Yesterday, retiring city council member Jan Drago sounded an awful lot like she was running for mayor. Today, rumor is that Drago’s old city council consultant, Blair Butterworth, is jumping ship from the floundering James Donaldson campaign to work for Drago. This move, if true, would show that a) Donaldson’s campaign is moribund; and b) that Drago really is about to declare for mayor (and make a serious run for it). Drago says “right now, it’s just pure rumor” but adds, “[Donaldson] can’t pay his bills.”
UPDATE 1: Butterworth confirms that he talked to Drago yesterday about working for her likely mayoral campaign. He says, “I have told James that it just wasn’t working. He’s a wonderful man, I like him very much, but it just wasn’t working in terms of my services.” As for Drago, Butterworth says, “I anticipate that we will come to an agreement in the next few days.”
UPDATE 2: Re the post I did below about Drago’s polling numbers, the mayor’s campaign says Drago did, in fact, ask about the primary field, and that she came in third. According to a source who’s seen the poll results, Nickels had about 20 percent of the vote in a six-way primary, followed by Donaldson with 10 percent, Drago with 9, McGinn with 6, Mallahan with 3, and Sigler with 2. Drago, in that hypothetical lineup, “doesn’t even make it out of the primary,” Nickels’s spokesman Sandeep Kaushik says. However, the poll of 900 voters, conducted by Allison Peters, reportedly had a margin of 3.3 percent, putting Donaldson and Drago in a tie for second place.
Asked point-blank why she told me her poll “didn’t ask a primary question with the whole field,” when it actually did, Drago says, “we put the names out there but we didn’t go further than that,” adding, “I paid for the poll, I can decide what to share with people. I’m certainly not going to reveal any information that would be useful to an opponent.”
Although Drago insists Nickels was closer to 17 percent, she says the primary numbers are close to “useless” anyway because the number of undecided voters was above 50 percent. “We just didn’t feel that was very useful,” Drago says, adding, “There’s no question that the mayor is spiraling downward in terms of all his numbers–for reelection and for job performance.” Kaushik says Nickels has not yet conducted a primary poll of his own.
I love local politics, it always seems more heated and intence then national stuff!! (or atleast just more personal)
Jan Dragonsoundee?
Blarg. Drago. She’ll be the Margaret Thatcher of Seattle. Nickels with ladyparts. In Spanx.
So far she is the only one I would vote for so I hope she runs. Boradband McGinn is a nut and Donaldson seems unqualified and unprepared. I am not a huge Nickels fan but I’d take him over the other two.
The P-I named her the “potty queen.” Remember that fiasco?
Junket Jan is already in retirement mode, as the following report attests:
http://tinyurl.com/pg9orb
I see that my prediction of a couple of days ago has come true: ECB’s horse-race coverage of local politics has moved from money to campaign consultants, and continues to be utterly devoid of any discussion of issues (i.e., why we should or shouldn’t care that Drago or Donaldson or Nickels is running, aside from how they poll).
“Donaldson’s campaign is moribund”
Erica, you are certainly feeling kind this morning. You do mean DOA dont you?
Has anyone ever seen Jan speak? No matter what the topic, you are being lectured by Nurse Ratchet’s brother in drag…
Spanx! Thanks for the cartoon in my head, gloomy gus.
Certainly she can decide what to share. But the point is she out and out lied to Erica. And with no good reason. And then when she got caught she equivocated some more (“we put the names out there but we didn’t go farther than that”). Not a strong start. And if a 50% undecided makes a question useless then why is a head to head with 30% undecided so much better?
like we care, ack.
none of that will affect her final vote totals one iota.
people in the US assume all politicians lie.
I like Jan and think she has been a perfectly acceptable council member. She is hands down the most fun member to go out drinking with. But what the hell? Mayor? No way.
I somewhat agree, but not my point Will. She lied to a reporter – point blank – and she didn’t need to. That’s dumb and will be noticed on the inside and will be remembered by other reporters (see Heffter, Emily). And she stepped all over her own story (see Drago interview raises questions about her campaign poll, Seattle Times).
Can I have an order of dumb with a side of dumb to go?
And thanks for letting me know what “we” care about.