Friends of Seattle, a enviro-civic organization, has given its blessings—and flipped the bird—to candidates on next month’s primary ballot.

Blessing for Mayor: Mike McGinn, to nobody’s surprise. FoS’s mission statements and McGinn’s campaign materials are cut form the same cloth, so it’s natural that the endorsement sings in harmony with McGinn’s campaign anti-tunnel theme. FoS writes, “McGinn opposes the $4.2 billion tunnel to replace the Viaduct, a plan which he correctly describes as a missed opportunity to invest in alternative transportation.”

Bird: On viaduct-hugger Elizabeth Campbell, who fought against homeless housing in Discovery Park, FoS writes, “Ms. Campbell’s spirit of public service is admirable, but she offers retrograde and anti-progress perspectives on almost every point we asked her about.”

Bird: On James Donaldson, FoS writes: “Most troubling for us, however, was his lack of familiarity with his own policy proposals.”

Blessing for City Council Position 8: The next endorsement, not surprisingly, goes to Mike O’Brien, who is Robin to Batman McGinn. FoS fawns over O’Brien’s plans for bicycles and more affordable housing.

Bird: On David Miller, FoS writes, “we learned enough to be very concerned, particularly with regard to his transportation and land-use policies.”

Blessing for City Council Position 6: FoS needs a gauze patch to stop the gushing over Jessie Isreal: “We were impressed by Ms. Israel’s ideas—all of them specific, concrete, and innovative—for securing funding toward transit oriented development, sidewalks and affordable, walkable communities.”

Bird: Nick Licata, who has been in office as a staunch progressive since the War of 1812, gets no endorsement. FoS says he’s a “solid incumbent” but says we need someone new. When you click for more detail, you just get a “The requested page could not be found.” [Update on Licata’s page: FoS writes, “You mentioned it’s not working. It should be fixed.” Indeed, the page is back up. FoS snubs Licata for holding out some interest in an elevated viaduct—he told them, “I always thought a slimmed-down elevated could fit”—which is (sorry, Nick) a terrible idea.]

Friends of Seattle made no endorsement in City Council positions 2 or 4, which is basically flipping the bird to all of them. But the biggest bird goes to council candidate Thomas Tobin, who gets this: “We did not receive a questionnaire response, and we chose not to interview Mr. Tobin. We recommend not voting for Mr. Tobin.” The full breakdown is over here.

8 replies on “Friends of Seattle: Blessings and Birds”

  2. Licata is more progressive than all of them put together ….geez, just who are these no nothings.

    Nick is also a senior member of the council, and that means history and clout.

  4. Their website, under “About Us,” says not who they are, but what they believe. Who are they again? Like, specifically? I do like the issues they are concerned with, but worry that the issues they’re not concerned with are actually kinda important too, and speak to why I’m not yet particularly impressed with the candidates they’ve endorsed.

  7. Becky S. @1:

    Looks like Friends of Seattle gave Mallahan a Bird as well: their web site says, “…we conclude that Mr. Mallahan’s inexperience and his shallow understanding of city issues and politics make him the wrong person to address Seattle’s pressing needs”

    That bird is deserved too. The whole Joe Mallahan campaign seems to be: “Look, I’m a rich guy. I can afford to hire campaign consultants to produce slick-looking commercials and literature where I can throw my jacket over my shoulder and mouth vapid, vanilla platitudes that sound like they’ve been written by campaign consultants.”

    There are a number of criticisms to be made of Mike McGinn’s campaign, but at least you know he stands for something, at least his candidacy has a political and policy rationale, unlike the vanity campaigns of Joe Mallahan and James Donaldson.

  8. FoS is right on with their McGinn endorsement, and their non-endorsements of Nickels, Mallahan and Donaldson. It’s time we elected a Mayor with real vision and a history of brining people together to make positive change. Kudos to FoS for calling Mallahan out for his complete lack of substance; when will the media step up and call him out as well?

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