Mallahan vs. McGinn: The Inside Story

By Josh Feit, Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 3:15 PM
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Sure, you can go to lots of post-election forums (or listen to KUOW) and hear pundits, reporters, and random consultants give their 20,000-foot analysis of this year’s mayoral campaign.

But we’ve rounded up the political strategists who actually helped come up with and execute this year’s campaign game plans—Team Mallahan and Team McGinn—to face off one more time.

Come to the Del Rey in Belltown on Monday night November 23 and hear McGinn’s gonzo strategist Bill Broadhead (from the Mercury Group) and Mallahan’s sharpshooter spokeswoman Charla Neuman explain their strategies, do some Monday-morning quarterbacking on themselves and each other, and fill you in on how they were reading, playing, and trying to outsmart one another.

spy-vs-spy

What did Team Mallahan think when McGinn made his tunnel reversal? What did Team McGinn think when Mallahan (with the much bigger bank account) put a second bundle of his own money into his own campaign? Why did Mallahan decide to go negative? How did McGinn orchestrate his now-famous field game?

Seattle Channel’s C.R. Douglas moderates. Our own Erica C. Barnett will sit on the panel to keep ‘em honest. And the former rival campaigns will tell their own stories and answer your questions.

Del Rey. 2332 1st Ave. in Belltown. Doors open at 5pm. Show starts at 6pm. Free. Cash bar.

  • Mica
    Fantastic panel, lovely event!
  • brizone
    Wish I could be there, Solar Washington meeting tonight at the same time... Argh.
  • Dean Willard
    I'm looking forward to the discussion tonight. I hope the analysis is critical, insightful and respectful with an audience filled by people that are either humble in victory or gracious in defeat. As a Mallahan supporter during the campaign, I hope to be the latter.

    We have a new Mayor-elect and the best outcome for Seattle and the region is for the Mike McGinn administration to be successful.
  • Middle Class Enviro
    I'm going to ask Charla about the economics of paying over $12 per vote for an election when the canidate you lost to spent a bit over $2. Did Joe learn that at T-Mobile?

    (cue music) "Joe Mallahn can....do dee do wa do"
  • sarah68
    Cogswell's ego would push all the air out of Publicola's offices; besides, he lives in Mexico and is an artist who makes films. And possibly the son of Ted Van Dyke.
  • Gooooonezzzz
    C'mon publicola! Grant Cogswell has already written everything that needs to be said about this campaign. See The Stranger-this week. Hire the guy. Fire Sandeep and Erica and resign yourself and this could be a great blog.
  • @21 I get sick of that BS talk from conservatives who have nothing better to do than whine. You hear the progressives complaining about how he hasn't done enough, and you somehow feel like you can jump on the bandwagon and say that Obama hasn't done jack.

    Obama has accomplished more in a year than Bush did in 8, unless you count negative accomplishments as getting things done.

    Unfortunately, this country, thanks to naysayers like you, has made change incredibly hard to achieve. It's in the make up. It's why we have a Senate, to make sure that the voters couldn't just easily elect representatives who could get what they want accomplished.

    Obama has done a shitload. Just not enough for the progressives. Go whine on the Seattle Times board.
  • Ryno M
    Hey Obama is on the verge of passing health care reform. He passed big stimulus money. Just because he hasn't delivered on everything *yet* doesn't make him a failure.
  • Jane
    What did Charla actually do on the campaign? Didn't Argo Strategies really run it?
  • Crumb
    Charla, the spokeswoman who couldn't articulate an intelligent thought, the one thing Mallahan could have used most. If I was in her shoes, I'd be in hiding.
  • WOW !
    Are we in some sort of time warp here? I mean if you substitute McGinn with Obama it sure sounds alot like January/Feburary of this year. Problem is, look where Obama is now. Mayor McGinn will be conforted by something called reality. The same reality that President Obama is facing now. Question for the collective kool aid drinkers here - if we burn the moneyed establisment of Seattle on the cross who is going to pay the bills ? Sorry folks, your neighborhood coffee shop does not pay the bills in Seattle.
  • Eric Arrr
    Mallahan on...

