Comments

1
I don't like lopsided victories in stuff like this. It's nice to win, but don't want anybody claiming a mandate or whatnot.

If the polling seems legit, a sitting mayor realizing he's got nothing to lose can make some spectacularly entertaining campaign moves. Could be popcorn time pretty soon.
2
totally predictable, the rule of thumb that if the incumbent is under 45 or 48 he's in trouble, works again.

btw that shoreline English teacher, is it okay if he thinks crime is up downtown?

what about his girlfriend, okay if they think it, or do they have a cultural insensitivity problem, or fail to perceive accurately?
3
we cannot be surprised by this, (we should be surprised if anyone is surprised). nearly every one of those votes for Steinbrueck, Harrell, Staadecker, Martin... were anti-McGinn. so add those up from the primary, and...
4
Murray will be another Paul Schell. Bland, ineffective, a toady to downtown interests. They even sort of look alike.

It's just amazing to me that we can't get even one good quality candidate for mayor in this city. All of them that I have experienced (starting with Royer) were all the eptiome of mediocrity. Nickels was probably the best of the bunch.
5
@4 I agree with the last statement. Whoever the Seattle Police endorse for mayor is who's going to get the vote in my residence. I can't think of any good McGinn's done for my household, but I can think of some friends who died due to gun violence from nutsos under his administration.
6
I wish we hadn't driven Judy Nicastro out of town.

i look at the CF that is the State Senate and ask, Murray is going to be better exactly how?
7
Max has a good point @6, as does Catalina @4.

Amazing what the elitist DSA and their cronies can do with money and "friends".
8
I guess this makes sense; essentially a vote for every other candidate in the primary was a different way of saying "not McGinn". At this point in the race last time, both candidates were "not Nickels".
9
Dom, how dare you post pro-Murray news here on Slog! That violates our policy to always distort the news in favor of McGinn!
10
Anyone but McGinn. @2, what a shock that the people said they felt uncomfortable maybe had a reason and weren't just naïve or bigoted. There are some people on the street downtown who are a danger to themselves and others, and I am alert when I bring my kids down to Third Ave on the way to the Market. There must be something we could do that would improve the situation for everyone.
11
The real problem with public safety (aside from the fact that people let anecdotes trump the actual numbers) is that approaching it from a public safety perspective is not even a real solution. The increase of those struggling with addiction and mental health issues is very real. We're just barely out of the depths of the recession, and funding for human services has been decimated in recent years -- ironically at every level EXCEPT for the city level.
12
@9 Goldy, how dare you reveal the Slog policy to distort the news in favor of McGinn! it was (until now) the bestest of secret secrets! (now just don't mention the knee-jerk bias against the city council)
13
@9, 12, we longtime morons, er, commenters have observed it's never all one direction, though. The standard recipe for mixing Slog Cockaigne is five spins this way, one spin that.
14
Well, fuck.
15
This is rather shocking news. Do we know where Ed Murray stands on anything? His only solid campaign stance seems to be that he's not Mike McGinn. That is not a policy for running a city.
16
The real question is, what will The Stranger staff do to help turn these numbers around?
17
Plan B: Focus on getting Kshama Sawant elected.
18
Whereas the crime statistics downtown are flat or lower, the stabbing of the Shoreline professor and his girlfriend will resonate with voters. The electorate really doesn't care if some gangbanger or drug addict gets killed in some bad transaction, but when it's someone like them who is in the wrong place in the wrong time, yeah, they don't like that. I honestly don't put this at the feet of Mayor McGinn, however. We are all to blame for decimating our social services and mental health funding, but voters will think shit rolls downhill amd will vote McGinn out.

I'm not a McGinn supporter in the least, but I think he'll be voted out for the wrong reasons, which means Murray will also win for the wrong reasons.

Does anybody else see a rotating roster of one term mayors? I have a solution, though. The mayorship becomes like jury duty. When you get a summons, you serve your term.
19

It's looking more and more like a Republican could step in and seize the Mayor's office in a few more years as people tire of urbanism and density.
20
@ 17 Screw that McGinn is fine, she is not. And Conlin is plenty progressive, not some far lefty.
21
Maybe Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer can stuff some ballot boxes. Anything for a team, right?
22
I think most people find Murray more relatable and he's been around consistently fighing for some important causes (yes, yes, he's not the "gay candidate") for a long time.

