Okay, we get it already. You’re jonesing for a deep bore tunnel, and you desperately want Mayor Mike McGinn and other tunnel opponents to just shut the fuck up and let it happen. But honestly, Seattle Times editorial board, could you possibly come up with a stupider argument?

Forget the idea that the referendum campaign on tunnel agreements between the city and state is a largely grass-roots affair. Early contributors and the campaign manager have strong ties to Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn.

You know, as opposed to all those other “grass-roots” initiatives and referenda that routinely hit the ballot. Like last year’s I-1107, backed by $16 million from the American Beverage Association and its affiliates. Or I-1100, for which 90 percent of its $6 million budget came from grocery giants Costco and Safeway. And then there are Tim Eyman’s various initiatives, which over the past few years have been almost entirely financed by one Michael Dunmire, to the tune of $3.2 million.

Nope… you can’t get much more “grass-roots” then that.

But Protect Seattle Now’s anti-tunnel referendum on the other hand, it makes a complete mockery of the citizens’ initiative process:

William Broadhead, the mayor’s 2009 campaign adviser and occasional confidant, is the top contributor, providing $5,000 so far. Broadhead’s wife, Julie McCoy, is McGinn’s chief of staff.

So much for the much-touted, grass roots campaign.

Uh, Broadhead is one of over 80 people who have contributed to the campaign in the less than two weeks it’s been filed, and at 18 percent of the $27,000 raised thus far, his $5,000 contribution isn’t exactly of Dunmire-esque proportions. So, um, gimme a fucking break.

The fact is, very few ballot measures these days are ever truly “grass-roots” in the sense of where the money and organizing comes from… at least, not the successful ones. But for the Seattle Times to dismiss the anti-tunnel contributors and organizers as a cabal of powerful, City Hall insiders is not only insulting, it’s mind-numbingly idiotic.

I mean, come on… have you looked at the committee’s board? Real Change publisher Tim Harris? He’s a scruffy-faced, gray-haired fucking hippie who could easily be mistaken for one of his paper’s salesmen. People’s Waterfront Coalition founder Cary Moon? Could you get anymore anti-establishment than the way she personally willed the surface/transit option into a public debate over what had been framed as a simple choice between a rebuild or a tunnel?

But the Seattle Times‘ editors would have you believe that Harris is Frank Blethen incarnate, while I guess Moon must be the goddamn Queen of England.

But wait… in their desperation to write-off the anti-tunnel campaign as anything but “grass-roots,” the editors manage to get even more ridiculous:

But no matter how many individuals contribute, the referendum campaign is fueled by McGinn.

Get that? “No matter how many individuals contribute”—even if, say, a hundred thousand people each gave ten bucks—the referendum campaign still couldn’t be “grass-roots,” because of McGinn’s involvement. Really.

Um, I’m no McGinn partisan, and I’m certainly not as ideologically anti-tunnel as most of my Stranger colleagues, but even “grass-roots” campaigns require effective leadership, and like it or not, that’s exactly what McGinn is providing to this effort.

So if I were you, Seattle Times editorial board, I might want to focus my rhetorical efforts on persuading people not to support the referendum, rather than merely dissing the people who do. There are, you know, some reasonable arguments to make on your side… as opposed to your stupid fucking insistence that this referendum is in some way less “grass-roots” than, say, the “death tax” repeal initiative your page relentlessly whored a couple of years back.

30 replies on “<i>Seattle Times</i>: Even if 500 Million People Contribute to Anti-Tunnel Referendum, It Still Wouldn’t Be Grassroots”

  1. I dont mind if you change the definition of what is and isnt a grass roots campain. But dont be suprised if readers call you on your BS when you mock similar grass root operations.

  2. See, from their perspective, we all go to the same Seattle parties.

    Which is strange, because quite frankly, I tend to see all the anti-Seattle pro-Tunnel people at the same parties (sometimes they forget to uninvite me) and if anyone is a cabal it’s them.

    Freedom ftw (except in Dubai and Libya which are being flooded by foreign mercenaries as we speak).

    By the way, if the budget deficit really is that bad, and they’re saying WSDOT can’t afford to maintain our state roads and ferries, how come we’re building the Most Expensive Least Capacity option of the three official options in the DEIS?

    Or did some Magic Funding Fairy appear to Joni Balter in a dream while I wasn’t watching?

  4. Speaking as a Jimmy John’s delivery guy working in fucking Northgate who’s donated $20 to the campaign, I definitely agree with the Times. I am about as City Hall insidery as you can get. I mean, I ride a bike, Mayor McGinn rides a bike–what more proof do you need?

    It’s time we face the facts. We’re trying to undermine the democratic process by allowing the people to vote on something that directly affects them.

  5. 80 people in 2 weeks. Yeah, that’s a real groundswell

    By the way Goldy, you have something against good union jobs? You do know how the unions stand on this issue, don’t you?

  7. @3,

    Tim isn’t a nobody, but he sure as hell isn’t some insider mover/shaker like Bruce Fucking Chapman, and he ain’t nobody’s surrogate. Jesus… I don’t know how much more grassroots you can get than Real Change.

  8. If the Seattle Times is unwilling to denounce Eyman’s farces under the same qualifications, we’d better off with them bankrupt and broken.

