Oh, to be a Trust Fund baby with kids in private schools while running as a Leftist, Ms. Moon.

Sounds like a lot of successful people who know how to build a business and employ thousands of people have made their choice.

@2:

Yeah, I guess we know which woman is getting the rich white guys vote - and all that entails....

The cost of a mayors campaign still doesn’t rival the cost of a mid-range home in Seattle...

"and all that entails...."

What, like your job?

the best middle management money can buy.

@1
Right, because leftists are supposed to feel guilty about living in a system they didn't create.

Fuck off

I'm disturbed by the amount of money the Chamber is throwing at this. More than a half million dollars? For a mayor's race? What, exactly, does the Chamber think they are buying?

Not my vote.

"living in a system they didn't create."

Wait, so Miss Moonie had no choice but to pocket her inheritance and send her kids to fancy private schools?

Wow, it's like she lacks control over her own being.

Going to be so embarrassing if Durkan doesn't pull this off, after pissing away all that money. She's blown past the point of diminishing returns thousands of dollars ago. Can you imagine the cost overruns if Mayor Durkan were trying to manage a major city project? Only instead of going back and asking the Chamber of Commerce for another wad of dough, she'll be asking us to dial up our property tax again and again to keep up with the ballooning expenses. The more money you sink into collapsing enterprise, the harder it is to pull the plug. I suppose that's what Durkan is telling the Chamber: after spending so many hundreds of thousands, they've got to throw in a few hundred thousand more, or kiss it all goodbye and have nothing to show for it.

You know when she tells them that, the Chamber fellas just want to show her the door, but the boys know she's right. Get out the checkbook, throw good money after bad and hope this Durkan person can salvage this debacle.

When the votes are all counted, we're going to see what a tight ship Moon ran. Even if she doesn't win, her organization delivered results, and value for the dollar. If she does win, well, the city is going to have someone keeping a good eye on its money.

Shit, this makes me want to donate to Moon.

Yay plutocracy

Ah, so you claim to be a leftist, but you didn’t give away your inheritance, an idiot who thinks this is a good observation

@13: Wealth redistribution begins at home, doncht'a know?

@14 yes, you make a great point. Its well known that Moon has never donated any of her personal wealth or paid any taxes. If she wishes to be taken seriously she must immediately donate half of her assets to Pedneuter, a charity that castrates pedophiles and the other half to Speedophiles a charity that provides motorcycles to pedophiles so she wont risk alienating any voters.

@1: to aid future liberal candidates, maybe you could publish a guide to being a leftist who is acceptable to rightists. who to have as parents, where to educate your kids, what conservatives prefer not to talk about, that kind of stuff.

@15: It's a joke, my good man.

@15: Oh, and "Speedophiles" is a good one, that one made me chuckle.

#10:

The reason Cary Moon seems to be running a "tight ship" is that few people other than Cary Moon have contributed to her campaign. Doesn't look like she has much support out there. And, try as she might, she's not going to pull in a lot of Nikkita Oliver's supporters. They won't vote, just like Nikkita.

@19

If this line of reasoning that Moon has no support and Durkan is ahead by 20 or 30 points, then WHY is Durkan spending all that money?

Is Durkan not smart enough to realize how far ahead she is? Is she aware of how far ahead she is but wastes hundreds of thousands of dollars anyway? For no reason? She can save this money for her next race if she faces a tough opponent. Or donate the money to allies, like city council candidates who will help her achieve her agenda. Is she the first politician too dense to figure this out?

Is she so rich that she doesn't think $500,000 is a lot of money? Is that how she will handle Seattle's taxpayers' money?

We aren't just guessing about bang for the buck in these campaigns. We saw the primary results. Durkan spent three times as much per vote as Moon. Moon came out ahead of a dozen solid candidates spending far less. She spent only a little less per vote than Oliver, who really showed how to control costs and deliver results.

You can spin this any way you want, but any explanation for why Durkan is spending so much looks bad. I think the fact is that Durkan's private polls show she's behind and is going to have an embarrassing loss. But I know nobody is going to admit the truth about that. So let's pretend Durkan is really far ahead. She's pissing away a fortune. That is not something anybody wants in a Mayor.

My god, this is hilarious:

Going to be so embarrassing if Durkan doesn't pull this off, after pissing away all that money.

Unless you have solid polling data, you can't say if Durkan's campaign is spending money effectively or not.

She's blown past the point of diminishing returns thousands of dollars ago.

Even if you had provided any data at all to support that grand statement, it would still be meaningless. Running for Mayor is a once-in-a-lifetime deal for almost any serious candidate; the only one I can recall who lost and ran again to win was Mayor Schell, who went literally two decades between attempts. Of course Durkan is spending all of the money she can on her effort.

