You forgot the Cascade Chapter of the Sierra Club as one of the huge winners! McGinn and O'Brien are former Board chairs and long time volunteer leaders for the Cascade Chapter, and their entire Seattle Slate (which very closely mirrors the Stranger's slate) - except Vekich - all won.

I'm embarrassed how surprised I am to only hear these Mercury details from you post-election. Need-to-know basis for the likes of us, I suppose. It's better that we readers know our place. Which reminds me, belated congratulations on winning your new jobs.

The true liberals of Seattle punk'd the fauxgressives when they smacked down Mallahan and Carr.

Liberal that I am, I could not have written a wish list as perfect as this election's results.

I would say that the Holmes-turned-Carr campaign manager should be in the loser category...Didn't she convince Holmes to run against Carr then go bawling to Carr about how sorry she was? didn't she then trash her former boss, Holmes, after dumping him? And didn't he then win by 26 points?

And would also include Anne Levinson as a huge winner...many in the LGBT community and politicos around town were unsupportive of her taking the reins of the Approve 71 campaign. She drove that victory more than anyone else. (Their ads were great, too.)

Moderate that I am, I could not have written a wish list as perfect as this election's results.

you forgot the one amazing thing the firefighter's union did. they created the absolute worst campaign video in the history of campaign videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSlTMUd8c…

Following on @1's comments, the other big winner: Great City. Other than McGinn, O'Brien was a prominent board member and supporter and I'd be surprised if several of the board members don't shift over to the new administration. Nothing like having a direct line to the mayor's office...

Huh. This is actually a surprisingly poorly-written article. Did Eli & Dominic collaborate, or did one just wrote the Winner half and the other wrote the Loser half?

The "Mercury Group" part is troubling two-fold:
a) Even though they were behind the Good Guys(tm), why are we only finding out about it now?
b) Why is the top half all "OH, MCGINN AND O'BRIEN WERE TOTALLY PULLING A FAST ONE AND BACKED BY THIS POWERFUL GROUP!!1!11!" and the bottom half all "OH, MCGINN AND O'BRIEN WERE TOTALLY THE RUMPLED OUTSIDERS!!!"

I mean, jeez, I voted for McGinn and O'Brien, but still. Seems like something that would have been interesting to know BEFORE the election. Particularly as to what the Mercury Group is/does/stands for. Even if they're for ice cream and puppies for all, it's pretty useful to know who you're voting for and who's pulling the strings, etc.

@9 and therein lies the fundamental problem of having your news source fully in the tank for a campaign.
If it's something the bosses don't want publicized, they won't publicize it -- lest the cause be disrupted, boat rocked, or access limited.

How sad. Let me get this straight, you want partisan politics? What a bunch of tools. Keep voting yourself like minded idiots with no new ideas. Keep pushing centrist out. Between this and Palin kicking out all the moderates out of the Republican party, we are going to have the most polarized electorate ever. How sad.

Of course there should be partisan politics. That's why there are political parties.

Obviously you can try to work with the other side(s), but if no one wants to play ball...well, you tried.

@10: Oh, but Francine, you told us The Stranger had no power and that they would be a liability to the McGinn campaign!

Oh, woe! Woe and wailing!

There were lots of no-power, middle income people who voted for Mallahan, Eli. You forget McGinn only won by about 2,000 votes. It's silly to assume that some big realignment of the "power structure" has taken place. McGinn has about a year to prove he's capable, if he doesn't, I know you'll be the first to shout it out - right?

@14: 5,335 votes

@7, that was an amazingly horrible video

As I posted before, my research shows that Mercury Group is a dirty PR firm that makes fake "grassroots" web sites for ATT. I can't see why that was removed. Is there a reason to hide that? Maybe it's because there is no record I can find of McGinn paying fr their services-which I imagine are not cheap. Was this an illegal in-kind contribution? Just asking.

@18: I responded on the other thread.

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…

Short version: McGinn is not evil; there are two Mercury Groups.

Hey Stranger, add yourself to the list of winners. Only one of the ballot outcomes failed to match your recommendations. That's no small potatoes.

Another big winner: The Stranger Election Control Board. You guys got all your big wishes this year.

Winner - the Green Revolution and Seattle's future - and the 43rd Dems membership.

Loser - most of the 43rd Dems board who didn't agree with the endorsements the members made for Seattle and worked for the opposite campaigns.

I presume it was the same in many Seattle districts, actually, even if they did agree with the statewide, county, and port choices.