9:00 am: Steve Scher thanks listeners for letting him take vacation, and other staffers who covered for him, and says: "We jump back into the fray of things now—we talk to the two candidates for mayor... competing visions for Seattle..."
9:06 am: Scher: "Joe Mallahan, Mike McGinn. They wrap it up on Weekday... We're going to do it a little differently today, as I'm easing back into my job"—Steve, no one cares you were on vacation—"and let you introduce yourselves."
9:08 am: "I was born and raised in the pearl of the west coast, Everett." Scher: "I like that 'pearl of the west coast.' That's nice. Why do you want to be mayor?" Mallahan: "I want us to keep moving forward... We're very much at risk of moving backward." Scher: "So you're thinking is essentially stayed the same." Mallahan: "I think my thinking has grown. It's a big city, there are a lot of stakeholder groups."
9:09 am: McGinn starts by talking about himself as a father and family man, and someone who's spent a lot of time trying "to make this city a better place. The reason I'm running is because I believe we face really serious challenges, and we have people ready to face those challenges, as long as government is willing to work with them."
9:12 am: Mallahan is talking about how he wants to give everyone the opportunity to hold him accountable. Why is he allowed to keep saying this, considering he hasn't been accountable for his career at T-Mobile and hasn't let T-Mobile out of the non-disclosure agreement they struck when he took leave? That would be letting yourself be held accountable. (UPDATE: A friend points out that non-disclosure agreements almost always are to protect the employee from talking about the company, not the company from talking about the employee. Which kind of makes T-Mobile's unwillingness to talk about Mallahan even more suspect.)
9:13 am: Mallahan: "It's not lost on me that this event on Halloween night, the killing of this officer, puts us at great risk... The tension level among officers must be extraordinary... It's just raised the tension dramatically.
9:14 am: McGinn: "This is clearly an extraordinary tragedy. Police officers put themselves on the line for us... I think it's one of the reasons why the selection of a new police chief is so critical... Having a serious discussion about what are the qualities we're looking in a police chief," and about issues facing the police force, is critical. "Building trust between police and the community has to be a high priority."
9:17 am: Mallahan is saying he will be "present" to the police force if he's mayor. "I can't overemphasize being physically present... In the future, an officer will make a mistake and commit an offense against a citizen." Huh? "It's coming together and having a dialogue." Can anyone follow this answer?
9:21 am: Scher asks "what does listening as a mayor look like, or sound like?" McGinn: "I have a pretty extensive record building coalitions to bring about changes in this city." McGinn is talking about asking the mayor to begin the search process for police chief—McGinn wanted it to get underway even though the mayor's on his way out, Mallahan asked for the process to be held up until the new mayor starts. McGinn: "Part of the reason I recommended [not putting off the search] is because this is an opportunity to get people in a room with very different viewpoints but probably share common goals... What's the role of the chief, what's the role of the community, what's the role of the police force? ... It's not just a process, it's an attitude."
9:23 am: Scher: "When do you listen? And when do you know you're done listening?" Jesus Christ, Steve. McGinn: "You're never ever going to make everyone happy in this city. Because people have really strong ideas about what makes this city great."
9:25 am: Mallahan, talking about leadership when people disagree, mentions his time as an executive at T-Mobile, and likens T-Mobile employees disagreeing with one another to "all the stakeholder groups in a city."
9:27 am: This is a thin, dull interview.
9:28 am: Question from a listener, selected by Scher: "What are three projects you're proud of?" Zzzzzz. This is an interesting race, but not an interesting interview. The candidates are both white guys with corporate backgrounds and yet they seem to come from opposite ends of the class spectrum. Corporate liberals line up behind Mallahan; grassroots activists, environmentalists, and artists/musicians line up behind McGinn. What does that say about this city? What does that say about these two people? Why doesn't anyone ask what they think working with Richard Conlin is going to be like? Why doesn't anyone ask what we're going to do about gun violence in the CD/Leschi/etc—site of the cop shooting on Saturday, site of a youth shooting two months ago—and the underlying question: Are we ever going to be able to make this neighborhood safe? There are all kinds of issues to ask these guys about, and in every debate they get pretty much reheated questions. Or, worse, they get questions like "What are three projects you're proud of?"
9:32 am: Next question: How do you view the balance of public space in Seattle, fields, parks, etc. Another softball non-question. Anyone against parks out there? Mallahan: "I feel there is balance. But that's something that, I haven't had a conversation with stakeholders about that on this campaign." Mallahan has now referred to people who live in Seattle as "stakeholders" three times in a half hour. Um, we're not your employees, man, even if you do become mayor. And we don't make money collecting dividends from the city. We just live here. McGinn: "Our greenbelts are being smothered in ivy... Can we more effectively use the land the school district has? As well as community centers. The other thing I'd look at is rights of way. So I think we have other assets to take the pressure off this demand..." McGinn's answer is so dense with information (granted, parks are one of his career's central causes) I can't keep up with transcribing his answer.
9:35 am: Conversation about schools.
9:40 am:I believe Scher just asked Mallahan: "How can you have the moral voice if you don't have a big stick to back it up?" What?
9:42 am: Mallahan: "One of the things I will do as mayor is pound home the point that the majority of the schools that are failing are in communities of color."
9:45 am: McGinn: "It's easy to talk about accountability and priorities. I think actually raising the public issue of governance is the right thing to do... It's about the kids, it's not about who's in charge. I want to say something else about priorities." And we're onto the tunnel. Legislature coming together "behind closed doors" to get something done that they'd all prioritized. "We know how to set priorities when we want to as a region." At the same time, there was a bill to allow Seattle to collect $13 million in tax revenues that would go to the schools, but the legislature didn't prioritize that. "The very same day they signed that tunnel, down at the viaduct—they drank champagne I believe—the school district was laying off over 100 school teachers."
9:50 am: McGinn: "The people who stand to make millions on the tunnel are helping to fund and run Joe's campaign." Scher asks for specific names of those entities who stand to make money off the tunnel and are backing Joe. McGinn names the company behind the Big Dig, Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, and "numerous engineering firms and consulting firms who would hope to profit from this." Says Mallahan isn't going to be a good advocate for the people of Seattle on cost overruns. McGinn: "I'm going to stand up and say we're not going to begin this tunnel project until we get this cost overrun issue dealt with."
9:53 am: Mallahan: "People who support the tunnel support me. He [McGinn] continues to say over and over that tunnel supporters run my campaign, and that is simply not being honest with voters." Mallahan is accusing McGinn of making "smoke and mirrors attacks while I'm talking about principled leadership."
9:56 am: McGinn: "I think Joe's held one nine-minute press conference in this campaign." McGinn: "I think it's a good idea to have someone in the mayor's office who has experience standing up for the city of Seattle."
9:58 am: Mallahan: "I do plan to stand up for Seattle values, and to lead on Seattle values. But what does that mean? It's more than driving a Prius or recycling your trash." McGinn: "I have a record building coalitions..."
9:59 am: Mallahan: "I drive accountability in organizations that I lead and I do so by exhibiting personal accountability."
