Let’s not be contrarians just for the sake of being contrary. Mayor Mike McGinn was the indisputable loser of the August election. Face-plant. In the mud. Limbs hog-tied and floundering. He’s in a far worse place now, even with the toxic tunnel issue off his plate, than ever before.

It wasn’t only that voters approved the tunnel on August 16 (a tunnel that McGinn campaigned to stop) by a 16-point margin. And it wasn’t just the brute strength of business lobbies that funded the pro-tunnel vote and cast it as a referendum to reject the mayor.

It was also the parade of McGinn’s self-created losses that culminated on August 16. That date marked the deadline for McGinn to fulfill promises he made when he ran for office and after he was elected. That is, deadlines that he missed.

For instance, McGinn repeatedly pledged to his progressive, pro-transit base to put rail on the ballot within two years of being elected in November of 2009. But August 16, 2011, was the deadline to put measures on the fall ballot—and it came and went without a rail measure. McGinn also rolled out a plan one week after he took office to put a $241 million seawall replacement on the ballot (without consulting the city council). The council refused the plan last year, and again this year. It turned out this summer that the actual cost for a new seawall would be about $70 million to $150 million more than McGinn anticipated—no wonder the council didn’t support him.

Seeing the tunnel approved the same day those deadlines passed stung McGinn. Not because it was a win for the well-heeled pro-tunnel establishment—McGinn is used to losing with the chamber of commerce, in the halls of the legislature, in the governor’s office, and amid the city council. Fuck, his platform was based on pissing those people off. No, the tunnel vote was a bitter defeat because the ballot is where McGinn has historically won—where he’s pulled out past victories for a parks levy, defeated road-funding, and ultimately won his own election. McGinn lost a home game, with The People. And it casts further doubt on whether he can win again.

Mayor McGinn called my office the day after the election.

Does losing this tunnel vote translate to losing political influence?

“I think that’s a question that all the pundits and commentators will talk about,” he said. “This is a pundit question.”

Hmph. I hate to sully other pundits by associating them with me, but… McGinn has lost influence. He was relentlessly brusque and stubborn with the very people who he, as mayor, needed to win over. Without them, McGinn will have little traction advancing his Youth and Families Initiative, his Walk Bike Ride campaign, or his pursuit of expanding the city’s rail network.

It’s the combination of losses that leaves McGinn weaker than ever. He’s burned nearly every establishment bridge, miscalculated the will of the voters, and failed to come through for the pro-transit, lefty base that elected him.

Take the rail vote.

In fact, the council did send a measure to the ballot for $60 car tabs on August 16, but it allocated funding in a manner that guarantees it can’t extend the streetcar network. Why? McGinn’s proposal for rail lines was based on an incomplete study that lacked funding and had no routes. Of course it didn’t go to the ballot. McGinn never had a real plan.

In the tunnel vote, McGinn again failed to develop a plan—that is, he failed to articulate or develop an alternative to the tunnel.

To be fair, you could say that The Stranger and other folks who supported McGinn’s agenda have lost this vote, too. And that’s fair. We’ve agreed with his policy objectives. But McGinn’s job is to take the steps from ideas to reality, and he’s stumbled.

Losing on his home turf, on his issues, gives McGinn’s opponents nothing to fear—no reason to compromise—and for his grassroots base, there’s no reason for activists to stick out their necks again. Not when their frontman has a record of losing. recommended

16 replies on “Walk into the Light, McGinn”

  2. At best only 20 percent of registered Seattle voters voted for the Deep Polluting Tunnel in the Primary.

    He’s only in danger from the Elites who wanted Mallahan anyway.

    Plot the votes by neighborhood and income quartile.

  3. Eh, it’s fine to like the guy and his policies while recognizing that the learning curve is tantamount to climbing the side of a building while coated in crisco, especially since we’re not even halfway to election day.

    It seems like the progressives are being strangled on the west coast through obstinate establishment figures, from Gavin Newsom having to GTFO and run for LtGov after being stonewalled by a hostile Board of Supervisors to Sam Adams being slammed out of existence by the Oregonian and Pamplin and now McGinn with a Party of No sitting behind the City Council dais and a hostile media.

    This isn’t a strange or surreal thing, it’s the climate. You either circle your wagons and kick out outsiders or you join hands and sing kumbayah around risk and innovation when it’s a difficult proposition.

    But you know what? Fuck that. It’s time to be bold and daring, the whole conservative shtick is failing the fuck out of us right now. Taking just one example, if we had moved forward with Walk Bike Ride last year, we wouldn’t need a $60 VLF, for example. And that’s just one piece of a larger puzzle.

    Seattle lost its balls and now the establishment is hiding behind the legendary “do nothing, risk nothing” wall of Seattle politics.

  6. Same reason we are still in Iraq and Afghanistan and Donald Rumsfeld is at Ft Lewis?

    Same reason Internet Explorer tells me the problem is with the Broadband and then it tells me its with the website and then it wants to search “My” computer for a Problem?

