By 8 p.m. you couldn’t move two feet inside 95 Slide without hitting a man, woman or child with a Mike McGinn sticker on them. Even the dogs at the sports bar were sporting McGinn pins in their hair. Perhaps they were planted there to prove that McGinn can even appeal to the animal/pet demographic, truly one of this city’s greatest untapped voting blocs.
Either way, the scene at the mayor’s primary election party on Capitol Hill last night was that of tense excitement.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Mike came in third,” a woman said to her tablemate as she sloshed a beer.
“Shhh! We’re at his party right now,” her tablemate chastised, sloshing a mug of her own.
The whisperings weren’t unique to the inebriated. Indeed, everyone in the room seemed a bit nervous given the musings of campaign manager John Wyble earlier that day that he would not be shocked by a third place McGinn finish.
Estela Ortega, McGinn supporter and director of non-profit El Centro De La Raza, came out to the podium to try and bolster the crowd by leading them in chants of “VIVA! MCGINN!” When the Vivas started to die down, Kris “The Sonics Guy” Brannon came up to assist Ortega in reviving the chant, pumping his sweatband swagged fist in the air.
“This is not like the presidential election I must say,” a man standing next to 95 Slide’s NBA JAM arcade console said. “This is so boring.”
The man’s flippant musings served as a premonition for the next act in the night’s show—The Phone Refreshing.
By 8:10, the bar got quiet as nearly every single person’s face in 95 Slide was buried in their smart phones, reloading the King County Elections page over and over. All were hoping for a glimpse into their collective mayoral futures.
“Refreshing, refreshing, refreshing,” one woman murmured in the corner before her friend shouted, “God are you refreshing like every 5 seconds?”
It was true. Every one was refreshing every 5 seconds. But alas, the page remained blank.
But then, at 8:14:46, some seconds before the officially slated 8:15 result release time, one lucky person managed to load something.
“Murray-30. McGinn 27,” they said a little quietly at first. “It’s… It’s Murray-30. McGinn 27.”
The news quickly spread across the room.
“Murray-30. McGinn-27!” everyone bustled.
The crowd at 95 Slide erupted into chants of “four more years” as a relieved but triumphant looking McGinn suddenly appeared, striding up to the podium to deliver his speech.
“Let the chips fall where they may,” McGinn said in a sly allusion to the 27-30 divide between him and Murray. “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.”
McGinn’s supporters erupted with glee, clutching each other and shouting joyfully as they promised each other to go out dancing later in celebration. One McGinn campaign supporter was especially excited about the promise tonight held for his Facebooking.
“Tonight I get to like everything! Like and share, like and share, woohoo!” he said while standing atop one of 95 Slide’s booths.
As McGinn stepped outside to deliver a phone interview to KOMO’s Art Sanders (who he accidentally hung up on at first before eliciting a quiet “Oh Shit”), a confused seeming man looked on.
Excuse me,” he asked me. “Can you tell me what all this hubbub pertains to?”
“That’s McGinn, the mayor,” I told him. “He just made it through the primary.”
“That’s the mayor?” he said. “I had no idea. Wow. What a silver fox.”
There are still undecided voters out there for McGinn to snatch up, it seems. This man being but one of the many McGinn will need to nab with his Silver Foxiness come November. Until then, Murray’s three percent lead looms.
