election for him. We know for a fact that his field operation won it for him, and that is an invaluable plus. That alone is worth beaucoup bragging rights.
The row that McGinn’s supporters will have to hoe to get broader-based support for their agenda — whatever it is — will be a lot rougher row to hoe than winning the election was.
We’ll see how that shakes out. The political alliances that form might be far different than some of his supporters envision.
ECB:
On item number 4, if I can paraphrase – the council cares deeply about this city and so do we, and there will be time to have that discussion.
Reporters might call that a “blow off”, but I thought it sounded measured and thoughtful. Like he knows he’s not the only elected int he city and that we’re going to have to work together to get things done.
Anyway, us nobodies are excited to roll up our sleeves and help in any way we can.
This is the same UFCW who hosted Mayor Nickels’ “victory” party, no? Cozying up to the new guy so tightly seems a little embarrassingly transparent. Surely McGinn & crew can see through that BS.
Arghh, my mistake – JF, not ECB.
Why can’t we have an “edit” function here?
Lighten up, Ivan. Josh is just being a bit snarky and hyperbolic. It’s just a headline.
Josh, was there a Councilmember-to-be at the McGinn celebration? At his Election Day party, Mike O’Brien said he really, really hoped he’d be able to call his pal Mike “Mr. Mayor”.
@4,
UFCW endorsed McGinn shortly after their guy Nickels lost in the primary.
They are one of the few unions who endorsed McGinn.
That cake is grammatically incorrect. Either “Mayor” should not be capitalized, or there should be a colon after “future”.
@4
What about the unions that supported Nickels and went to Joe… or doesn’t that count?
UFCW, SEIU and UNITE/HERE had the courage to back Mike when conventional wisdom was that he was going to lose – not when he was the presumptive favorite. They came to the campaign because they saw McGinn as the candidate who would work hardest for low wage workers and people of color.
Sheesh….
@2,
Sigh, Ivan. I think you’re cool.
@7
Define “shortly”. If memory serves, UFCW and SEIU didn’t jump on board until October, after most other unions jumped on with Mallahan.
Having been a “nobody” before, and very much having been looking forward to keeping that status, a part of me is kind of happy that there will be more opportunity for involvement in the process by the grassroots.
Don’t get me wrong, I strongly believe that Mr. McGinn will require a lot of, as many would call it, “insider” support in his administration, and a lot of his higher-up volunteers will have to settle for positions below those of insiders, and work their way up, but it will be nice to see them with a voice at the table.
So long as it’s some of the more pragmatic supporters of Mr. McGinn, that is (like the guy who spoke for him at the Eastlake forum – total solid, right there). Anyone who thinks that this is some sort of mandate, or believe that Mayor McGinn will exert a ton of control I think are in for a nasty surprise. If anyone received a mandate this year, it was the city council and the city attorney.
However if Mike wants to have any effect he needs to actually hire some people who know how to get things done at city hall. Besides a few young guys who used to work as interns no one on that team even knows where city hall is.
I want Mike to be effective in pushing his pro denisty, pro tranist agenda so I hope he gets some bright people on his team who know how to make it happen. He needs 5 votes and he need cooperation and commitment from the departments. If he hires a bunch of Sierra Club activists and former city interns I predict he will get nothing done.
The question I have: will the local political establishment (aka “Election Losers”) at least try working with our new mayor or will they simply use their surrogates on the council to obstruct everything?
It should be interesting to see how it all plays out.
Anybody who was anybody is now nobody, except the deputy Mayor, who is leading the Constantine transition team. Tim Ceis is a shark with nine lives.
@7 and @9 Yeah, sure, I think UFCW & SEIU 925 & UNITE HERE get some points for McGinn being their #2 choice in the mayoral race. But I think the bigger lesson of the entire campaign is that these kinds of endorsements don’t count for shit with voters. Period.
They’re not my favorite progressive orgs out there, but The Sierra Club and Planned Parenthood + NARAL Pro-Choice Washington are the only folks who I can see having a convincing case that they are able to influence the outcome of local elections here. Other than them, I don’t see why an endorsement should give anyone any influence of any kind. Because it’s clearly not influential in these kinds of local races.
After all, if the UFCW endorsement were so valuable, Nickels would not have come in 3rd. And for the record, they endorsed McGinn on 10/8, less than a month before the general. Not quite late, but certainly not early. http://www.ufcw21.org/2009/10/08/ufcw_21_announces_endorsement_mike_mcginn_in_seattle_mayor_s_rac
@13 – Your post is hilarious. A month ago everyone felt sorry for the poor city council because the big mean mayor was always bullying them. Now they are the bullies huh? Too funny. How perceptions change.
Please keep in mind that 2 incumbants were just overwhelmingly reelected (one by almost 80% of the vote) and 2 new councilmembers won their races decidely so I think they can claim a bit of a mandate to push their agendas.
I for one am glad to have some experience at the helm as the city is forced to make massive layoffs and cut programs. It is good to have someone there who understands the history and long range fiscal impacts of these incredibly important decisions. McGinn will need to figure out how to use the experience of the Council as an assest, Mike knows and has worked with a few of them before so he needs to think about his first steps and what signals he is sending.
