And then there were two.
After a night of relieved parties and exhausted disappointment, the race to be Seattle’s next mayor is down to two: challenger Ed Murray and incumbent Mike McGinn will battle head-on for extreme supremacy … or, at the very least, the 7th floor City Hall office where McGinn has gotten cozy over the last four years. While there were times during the primary campaign that McGinn looked like a dead man running, in the end challengers like Peter Steinbrueck, Bruce Harrell and bow-tied Charlie Staadecker couldn’t gather enough support to thwart the inevitable – possibly “the ugliest campaign Seattle has ever seen.”
Here’s what we learned:
Despite the oblivious introduction he received at his China Harbor primary night party, it would appear Peter Steinbrueck will not be Seattle’s next mayor. But that doesn’t mean he’s giving up … yet. UPDATE: Steinbrueck has slept on it, and now conceded. No word on when he plans to skinny dip in Lake Washington to wash all the pain off.
As Dan Person reported: “Murray brought gay-bashing into the race, suggesting that the city has gone soft on it. Murray told the crowd one of his volunteers was assaulted two nights ago, the second hate crime against a gay person in the last few weeks. ‘We can’t go back to the 1980s,’ Murray said. Asked about the comment afterward, Murray only added: ‘It’s an issue we’ve taken our eye off of.’”
There were a lot of nervous people refreshing their smartphones at the McGinn party at 95 Slide on Capitol Hill. Luckily for them, the feared third-place finish for the incumbent was just that – only a fear. McGinn told the crowd, “This race is about the future, this race is about the city, this race is about the city we want to see. You know where I stand, you know what I stand for. Now we are going to go out and run a hell of a race.”
Not surprisingly, Bruce Harrell was disappointed. Despite his fourth place finish, he told the crowd at his Mount Baker primary night party that he thinks his message resonated and the people of Seattle “want change and a new mayor, too.”
Pete Holmes’ wife can text, and she’s no fan of McGinn.
In non-mayoral news, everyone’s favorite Socialist, Kshama Sawant, enjoyed a strong showing in her attempt to unseat long-standing councilmember Richard Conlin. While Conlin finished first with 49.16 percent of the vote, Sawant – who is the only candidate in any race to formally endorse a $15/hr minimum wage – came in second with 32.97.
David Ishi may be a character, but he won’t be on the City Council. Mike O’Brien and Albert Shen advance.
Though he got the coveted Dori Monson vote, Goodspaceguy couldn’t come close to knocking off juggernaut Dow Constantine in the race for King County Executive. Constantine nailed 75.57 percent of the vote, with second place going to Alan Lobdell, with 12.32 percent. Goodspace guy managed 9,252 votes, which was good for 4.15 percent of the vote.
Finally, the real winner today is Mike McGinn, who was named “Best Politician” by readers in Seattle Weekly’s 2013 Best of Seattle issue.
