In third place with 25 percent of the vote, Nickels addressed his supporters saying he was confident that when all the ballots were counted, he would move forward. He was placing his hopes on the 25,000 new votes he said came in today in Seattle.
I asked him afterward why he thought those numbers would break his way—especially given that later voters were more likely to break for green liberal, Mike McGinn, now in first with 27 percent.
“Talk to the political professionals,” he said. “They know the numbers.”
Nickels painted his opponents as negative nellies. “If all you knew about Seattle was from listening to some of my opponents,” he said, “you’d think Seattle was a terrible place to live, a dying city, where nothing ever works. I think the opposite,” he said, calling it a vibrant city and “a great place to raise a family.”
He had a list of positives: light rail, building libraries, and low crime. He said Seattle’s problems were the result of our successes: We have to accommodate growth because so many people want to live here.
Asked why he was in third place, then, Nickels said, “I think people are scared. They’re insecure about the economy. About retiring.”
I asked him if the he wasn’t missing the point—if people were “insecure” weren’t his opponents right to be talking about the city’s troubles. Were his opponents hitting a nerve? Was he out of touch?
Nickels tacked to a soundbite he’s been using for the whole campaign: “As mayor you have to make decisions. And sometimes people are going to disagree with those decisions.”
Nickels said he was looking forward to a “one-on-one campaign” citing the 7-1 contest of “potshots” and misinformation he’s been in for a few months now. Nickels hyped his strength as a “commitment to public service” versus what he called his opponent’s “lack of qualifications.” He also accused his opponents of “not offering a vision to move forward.”
He managed to take a potshot of his own, taking a dig at his second-place rival, Joe Mallahan. “I am proud to have voted in every election.” Mallahan has skipped 10 votes, according to King County Elections.
Wrapping up his speech, he asked his fans to spend the rest of the evening celebrating, but as he headed out with his wife at 9:15, the dwindling crowd—huddled around a corner table of carrots, chips, and dip—was mostly slipping into their jackets to leave.