@12:
There was a very candid interview with on The Stranger where he pretty much acknowledged just what you said. The nice part about him filling up part of his circle with these higher-ranking volunteers, though, is that these people worked for him for ~9 months without any pay. They’re in it for the passion, not the money. That means the city likely won’t have to pay a lot of money to get quality staff for the Mayor.
@ 17 – I think “they’re in it for the passion, not the money” describes most everyone I work with at the city. Talented, passionate people who care about making the City we live in a better place. Otherwise we’d all go work for T-mobile and make twice as much money and would not have to attend public meetings where people (who need medication and mental health care) scream at us.
I predict that we will have no idea how Mike McGinn will interact with the City Council and local interests until he actually takes office, gets to work and we see what he can accomplish.
as regards a mandate . . .
Nickels won his first election by fewer votes than this. He marched right in and acted as if it were a mandate.
It’s not the number of votes that matter, it’s the attitude of the person receiving them.
Some people are looking for a mandate. Other people are looking to work with stakeholders to generate solutions. There is a difference.
@18 riiiight. we the public love the insiders soo much we just re-elected all the incumbents. The votes for McGinn showed that all you insiders are doing a really, really great job, especially on your transportation planning and your passion and vision for the city. Oh and your ability to experience an election like this and “Get it” that it’s a huge validation of what the city is doing shows amazing skills at “Active listening.”
8 – it should be a comma, not an colon
8 – it should be a comma, not an colon
@21 – The city transportation department has completely changed in the last eight years from one that was about operating functionally for cars to one with a great emphasis on ‘complete streets’ putting much more resource and focus on pedestrian and bike. City of Seattle does not control Metro Transit, WSDOT or Sound Transit but the City has fought hard to get those agencies to prioritize serving urban density.
Me and most of my city colleagues have a vision for the city which includes being healthy, prosperous, equitable and sustainable (among other things).
Richard Conlin just won and unprecedented fourth term with 80 percent of the vote. Sally Bagshaw as a newcomer won with 70 percent of the vote. Mike O’Brien was in a touch battle but won with something like 57 percent of the vote. Sally Clark and Tim Burgess have both become very strong and capable legislators over the past few years. Godden is emerging as a power player on Council too and is a reliable vote for green, sustainable, equitable and fiscally responsible initiatives. I predict those 5 or 6 people will align on many issues to push a very progressive, forward thinking vision for the city.
McGinn is fairly well aligned philosophically with many of these folks and can make that work to push for a common progressive vision. I hope that comes to bear because I want to see Seattle continue moving forward with our ‘ pnw = enviro + economics’ ethos.
We did it! http://www.flickr.com/photos/soggydan/4003567979/in/set-72157622454048939/
In other news of all the somebodies who are now nobodies, tunnel non-opponent State Sen. Fred Jarrett, pal of tunnel non-opponent Rep. Judy Clibborn, has left his job. To accept Dow’s offer of the #2 spot at the County.
What a nobody!
I agree with Ivan (pretend to look shocked). Vulcan sat on the sidelines for the election, though they had their flak there, and they helped fund Great City.
I expect all of those developers will find common ground with Great City Mike and the city council they also fund.
Lots of development will happen, just as it did with Nickels, with the added benefit of Mike greenwashing their projects with your Parks levy money.
Where electric-assist Mike and the council will not agree on will result in legislation being sent to the exec and he can accept it or reject it.
Btw, some of those insiders own a lot of property, and are looking forward to McGinn upzoning.
@26 – Bill, you’ve been pedaling your distorted vision of Mike and Great City all over the blogosphere, and thankfully few have really given you much credence. While I imagine you and your ilk (read: Pat Murakami, Dennis Saxman, etc) will continue your NIMBYism cloaked as “neighborhood activism”, my hope out of all of this is that some true neighborhood voices begin to emerge that want to see positive change. I think there is a mandate here when you look at the whole election – the likes of David Miller and David Bloom lost big and badly, while you’re seeing progressive voices like McGinn and O’Brien really resonating. That creak you’re hearing? It’s the slowly closing door on your agenda. Now, let’s get to work.
20. re: direct McGinn and Nickels comparisons… keep in mind Nickels was an experienced politician who had held public office when he was elected Mayor in 2001, having served three terms and change on the King County Council, plus working under Norm Rice for eight years before that. Mike McGinn has no public office experience, his only applicable experience coming with lobbyist organizations. Comparing their runs at Mayor directly isn’t an accurate or anything resembling a direct comparison.
@27, who is Bill?
For that matter, who is Pat Murakami, Dennis Saxman?
Not all outsiders voted for McGinn.
McGinn gave about the same answer as Mallahan did on zoning.
Publicola published a partial list of developers that donated to Mike’s $60,000 salary.
Where do you think the city’s contribution in making these condo auction sites pretty?
I would prefer to think of it differently. Rather than having ‘anybodies who are now nobodies’, maybe we can just view it as having more somebodies.
