In a surprising departure from his
campaign platform thus far, mayoral candidate Mike McGinn announced on
October 19 that, if elected, he will not use his power as mayor to
fight a tunnel replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct. His
announcement came shortly after the Seattle City Council voted
unanimously to approve an agreement with the state committing to the
tunnel project. McGinn told reporters: “If I’m elected mayor, although
I disagree with this decision, it will be my job to uphold and execute
this agreement. It is not the mayor’s job to withhold the cooperation
of city government in executing this agreement. I will, however,
continue to ask tough questions.” He pointed out, as he has over and
over again, that “we don’t know how much it’s actually going to cost”
and that “there is serious disagreement between Seattle and the state
over who will pay the cost overruns.”
So McGinn won’t be lying down in front of the tunnel-boring machine
when construction starts. But he will push the legislature to undo the
vague language that forces “property owners in the Seattle area who
benefit from replacement of the existing viaduct with the deep-bore
tunnel” to pay cost overruns, he says. “I’m going to keep raising the
issue of how are we going to pay for cost overruns and how are we going
to pay for this in a way that fits our budget,” he said. “If we don’t
have a good answer to those, we may find that the council and the
legislature are going to have to revisit that decision.”
The tunnel plan the state legislature passed last year funds $2.4
billion of the tunnel cost. Another $400 million would come from tolls,
but McGinn has said the tolling required to reach that number would
require $6 one-way tolls, which very few people would pay. “Their
tolling plan right now is going to cause the surface streets to be
flooded with cars, except we won’t have invested in transit and we
won’t have invested in I-5,” he said.
Right away, mayoral candidate Joe Mallahan was doing everything he
could to brand his rival as a flip-flopper for reversing his outright
opposition to the highway tunnel under downtown. “Even his own
supporters are going to lose trust in whether Mike McGinn even believes
the words that are coming out of his mouth—who knows what he even
stands for?” Mallahan spokesperson Charla Neuman said. “He made this
the biggest issue in his campaign, and now he’s changed his mind
whether it’s worth fighting for or not. What else is he going to change
his mind on?”
Neuman added, “I don’t think anyone is going to let him off the hook
for going from a one-issue candidate to a zero-issue candidate with no
management experience.”
But this move could save McGinn. Lots of people want to like
him—lots of people who think a tunnel would be fine—and
this allows him to show that he’s not an obstructionist (as Mallahan
has accused him of being), that his promise to hear out people who
disagree with him isn’t an empty one, and that he’s capable of
compromise. Neuman’s line about McGinn being a “one-issue candidate”
isn’t supported by the facts. As we have been writing in this paper,
McGinn has a diverse platform that includes getting light rail to
Ballard and West Seattle decades earlier than the current timetable,
getting a new police chief as soon as possible so the city doesn’t fall
back on public safety, improving the city’s relationships with
neighborhoods, taking a greater interest in the public schools,
lobbying the liquor board for more progressive nightlife laws, and many
other issues. On the other hand, Mallahan has hardly proven to be
knowledgeable on city matters.
This isn’t the first time a Seattle politician has opposed an
expensive project. “You know, Mayor Greg Nickels didn’t agree with the
parks levy, but he’s building parks,” McGinn said. “I don’t agree with
the tunnel decision, there are still a lot of unanswered questions
before we actually fully proceed with the project, but if there’s a
9–0 vote from the council, as mayor I would be bound by that
policy decision of the council.” 
I think it is a little too late for Mike to decide that he wants to be part of the solution instead of the problem, fellas.
Whether you agree with the tunnel or not, let’s remember which Seattle legislators were dumb enough to vote to stick their own constituents with the cost overruns:
Reps. Eileen Cody (D-34, W. Seattle), Mary Lou Dickerson (D-36, Ballard), Zach Hudgins (D-11, S. Seattle), Sharon Nelson (D-34, W. Seattle), Jamie Pedersen (D-43, Capitol Hill), Eric Pettigrew (D-37, S. Seattle), Frank Chopp (D-43, Wallingford).
source: http://publicola.net/?p=5028
I wouldn’t exactly trust The Stranger to objectively assess whether Mike has “flipped” on this decision or is just being pragmatic. This publication has been in the bag for him for quite some time.
I think there are far more interesting questions to be asked and answered than whether McGinn is backtracking (I don’t think he is – I think given the Council’s vote McGinn is right, he has to abide by the Council’s decision). My question is why the Council took this risky move given the fact that there still has not been an environmental impact statement? Also how and why has Mallahan become the puppet? Is it because his grasp and knowledge of relevant issues is so slim that he could be easily manipulated? Me thinks so.
I want a mayor who stands up to the power brokers as opposed to bending over for them. McGinn knows what he is talking about and that scares a lot of people.
McGinn just shot himself in the foot. I really, really wanted to like him, but his opposition to the tunnel just seemed so politically naive and practically unreasonable.
And Mallahan’s right – McGinn totally forced this issue to the forefront of his campaign, and now he’s just tossing it to the side, like “oh, no biggie”.
Too bad – seems like a decent pick, but I now completely doubt his ability to actually defend his positions and effectively push them through.
McGinn did the right choice. True leadership is the ability to be flexible when circumstances change. In this case, the current city council gave McGinn little choice in the matter. At least he will be diligently watching cost over runs.
He’s a bit of both. He started as a one-issue candidate who caught some momentum and managed to make it through the primary, which is really impressive. However, it took him several months to catch on to what everyone else already knew. It didn’t matter whether or not the tunnel was actually a “done deal” or not, there was no way he was ever going to be able to effectively oppose it. It was the candidate running on the “time-waste platform.” I’m unimpressed by either candidate, but I ask who’s worse: boldly going in the wrong direction? or boldly going nowhere at all?
The Stranger, no matter what its political stance, should be above using the phrase ‘flip flopper’. Seriously. It’s an entirely Republican made-up phrase that they use on people that have the willingness to change their mind. Everyone that isn’t dogmatically tied to an idea despite any and all proof to the contrary is a flip-flopper.
YEAH!! Fuck people who change their mind! Inflexibility is the key to success.
sounds like earthmoving companies just made a large campaign donation to mcginn. it just shows they are both sheep and will NOT represent the people, just spend our money.
The tunnel will languish in committees for 5 to 10 years before the first shovel is ever picked up, and then it will be quoted at a cost of 20 to 30 billion dollars. If Seattle can’t get it’s act together well enough to build a short monorail line, the dream of a big, expensive tunnel project is impossible. The Viaduct will collapse in an earthquake and kill hundreds long before the city council gets around making a decision on what to do with it. So who cares who the mayor is?
Aren’t you supposed to avoid using “we”?
“As we have been writing in this paper, McGinn has a diverse platform that includes getting light rail to Ballard and…”
I agree with you, just that threw me off and took me out of the story.
Character has replaced the tunnel as the defining issue of the Seattle mayoral race. The McGinn campaign has been deceitful and dishonest, using every trick from the Karl Rove play book – there is no reason to believe his administration would act differently. McGinn’s strategy and tactics documented at:
http://www.lightandair.wordpress.com