    Same reason we have the largest GDP on the face of the planet but we owe China trillions and cant afford to take care of school kids, Veterans,Elderly or anyone really.

    But yea I guess as even the media is tapping your cell phones to get a story about who your dating its no wonder the dumb ass questions are on the front page?
    Nickols the pickles left Seattle a far better place and I mean “FAR” better place then the Seattle I saw in 2000 and Mike McGinn has kind of focused on the plumbing and utility’s and bank book of the place more than he has looked at the house from the sidewalk but He is doing fine as long as he slows down and looks hard at what he has done and looks at the house from the sidewalk.

  7. @3

    Newsom’s actually a dick. Hostilities between him and the Board were largely created by him, and he GTFO and ran for LG because term limits would have prevented him from running for reelection again next year. After he was elected to LG, he stuck around as mayor longer than he had to in order to allow the new, more conservative Board to be sworn in so that they could appoint a more pro-corporate successor. I think there was some question as to the legality of him not taking up the LG’s office as soon as he could, but no one really challenged him on it. Afterward, he moved to Marin County.

  8. McGinn has only himself to blame. It’s easy to sell yourself as an outsider but then you are faced with issues that are far more nuanced and complex than you ever imagined. Hate to draw this comparison, but Eyman and McGinn are alike in that they are good at the sound bite and “populist” message, but don’t have the substance or depth to satisfy the general voting population.

    Also fear that his administration and approach will work against future funding for bike plans and other transit options. Political capital and goodwill were burned up at an incredible rate.

  9. McGinn lost a home game, with The People.

    Referendum 1 frivolously occupied expensive real estate on our ballot for one reason, and for only one reason: the anti-tunnel faction spent $58,000 to obtain 29,000 signatures. How they then managed to delude themselves into believing they had “The People” on their side remains a mystery. (Did they pay Timmeh teh Failed Watch Salesman from Speedwayville another $58,000 for his super magickal Kool-Aid?)

    I sincerely hope Goldy is correct, and Mayor McGinn can now leave this issue, and work on behalf of our city. As a 100% supporter of the deep-bored tunnel for SR-99, I hope he delivers on his other promises. I want more public transit and bike options; those are how I commute to work.

  10. Just have to point out that you guys were total self righteous d-bags during the MgGinn vs “Mayor McCheese” election.

    No one thought that Nichols was perfect, but he was the only guy in decades who seemed to be capable of getting things DONE in a crazy political environment like Seattle.

    You skewered everyone who saw that McGinn was nothing but a blow hard ideologue, especially the Times, and frankly you owe them an apology. (I generally hate the Times and their Kemper-bate fest, but just being the Times doesn’t make them wrong on every issue… something you would do well to remember).

  12. Wow… looks like Dom has finally figured out why McGinn shouldn’t be mayor. Well, mayor of Seattle, at least. It looks like he can still be the mayor of SLOG.

    Bottom line – the man can’t execute. He could have the brains of Einstein and the compassion of Mother Teresa, but with the political instincts Ralph Nader those ideas aren’t going anywhere.

    And you can moan and bitch about monied interests all you want, but unless you can actually plot a way around them you’re basically Oliver Stone without the filmography.

    Next steps? Acknowledge your miscalculation with this guy and find his replacement. Time to move on.

  13. One way or another, Mayor McGinn will be exonerated for opposing the DBT. Its “fatal” flaws will be revealed during construction or after. Seattlers misled to believe it isn’t an act of misanthropic malevolence will be left with the bill, the damages and worse traffic than ever. Tunnel proponents will crank up their greasy PR propaganda machine to direct blame for the fiasco onto political opponents. Their choir of halfwit supporters will echo a chaotic refrain. Seattle is utterly corrupt. Have a nice day, losers.

  15. A big part of being Mayor, or being ANY type of leader, is being able to work constructively with those who disagree with you. McGinn does not play well with others. He antagonizes and disrespects people he needs to work with. He has no political skill and, like it or not, that’s a necessary part of the job. And it’s not even like he’s in a position like Obama where he’s forced to deal with people from the opposite side of the ideological spectrum-the dude can’t get along with democrats! He’s ineffective because he’s immature and a sore loser.

  16. I liked McGinn’s plans to, honestly, the seawall is very important, many buildings (including the one I live in) depend on it, and if it goes, well …. I hope I drown on that day. Tunnel is a bad idea, honestly, I say just be rid of the viaduct, screw replacing it, gas is cheaper people can go around. As for the rest of his promises, I didn’t pay much attention to them as I know one fact that many people forget, these are politicians, and one that at least puts some effort into keeping even one promise would be a serious improvement. I said I liked his plans, never said I expected more from him than I do from any other politician. But here’s the catch, people opposed him a LOT, even badgered him, and whenever a politician tries to play nice with others (sorry Lauri) they get labeled as weak or on the fence. He may have failed to put anything through, but at least he wasn’t “sitting on the fence.” 😉

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