Originally published April 6, 2009 at 12:00 AM | Page modified April 6, 2009 at 1:55 AM
Comments (0)
E-mail article
Print
Share
Seattle mayoral candidate McGinn: an idealist ready to pack a punch
Seattle mayoral candidate Michael McGinn is an idealist running on big ideas.
Seattle Times staff reporter
Seattle mayoral candidate Michael McGinn is an environmentalist who quit his law firm to start a nonprofit. He likes to talk about synergy and vision. He commutes by bicycle.
All that could add up to a Seattle stereotype who's not quite cut out to be a competitive candidate for mayor, especially against two-term incumbent Greg Nickels. But McGinn's supporters say he doesn't get into fights he doesn't think he can win.
"He has a very clear vision of what the future can look like and, yeah, that has some pretty big, bold ideas in there," said Mike O'Brien, a supporter and fellow Sierra Club volunteer. "But at the same time, when he talks about what those ideas are, they're actually pretty reasonable."
McGinn, a former chairman of the local Sierra Club, is one of at least three people challenging Nickels in this year's mayoral election. Former Sonic James Donaldson and corporate recruiter Norman Sigler are also in the race. Former City Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck is considering a run.
McGinn entered the race last month with three big ideas: extending broadband Internet service to everyone in Seattle, improving Seattle Public Schools and upgrading bus service.
A day later, he took a direct shot at Nickels, questioning the mayor's environmental credentials in a news release. When the mayor's campaign rebutted, McGinn offered to debate.
McGinn, 49, has never run for office. His political history began in 1983 when he went to work for Jim Weaver, a Democratic congressman from Eugene, Ore.
Later, as a law student at the University of Washington, McGinn took on the university's administration in several battles as head of the Graduate and Professional Student Senate.
He successfully argued against a university office expansion before the Seattle hearing examiner and helped obtain benefits for teaching and research associates.
As a litigator at the Stokes Lawrence firm (where he eventually became a partner), McGinn started volunteering at the local Sierra Club branch. In his North Seattle neighborhood, he became president of the Greenwood Community Council.
In 2006, he founded the Seattle Great City Initiative, a nonprofit that gets financial support from the Cascade Land Conservancy.
The initiative is intended to bring together different factions — developers, politicians, environmentalists — around the common goal of making Seattle a better place to live.
![]()
Most recently, the group helped lead last fall's successful parks-levy campaign. Nickels opposed the measure, saying it was one levy too many for taxpayers.
The matchup between Nickels and McGinn puts some of McGinn's friends in a tough position, said Doug Walker, a Nickels supporter who has worked with McGinn as a businessman and environmentalist.
"He's a good guy and a friend of mine," Walker said. "I have not seen him in a role where he was running anything. I've definitely seen him in this role as a visionary, but those are not always the same thing as the nitty-gritty of managing and running sort of a complex organization."
The mayor should be a good leader who sets the vision, McGinn said. The nitty-gritty gets handled by the mayor's staff.
McGinn expects some people will be hesitant to speak up about his candidacy, especially if they have business at City Hall.
For his part, McGinn says he has been willing to publicly criticize Nickels when the two differed. When the mayor hosted the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting here in 2007, McGinn organized a protest because he believed Nickels' transportation policies contributed to global warming.
McGinn has also supported the mayor. He served on Nickels' transition team, gave money to his three mayoral campaigns — including this one — and in 2006, praised Nickels in a Sierra Club news release for his "tireless work and political courage." In 2007, Nickels hosted a fundraiser at his house for the Seattle Great City Initiative.
Nickels is said to be vulnerable. But he has $300,000 in the bank and — perhaps more crucial — the apparent support of much of the city's business and environmental communities.
McGinn says he needs only enough money to get out his message. He points to a 2007 roads-and-transit tax package he and Sierra Club leaders opposed. Proponents included Nickels and some of the region's biggest companies and developers.
The campaign pitted environmentalists against each other. Supporters of the measure outspent McGinn's side by $3 million.
"We thought, 'We can't do this, really,'" said O'Brien, president of the local Sierra Club. But they did.
O'Brien was the public face of the campaign, but McGinn said he tried to keep it on course by appealing to environmentalists' values and convincing them that the political outcome they feared — that transit could never pass without roads. — was not a foregone conclusion.
O'Brien remembers McGinn's encouragement: "The line I remember him saying, he said, 'You know, here's a plan we know will make global warming worse. If there is such a thing as environmental malpractice and we did nothing on this, we will have committed malpractice.' "
Last fall, Proposition 1 was turned into a transit-only ballot measure. The Sierra Club and mayor worked together and both could claim victory when the voters said yes.
Emily Heffter: 206-464-8246 or eheffter@seattletimes.com
Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company
Others states' fights bring focus to Daniels
NEW - 07:13 AM
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is writing memoir
Bill would make jail mug shots available
Immigration, license bill voted down in state Senate
Rival Texas bills require sonograms before abortions

general classifieds
Garage & estate salesFurniture & home furnishings
Electronics
just listed
***Stunning Akc POMERANIAN baby girl W/ FUL...
12 U Select Baseball Coach Wanted
1994 WIn 1901
More listings
POST A FREE LISTING
- Lakewood cop accused of embezzling $150K meant for slain officers' families
- 3 big health insurers stockpile $2.4 billion as rates keep rising
- Agency set to investigate handling of 911 call about Josh Powell
- Quick decisions: How Washington hired its new football staff
- Historic day for gay marriage as another fight looms
- Justin Wilcox's versatile defensive style is the right fit for Huskies | Jerry Brewer
- It's Terrence Time: Enigmatic Ross leads Huskies
- Social worker recounts minutes before Powell fire
- $25B settlement reached over foreclosure abuses
- Club promoter convicted in brutal 2010 murder of Des Moines prostitute
- Gay-marriage bill passes House, awaits Gregoire's signature
434 - Historic day for gay marriage as another fight looming
346 - Sheriff's office unhappy with 911 dispatcher in caseworker's call
282 - 3 big health insurers stockpile $2.4 billion as rates keep rising
235 - Source: NY, California to sign mortgage settlement
207 - Oregon live game thread
152 - Pac-12 picks ... including the UW game
140 - Lakewood cop accused of taking donations for slain officers' families
114 - Department of Justice owes the Seattle Police Department an apology
88 - Thursday morning links --- and a video!!!
72
- 3 big health insurers stockpile $2.4 billion as rates keep rising
- State Medicaid program to stop paying for unneeded ER visits
- One man's audacious pursuit of sailing history
- Darren Berg gets 18-year sentence for Ponzi scheme
- $25B settlement reached over foreclosure abuses
- A wandering gene's destructive path | Book review
- 'Gauguin and Polynesia': dazzling mix-and-match | Art review
- UW opening incubator facility for startups
- Controversial principal at Lowell Elementary takes job in Tacoma
- Lakewood cop accused of embezzling $150K meant for slain officers' families




