The latest numbers in the mayor’s race are in, with 28 percent of Seattle registered voters counted, and here they are:
Greg Nickels 25.56 percent
Mike McGinn 26.69 percent
Joe Mallahan 27.72 percent
A few observations: Both Mallahan’s and McGinn’s leads over Nickels have increased. Previously, McGinn had 1,016 more votes than Nickels; now, he has 1,170. Mallahan, meanwhile, previously led Nickels by 1,237; now, he leads by 1,710.
With most of the outstanding votes counted (projected turnout in Seattle: 33 percent), Nickels would have to have an overwhelming bump among the remaining 30,000 or so votes to win at this point. Mallahan is the frontrunner. McGinn is the underdog. And based on these numbers, Nickels is out of the running.
Which, by the way, you read here first: Way back on August 17, the day before the election, Josh predicted that Nickels would not make it out of the primary.
Asked if Nickels was going to concede, Nickels’ campaign spokesman Sandeep Kaushik said only that Mayor Nickels is holding a press conference at City Hall tomorrow at 10 am.
The only thoughts Kaushik offered: "Our percentage went up. [But] So did McGinn’s."
Looking ahead to a possible Mallahan vs. McGinn fight over all the voters who are upset with the status quo, Jason Bennett, Mallahan’s consultant, said McGinn is a one-issue candidate (the $4.2 billion tunnel) while Mallahan speaks to a broader list of issues that are on voters’ minds. "Of the people who want change, McGinn voters oppose the tunnel, our supporters want the basic services of government to work. And that’s a larger group."
McGinn says the fact that it looks like he’s going through shows that his grassroots campaign has worked. "We’ve gone out and talked to the people about the issues that matter. And that’s what we’re going to keep doing. Look, there is a $72 million budget shortfall, this race is about choices. Since day one of this campaign, we’ve been talking about the issues that speak to people’s needs—education, transportation, and things like our Internet infrastructure."
And even though he scoffed at Team Mallahan’s spin that he (McGinn) is a one-issue candidate ("That was the first thing out of their mouths? Mallahan is already going negative," he laughed) he did, in fact end up talking about the tunnel. Asked about the differences between he and Mallahan, he said, "I don’t know an issue that he’s different than Nickels on. Like the mayor, he’s for the biggest tax increase in Seattle history."
Josh Feit contributed to this report.
[Disclosure: Mallahan's consultant is a freelance comedy columnist for PubliCola. He does not write about the mayor's race nor about local politics. And as we've written many times, Sandeep Kaushik helped co-found PubliCola. He currently has no editorial role at PubliCola.]
