Just got off the phone with former city council member Peter Steinbrueck (whose enthusiastic support for council candidate David Bloom last night made me question his prior endorsement of Sally Bagshaw, Bloom’s opponent), who confirms that he has, indeed, endorsed both Bloom and Bagshaw. Steinbrueck’s explanation, in part:
Endorsements are a tricky thing, especially for high-profile endorsers, because everyone wants your endorsement. … I’m absolutely, unqualifiedly behind [Bloom’s] candidacy, but he didn’t decide on his seat until after I had endorsed Sally. She was the first person I endorsed. I have a personal and family connection with her and… I’m happy to dual endorse both of them. … I consider David an activist ally for many years. He’s a really decent person. Sally is too.
Steinbrueck confirmed that he’s also endorsed two candidates in the six-way Position 8 race: Robert Rosencrantz, a landlord and three-time council candidate, and David Miller, a north Seattle neighborhood activist. His reasoning:
I’ve known Robert for a long time and he’s certainly more conservative than other candidates, but the guy has a lot of integrity. He’s passionate and determined. He does have a difficult time communicating with people, [Ed: Um, yeah] but he’s very thoughtful, principled, and purposeful… David is someone I’ve been talking with throughout the campaign. He lives close to my neighborhood [Northgate], so there’s a geographic tie-in. I’ve found him to be smart, analytical, and effective. He’s an interesting balance of a neighborhood and a small-business guy.
Asked if he wouldn’t rather have a council full of lefty, progressive types like Nick Licata (who was described, at Bloom’s event last night, as the only remaining “real” progressive on the council), Steinbrueck responded vehemently, “No way! Nor would I want nine of me on there! I think the council as a legislative body benefits from having a range of viewpoints and also some range on their political perspective, which is pretty darn narrow in Seattle.”
OH AND (update): Steinbrueck told me last night that he has no plans to endorse anyone in the mayoral primary, but that he would consider endorsing his frequent council adversary Jan Drago in the general, if both she and Nickels make t through, “if she changes her message” to appeal to neighborhoods outside downtown and to present a clear contrast with Nickels. No way will Steinbrueck be endorsing Nickels, though.
Completely underwhelmed by all of them.
Time to go with the status quo. Maybe Nickels will do something this next term that really sets someone spectacular off and gets us a good race.
dual endorsements = worthless
I agree that those were underwhelming.
Dual endorsements are a fact of life in a Top Two Primary, though.
People for The Bard Crawl Party endorse the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern ticket.
All bow before the wisdom of Peter Steinbrueck, ECB’s departed best source on the council.
Peter’s pretzel logic on his endorsements would make a fine piece in the Harvard Lampoon and Exhibit #312 on why he should NOT ever get serious consideration as a mayor.
ECB, give up on Peter. Try Darcy.
“All viewpoints are valid and deserve representation.”
Typical.
i want there to be some deep message about the pointlessness of “the seattle way” here…but instead i think it’s just a guy with two friends in the same race
What a tool.
David Miller is opposite of Peter Steinbrueck in terms of his land use views. While Steinbrueck is an environmentalist and an urbanist, Miller believes that there should be no zoning changes in Seattle and that developers should pay mitigation fees for building denser communities. His first priority is preservation of single family zoning and keeping traffic low and slow in single family neighborhoods. Also, Miller’s tree crusades are thinly veiled attempts to prevent development.
Dual endorsements are WEAK.
Will,
non partisan primaries have always been top two.