Christian Sinderman
Mayoral candidate Joe Mallahan, a T-Mobile executive whose campaign has been criticized as rudderless in comparison to his opponent Mike “Town Hall” McGinn’s hyper-focused operation, has sought the advice of Christian Sinderman, a hotshot local campaign consultant who is also working for city council candidate Sally Bagshaw and King County Executive candidate Dow Constantine.
Sinderman says his role with the campaign is “informal” (he won’t be getting paid, at least for now), and campaign spokeswoman Charla Neuman confirms that she will continue to serve as the public face of the campaign. She says Sinderman is “one of many people who have volunteered to help with the campaign,” including PR consultant and former Paul Schell spokesman Roger Nyhus and consultant and former Ron Sims aide John Arthur Wilson.
However, Sinderman’s advisory role could reflect a general sense that the campaign is less organized than McGinn’s. For example, in the past week, McGinn has released white papers on issues ranging from immigrants and refugees to light rail expansion to the city’s budget shortfall to public safety and opened a new campaign office in Southeast Seattle. Over the course of the six days ending this coming Thursday, he will have held four town hall meetings around the city.
Mallahan, in contrast, has used his rare public appearances primarily to put his foot in his mouth. For example, he issued a statement last week asserting that McGinn’s proposed light rail expansion vote would hurt kids by competing with the Families and Education Levy (in spite of Seattle voters’ well-documented willingness to pass more than one tax measure at once); also last week, he lost the support of the 43rd District Democrats by telling them he drives his car six blocks to the office instead of riding the bus.
Mallahan is also notorious among the local press corps for speaking through his spokeswoman, D.C. transplant Charla Neuman, who got a bad start with the press when she ushered Mallahan off the stage during an infamous nine-minute press conference the day after the August primary election. (Hang around with consultants and the press corps long enough, and the phrase “the Charla Problem” is bound to come up.) McGinn, in contrast, answers his own phone, does not have a spokesperson, and is known for allowing press conferences to stretch past an hour.
Moreover, business and labor leaders have seem more comfortable with Sinderman—a well-known, established political consultant with a long track record of winning campaigns—than with Neuman and Mallahan’s official paid consultant, Jason Bennett of Argo Strategies.