McGinn has always come off as more of a jump the gun then back pedal sort of guy to me.

If it's a competition for who has been most effective in their current roles, I can't see that McGinn would score that many points even if Murray phoned it in from a beach in Hawaii for the last decade (which, of course, he didn't).

But then, I don't ride a bicycle so what do I know?
23
It's not all McGinn's fault there is a problem, but not even recognizing there is a problem (and even denying it with some local rag's help) is a better reason to leave office than snow piled up for a week downtown.
24
@19: Sniffing too much hydrogen.
25
I'm still voting for McGinn. I still (basically) like the man. I still trust his desire for inclusive urbanism more than I trust Murray's smug plutocracy.

But my god, how awful are McGinn's political instincts?

It's increasingly clear that the perception of public safety, and similar quality-of-life-in-a-city-with-growing-pains issues, are going to dominate this campaign. McGinn can still eek out a win, if only he can communicate a clear strategy to address these concerns in a way that feels consistent with his holistic urbanist vision. After Friday's incident, he can't come across as desperate or reactionary.

I don't know if he has the political intuition to pull it off, but I do know that subscribing to the Dominic Holden ostrich approach is not going to cut it.
26
Can't wait for Murry to reign in the police over reach by INCREASING support for them to harass people they subjectively believe are lowlifes, unworthy of the rights possessed by good citizens. Who knows, maybe he'll pull it off. Put the officers with the most incidents of harassment and violence on the downtown beat.
27
Publicola's just dug into the poll's cross tabs to find Murray voters younger, more liberal, and more likely to be female than McGinn's. Huh. http://www.seattlemet.com/news-and-profi…
28
Perception always wins in politics: reality be damned. McGinn is going to lose in November and probably just in the double digits: My guess the final will be around 40% McGinn 60% to Murray
29
Which goes to show that, apparently, 30% of the voters enjoy having a snippy bitch in office who does nothing but announce divisive lefty wedge positions all day -- on issues he is powerless to affect, but, then, it's the pose that matters, right? -- while 70% of the voters would like a Mayor who can actually run the city.
30
McGinn made it further than I predicted back in December.
And this still holds: #3 - Seattle will elect Ed Murray as Mayor of Seattle
http://manywordsforrain.blogspot.com/201…

(As does this one: The color for 2013 will be a saffron gold color.)
31
McGinn sucks and Seattle will better off without him.
32
18: "but I think he'll be voted out for the wrong reasons, which means Murray will also win for the wrong reasons."

As opposed to McGinn winning because of a 50-year snowstorm?

25: "But my god, how awful are McGinn's political instincts?"

Agreed. McGinn has been one of the most politically tone-deaf local politicians in recent memory. He has gotten a bit better over the last year or so, but still hasn't figured it out, and now it's too late.
33
@17 you might want to show up at the 43rd District Dems endorsement on Tuesday night at 7 pm then, since that ballot issue (Sawant/Conlin) is up for endorsement.
34
It's panning out exactly as I predicted. McDumass is a goner thank God...
35
The only question that remains is how The Stranger will spin it when McGinn gets 35% of the vote.

1. Elections don't matter when our guy loses

2. We always wanted Murray anyway (Murray is our friend, Murray has always been our friend.)

3. We're not a pack of douchebags, honest
36
I forgot to ask if I can I let my horse trample a bicyclist on election night.
37
We need to ship McGinn's stinky long island beardo ass back to the least coast where he belongs (along with most of The Strangers staff.)
38
I think the only reason that The Stranger endorsed McDumass is so they could say "see, we don't always support the gay candidate..."
39
s
40
(Whoops. Wish I could delete that last one.)

Why should anyone be surprised by this poll? McGinn is following in the footsteps of Schell and Nickels as a complete bumbling halfwit. Norm Rice is the only halfway decent mayor this city's had in the past 35 years.

Someone above compared Murray to Schell. If that's the case, then I'm already looking forward to tossing Murray out in 2017. Is that harsh? Yep, but we're a world-class city now. Excuses are for loser livable cities.

Please wait...

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