1. The “establishment” is far from dead.
It’s true: Greg Nickels’ defeat as mayor was a big blow for Seattle’s traditional “establishment”: Developers, business interests, and wealthy, influential political contributors.
However, that’s not the whole story. The establishment candidate won in many major races: city council member-elect Sally Bagshaw (endorsed by both the Seattle Chamber of Commerce’s political arm and The Seattle Times), King County Executive-elect Dow Constantine (a longtime government insider who raised nearly half a million more than his opponent, political neophyte Susan Hutchison), Port Commissioner-elect Tom Albro (a businessman and Republican who was opposed by the Reform the Port campaign), and City Council member Richard Conlin (a three-term incumbent deeply entrenched in the city’s political establishment).
In fact, even Mayor-elect McGinn isn’t exactly the unvarnished outsider he appears to be. As we’ve reported, McGinn has deep ties to the city’s biggest developers and law firms, many of which funded his Great City organization.
2. Yes, Mike McGinn was a savvy candidate, but there’s more to the story: Joe Mallahan was an atrocious one.
T-Mobile executive Mallahan began his campaign, logically enough, by arguing that he was more competent than Nickels. However, once Nickels lost in the primary, Mallahan needed to redefine himself. For a month, he failed to take that opportunity.
When he finally did settle on a new campaign strategy, it was underwhelming. A political newbie, Mallahan took on the role of the experienced, safe incumbent— he was “Nickels without all the baggage”—an awful place to be when the actual incumbent was wildly unpopular.
Playing the role of the regal incumbnet, Mallahan compounded his problem: Perhaps most deadly to Mallahan’s campaign was his decision to sequester himself behind his spokeswoman, Charla Neuman. In sharp contrast to McGinn, who answered his own cell phone right up to election day, Mallahan was rarely available to the public. When you’re trying to win votes, you can’t act like you take the public for granted. Mallahan—relying on soft insider support and money—did, and he lost.
3. Susan Hutchison is not Sarah Palin.
Yes, she has a vagina, and yes, she’s attractive, but Susan Hutchison is not Sarah Palin. That’s the most misleading analogy of this campaign season.
Hutchison is not a Joe Six-Pack hockey mom populist. The executive director of the Charles Simonyi Fund—which supports artsy fartsy, elitist stuff like SAM, the downtown library, and Princeton University—she’s a country club, golf links Republican (also a former board member of the Seattle Symphony) who tied herself to elitist D.C.-like policy think tanks.
Hutchison ran as a “nonpartisan,” aggressively framing herself as an even-keeled deal maker. Palin ran as an authentic conservative out to reclaim the GOP for real Republicans and partisan hellraisers.
Yes, Hutchison has some socially conservative views, but she came out for R-71. Palin, in contrast, was unequivocally opposed to domestic partner rights for gays. She has said: “I believe spousal benefits are reserved for married citizens as defined in our constitution.”
Hutchison had zero political experience. And while that was the rap on Palin, she was actually a longtime political activist, a city council member, and a governor. (FWIW: “Experience” was also an “issue” for Obama.)
Hutchison’s appeal (and why she was tapped): She was well-known, someone voters were familiar with from television and trusted. Palin’s appeal (and why she was tapped): She was unknown—which was part of her “story,” charm and success on the 2008 campaign trail.
Yes, they were both TV anchors. Hutchison for over 20 years. Palin, briefly, as a sportscaster.
Morning Fizz understands the ploy—Democratic independent expenditures specifically linked Hutchison to Palin, and it worked—but we were annoyed at how shallow, misleading, and sexist Democrats were to go with it.
4. A lot has been made of the fact that the police and firefighters’ unions spent a ton of money this year backing losing campaigns (Carr, Mallahan, Jessie Israel, Robert Rosencrantz), but there was another major loser this year: The Washington Conservation Voters, the 100-pound gorilla of Seattle’s environmental community. WCV played it safe in both of this year’s big local races—failing to endorse anyone in the mayor’s race (even though McGinn is an out loud environmentalist), and only endorsing Constantine after the hard-fought primary election.
Moreover, WCV’s lobbyist, Cliff Traisman, made a high-profile endorsement of Mallahan ten days before the election. The endorsement read as an attempt to play it safe by endorsing a winner, but it came too late to have an influence on the result. Meanwhile, the Cascade chapter of the Sierra Club—locally, a far more radical group—endorsed winners Mike O’Brien and McGinn.
This morning’s Morning Fizz is brought to you by state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles.