  9. ian @6… I never said I supported the referendum. All I’m saying is that the Seattle Times editorial is hypocritical and stupid.

    Ben @7… I guess that makes you The Man.

  11. #9 It’s a two way street, dude. Why is this sham “grassroots” referendum with paid signature gatherers suddenly A-OK among liberal/progressive types? The same folks who criticize Eyman for this very thing?

  12. I’ve got no problem with however the campaign raises money, or from whom. The Times ed board is being silly, as always (durr…). That said, it’s still fun to read about. Publicola added a fun angle to its own coverage this morning:

    As we’ve reported, political consultant Bill Broadhead—the campaign consultant for the city’s leading tunnel opponents, Mayor Mike McGinn and city council member Mike O’Brien—has donated $5,000 to the anti-tunnel signature gathering campaign.

    That could end up being a wise investment. Although campaign manager Ainsley Close said she couldn’t speculate about the campaign’s plans after it gathers the required 16,000 valid signatures, Fizz predicts that once it does, the campaign will hire Broadhead to do its paid media—making Broadhead’s $5,000 contribution a smart down payment on future work.

    http://publicola.com/2011/03/14/the-osca&hellip;

  13. It’s actually 138 contributors now (checks in hand) plus another 40 or so pledges. Compare that to the contributors to the 2009 anti-bag tax referendum: three. Oh, and the http://www.protectseattlenow.org/donate contributors are actual people, not the American Chemistry Council, the 7-Eleven corporation and some guy named Gary Rebholz.

    But, Joni Balter, PLEASE keep telling people who oppose the deep bore tunnel they’re just stooges for the mayor. Last time you said that, we got 15 PayPal donations in two hours.

  14. It’s the mayor’s job to provide effective leadership to more than his political base. If you think McGinn has been providing effective leadership to the city of Seattle I think you’re going to be quite surprised when election day rolls around.

    Regardless of your opinion of the anti-tunnel campaign the perception that the general public has is that this isn’t a grassroots campaign because it’s actually a premeditated move by McGinn and his inner circle. He planned this kind of stuff all along and lied to the city about not being an obstructionist to get himself elected because a big chunk of voters didn’t want to vote for an obstructionist and he knew that. That’s the perception. It’s not an unfair perception because it’s the truth.

    Regardless of how you feel about his ideology, Mike McGinn is a horrendous politician. He either has to start being truly honest about his intentions for the city or find a new team to pitch his ideas or get ready to lose. The message is falling short and it’s not the fault of the Seattle Times writers or their readers. It’s not the fault of the city council. It’s not the fault of the state legislature. It’s not the fault of the governor. It’s his fault for lacking the political credibility to sell his message to anyone that didn’t already agree with him before he got elected.

    The product is great. The sales pitch sucks. It’s time to start facing up to this reality.

  16. @16 Queen Joni’s just upset cause we won’t build her a fancy tunnel that will only preserve views for people who live North of Denny (the zoning changes at Denny to preserve the Space Needle sightlines, but increases South of Denny.

    Which part of Fiscal Emergency don’t you GET?

  18. Goldy-You are a Douche Bag…how dare you say shit about Tim Harris…WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE IN YOUR 7 YEAR CAREER AS AN ASSHOLE??? “I mean…have you looked at the committees board???” What??? Are you looking to get laid Goldy, or would you feel better if they all looked like rich conservatives??? REAL CHANGE is about REAL PEOPLE and the issues that effect them directly. Go Fuck Yourself-I hope The Stranger fires you, you fucking loser…

  20. According to comment #11, as soon as anybody gets the Mayor’s ear, they are an insider and no longer grassroots, or “common people.” The necessary corollary to that is that the common people, the “true grassroots,” must never get the Mayor’s attention, or we will instantly be invalidated as “true grassroots” people. The Mayor only listens to insider elites; ergo, everyone the Mayor listens to becomes an insider elite.

  25. #21 – Yeah, if you have the Mayor’s ear, you’re an insider. That seems so self-evident I can’t believe it even needs to be stated. But I guess by your definition, the Mayor is himself not an insider — not if you like him!

  26. (Seattle-Times-mocking-irony)For any common citizen of Seattle to actually have their opinion regarded seriously by the mayor of Seattle would obviously be a gross violation of the very definition of the term “grass roots.”(/Seattle-Times-mocking-irony)

  28. Goldy speaks the truth. When I worked in a homeless shelter in Boston more than 20 years ago, the guys used to give me shit because they generally dressed better than I did. “What kind of an example are you being to us,” they’d ineffectively complain. I have to say, there has been no wardrobe upgrade to speak of. Also dug the “don’t know how much more grassroots you can get” and the not “some random stoner off the streets” bits. Speaking humbly as an honorary political genius, this is a totally rockin’ post.

  30. Was recently reading that the 2,500 mile Beijing-Lhasa railway was constructed for $4.1B. This wasn’t just any railway. Much of it was built at altitudes exceeding 13,000 feet and 600 miles of it went through permafrost and had to be expensively engineered to avoid ecological damage. But $4.2 billion gets us the seawall repair and 3 miles of road. With numbers this large, one’s brain sort of freezes up and it’s hard to know what’s a good value, but it seems like there has to be a ton of pork in there somewhere for this to work out.

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