I'm sure we can expect an outcry any moment now over the news of Dan Nolte, one of three staffers in the office of pro-tunnel Seattle City Council member Sally Clark, who is leaving City Hall to work on the campaign in favor of the deep-bore tunnel. I mean, it's fine with me, but the same people who lost their marbles that people who worked for Mayor Mike McGinn left to work on the anti-tunnel campaign will surely be outraged about this. This must be a foul of some weight. Mayoral staffer "Ainsley Close took a leave of absence from her job to run the referendum campaign," groused Joni Balter at the Seattle Times. "That seems different from a true grass roots effort."
We also know it was a big deal because the Seattle Times headlined a piece "McGinn, aides help anti-tunnel campaign" and ran another piece that warned City Hall staffers had ties to the anti-tunnel effort.
So the fact that the pro-campaign is led by Alex Fryer, who worked for pro-tunnel former mayor Greg Nickels, and Dan Nolte, who must be doing the bidding of pro-tunnel Clark, will generate the same outrage. Because, to the Seattle Times, this is evidence of a non-grassroots effort, something that is BIG NEWS, something scandalizing.
Right?
Of course, I think Dan Nolte is a great guy and there's nothing scandalizing about him leaving Clark's office to do what he believes is right. That is, he believes in what he believes inâon the job and in his personal life. Plus, there aren't many politicos to go around in a second-tier hamlet like ours.