    Jobs: Let's move Seattle forward!
    Tunnel: Let's move Seattle forward!
    Light rail: Let's move Seattle forward!
    Bike paths: Let's move Seattle forward!
    Snow plows: Let's move Seattle forward!
    Growth management: Let's move Seattle forward!
    Moving Seattle forward: Let's move Seattle forward!
  • Tri
    @13 - I'm a 98118 resident and you got it right.
  • Little Jimmy
    $200k would have been a hell of a boost for the Sausagefest.
  • He should have donated the $200,000 to charity.

    it would be not the correct charity in some way.
  • Mikos
    The one thing I will remember about Mallahan is the mailer I got from his campaign on Wednesday, one day after the election. All those pros working for him and they couldn't figure that one out. Good Lord. He should have donated the $200,000 to charity.
  • Wells
    Please, please, somebody ask about this video:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSlTMUd8cVk
  • Perfect Voter
    In Mallahan's concession, he was disappointed that he'd been perceived as the businessman candidate instead of a social Democrat -- yet his campaign, from the get-go, made that a key part of their message. "He's a businessman who gets things done!" and so forth.

    He has only himself (or more precisely, his handlers) to blame.
  • Advocate
    Let me tell you what defeated Mallahan.
    He ignored SE Seattle-- McGinn reached out the diverse community in SE, --immigrants and refugees community.

    Mallahan association with the establishment was a big mistake. People preceived him as another establishment guy with no heart for the poor and the common man in Seattle.

    He did not come and meet with the voters, where as McGinn was holding 18 townhall meetings.

    ofcourse, he was not as smart and articulate as McGinn.
    All add it up, McGinn won.
  • Timothy
    @11..OK :-)

    You were the one who literally wrote $100k. I wasn't trying to be too literal, just responding to a very specific point you made and wondered about it.

    Looking forward to the discussion.
  • @9,

    At the forum, the consultants are going to talk about the campaign (past tense).

    So, all I meant was, you can ask Team McGinn how they felt when they saw Mal put his own money in during the campaign. (Literally, that would have been $30K). The $100K was an exaggeration to bring home the point that Team McGinn had to strategize around the fact that Mal had some cash.

    That's all. You're being a bit too literal.
  • Timothy
    Also...why Charla and not Jason?
  • Timothy
    @8 Josh...

    Sure, I know about the 2 installments, the $200k and the $30, both of which occurred early. But, what's your reference to the $100k about?
  • Didn't mean to confuse you guys. Mallahan put in about $230K of his own money into his $700K campaign.

    He hasn't put in any new money. I was referring to: How did Team McGinn feel during the campaign when Mal was putting his own money in ... in general, that they were going up against a guy that had some personal cash to spend.

    He actually gave to himself in two installments. A $200K installment and a $30K install.
  • Helper Clerk
    I second @3. First I'm hearing about another $100k.
  • @5,

    Please come to Monday night's event sarah68 and feel free to ask Charla Neuman about that. That's what the forum is all about.
  • sarah68
    @4: What was painfully evident was that Mallahan simply knew nothing about any of the important issues and couldn't even fake it. Whether his knowledge base or his ability to fake would have improved with coaching is unknown.
  • Michael G
    If you want some 20,000 foot quarterbacking from someone who isn't even a reporter or consultant, here goes.

    I voted for Joe Mallahan, and quite frankly I am upset at some aspects of how the Mallahan campaign was run. With the margin of vote as close at it was, Mallahan could probably have won is only he had been more prepared for the forums and debates.

    Hopefully, though, the panelists will have a better perspective than I do, and so I plan on going.
  • Timothy
    Wait...did I miss something? Did Mallahan contribute $330k?
  • Stacy
    Is Charla billing Joe for this? I hope not.
  • K9
    I hope you guys will put video up for all of us that cant make this! Sounds awesome
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