Can you imagine the cost overruns if Mayor Durkan were trying to manage a major city project?

You're doing a pretty good job of imagining you've provided any hard data to support your point.

The more money you sink into collapsing enterprise, the harder it is to pull the plug.

Only if you're an idiot who should not be trusted with money or other resources.

I suppose that's what Durkan is telling the Chamber: after spending so many hundreds of thousands, they've got to throw in a few hundred thousand more, or kiss it all goodbye and have nothing to show for it.

You suppose people who actually run large successful businesses wouldn't immediately stop funding a failing project? Really?

If this line of reasoning that Moon has no support and Durkan is ahead by 20 or 30 points...

That's not actually what @19 wrote.

...WHY is Durkan spending all that money?

WHY do businesses spend money on insurance they'll likely never need? It truly is a mystery. To you.

She can save this money for her next race if she faces a tough opponent. Or donate the money to allies, like city council candidates who will help her achieve her agenda. Is she the first politician too dense to figure this out?

Ever hear the expression, "you can't assume a double play"?

She spent only a little less per vote than Oliver, who really showed how to control costs and deliver results.

That you say this of a candidate who might have won with just a little more expenditure is truly priceless.

So if engineers tell a company that it will cost $2 million to build a new facility that they need, in your world, the company would proceed to spend three times that amount, $6 million, as "insurance"?

That is not how business works. That is not how insurance works. If you ask me to choose which company to invest in, the one that pays $1 for a dollar's worth of supplies, and another that spends $3 for the same things, as "insurance", I'm not going to touch the one that throws money away like that.

You know something else about how business works? They don't waste hundreds of thousands of dollars donating to politicians unless they think they're going to get something for their money. They don't spend $3 for a dollars worth of value, and they don't donate to Jenny Durkan unless they have her word that she is going to do them favors.

Remember how Murray took a big fat check from Comcast and said it wouldn't stop him from working to get us municipal broadband? And he then became mayor and he did fuck all for municipal broadband? Quid pro quo.

Durkan is in deep to these guys. She isn't buying "insurance". She's bailing out a sinking ship. Throwing good money after bad in a failing enterprise. Her corporate owners are looking at each other wondering how they got led this far down this boondoggle. If they had realized how much trouble Durkan was in a few hundred thousand dollars ago, they would have turned off the money spigot. Instead they doubled down and they're going to take a bath.

You're trying so hard to convince yourself. Durkan looks scared. Her backers look scared. Everything about Durkan and her organization looks like a looming trainwreck.

They know I'm right. It triggers Durkan and her surrogates every time I bring this up. If I was some crank with a crazy theory, everyone would ignore me, just like a million other cranks on the internet. But this crazy theory has legs.

So if engineers tell a company that it will cost $2 million to build a new facility that they need, in your world, the company would proceed to spend three times that amount, $6 million, as "insurance"?

They might hold three times as much capital in reserve as they think they need, yes. But your analogy is flawed: an estimate for the cost of a capital project can be far more accurate than any attempt to guess "how much is enough" in a one-shot, winner-take-all venture like an election.

That is not how business works.

Yes, your analogy is flawed. :-)

She's bailing out a sinking ship. Throwing good money after bad in a failing enterprise.

Again, without the smallest attempt to provide even the merest glimpse of actual polling data. Saying her campaign is wasting money and is losing won't magically become true merely by virtue of your incessant repetition.

...they don't donate to Jenny Durkan unless they have her word that she is going to do them favors.

Yes, but the favor may well simply be that Moon is not in office. We've already had a mayor who opposed the SR-99 tunnel, and he wasn't exactly great news for our city's economy, either. Having another amateur mayor who opposed the tunnel may not look like a good deal to the businesses who now finance Durkan.

You're trying so hard to convince yourself.

Ha, ha, ha. Look in the mirror sometime.

Everything about Durkan and her organization looks like a looming trainwreck.

Yes, the candidate who can easily raise large sums of money (by the standards of Seattle's municipal elections) must feel really, really scared. (You're just not very good at this, are you?)

Durkan has the example of Oliver, who might well be her opponent now if Oliver had spent just a little bit more effort or money. There's literally no reason for Durkan to refrain from raising or spending money on this one-shot, winner-take-all project we call an election. Despite what you seem to believe, an election isn't like a business building a new facility; there's nothing to be gained from a candidate having money in the bank after the election is certified.

They know I'm right.

You just keep repeating that until you're sure everyone else believes you.

It triggers Durkan and her surrogates every time I bring this up.

You really just do not know what the term "triggers" means, do you? (Hint: it does not generally involve raucous laughter.)

But this crazy theory has legs.

No, legs provide support. You haven't cited any polling data to support your theory that the candidate who easily raises money is in trouble.