No one should be dismissed and cast aside. Wasn’t that what this election was about?
“I report this not to boast about how hep Morning Fizz is…”
I hope not. What you are doing is revealing yourselves to be co-opted “insider” in our local village politics. You are now one of the villagers posing as journalists-not unlike the Seattle Times in essence.
This is what you have always aspired to be so I offer my congratulations. And must you turn to quotes from the few former employees of The Stranger who are not now writing for Publicola.
What a piece of crap this site is as a news source. You think success is joining Joni Balter to pontificate on the local NPR station. And you can’t even comprehend what’s wrong with having a politicians campaign spokesman employed here at the same time.
Crosscut, Publicola, the Stranger, The Weekly, The Seattle Times, PI, Post Globe–all crap! Some more or less than the others but this town doesn’t have a single professional newss source that isn’t co-opted by Seattle’s aristocracy.
Tell Joni I said Hi.
@30, I am not sure McGinn was thinking that in the debates when he was chewing on Mallahan for getting support from the status quo.
Or from Publicola (see the story title) and the Stranger?
@ #6
Yeah you can take the boy out of The Stranger but you can’t take the snark out of the boy.
@6 from auxiliary grammar girl: It’s flack, not flak.
Although with Vulcan, who knows.
Josh thinks I’m cool? Ugh! I’m ruined!
I would like to thank to UFCW and SEIU and UNIT HERE.They did the right thing by backing the right guy at the right time. They are truely progressive Unions with workers interest in mind. Now the election is over. I would like to thank Mr.Mallahan for his courageous concession, and his kind words towards the people of Seattle and our new elect mayor Mike McGinn.
Where Shall we go from here is the question.
My advice to all seattle residents is let us line up behind our new mayor,and make our city more prosperious and progeressive place. I want to see place where each one of us can play a role in shaping the future of this great city. I wholeheartedly believ– Mike will just do that.
@4
Cozying up? Please. UFCW 21 was the first union to endorse McGinn, no small thing given his underdog status and that every union who had endorsed before us endorsed Mallahan. We like Mike, not based on what he said he was going to do, but what he has done. Like every one who helped Mike win, we are proud of our part, over 5000 phone calls and 20,000 mail pieces later… Oh yeah, hey Josh, I was at the party too. Please change your Iphone app so it can be viewed horizontally.
The best thing about McGinn’s election is that he has shown sweat not just money counts in a local race. The media’s preoccupation with fundraising in elections may not be completely misplaced but McGinn shows you can do it with leadership, volunteers and a lot less cash. Bad news for those consultants who sign on with campaigns so they can bloviate for cash and good news for those who can find candidates with passion and energy.
@27 Hey I thought McGinn said that he was going to listen to everybody’s voices. Are you suggesting he was lying when he said that?
Is that Dave Schmitz the $130k a year president of Local 21 up there at comment 37?
Josh, that picture you have up there of Local 21 folks is actually a picture of staffers not members. There is a difference – the former is paid a lot better than the latter.
The lady in front of the picture holding the placard is actually Local 21′s Lobbyist!
Goddamnit! It’s so fucking hard to be pro-union when there are unions like Local 21 slobbering over themselves all the time! Not to mention blogs like publicola who improperly label their images. PAID STAFFERS! The guy ringing you up at Safeway? That’s a fucking member!
Suck it dry Schmitz – you came late to the game because you fucked up on Nickels. No realistic service workers union in their right fucking mind would have endorsed Mallahan. The only reason the trades did was because of the FUCKING TUNNEL. Mallahan and his company t-mobile aren’t known to love you overpaid cigar-chomping union presidents now is he? Endorsing him would have made you look stupid. Now that you endorsed McGinn you expect us to suck you off or something? Go back to chomping your cigars.
Seven,
I’ve met Dave Schmitz and he doesn’t smoke cigars.
love the cake pics
If anybody who was anybody, is now nobody, nothing will happen for a very long time.
Get ready for the big let down.
The Cocker Fennesey party is a handy bridge between the end of the work day and election returns. It is actually not very fancy and not a good compare to the McGinn camp celebration crowd.
It is true that McGinn (or Mallahan for that matter) do represent a huge break from the crowd running the City that had basically not changed much since when Royer was first elected. All Mayors, since Royer, have had some connection to that era, until now.
This is very new, which typically means not much happening anytime soon, especially with no real mandate and with supporters who tout that the “anybody who is anybody” is out.
it will still be the battle of Jane Jacobs versus Robert Moses. The McGinn crowd fancies themselves the Moses visionaries with Jacobs sensibilities, but that is hard to see so far.
you can tag us as NIMBY, but frankly the havoc you wreck shouldn’t go on in ANYONE’S backyard…
no doubt many of the driving visionaries remain safe in lakeside communities or the 7th floor, but they should respect the opinions and vision of the folks at ground zero. the GMA demands such, no?
@ 18. insider baseball
HA. You are funny. I saw 1000′s of resumes during my
tenure at a big software company and hired and interviewed many folks. Trust me, I never hired anyone who worked for the city or Boeing aka “Lazy B”.