Is Greg Nickels finished?
It's not looking good for Greg Nickels.
Thursday numbers are in from King County Elections, and the latest tallies show Nickels with a slightly larger percentage of the vote than he had yesterday. But Mike McGinn and Joe Mallahan also improved, negating Nickels' gains, and (in Mallahan's case) then some. Take a look:
Yesterday
Mike McGinn: 20,880 (26.48%)
Greg Nickels: 19,864 (25.19%)
Joe Mallahan: 21,101 (26.76%)
Today
Mike McGinn: 27,586 (26.69%)
Greg Nickels: 26,416 (25.56%)
Joe Mallahan: 28,126 (27.22%)
Mallahan now enjoys a more comfortable lead over second place, while the gap between McGinn and Nickels increased by over a hundred votes. It's looking increasingly likely that the general will be a contest between McGinn and Mallahan.
What surprises me are how many people there are who are surprised by this result. Anger and resentment over the Nickels administration's treatment of neighborhoods and political opponents has been festering for a very long time. Had Team Nickels acted proactively and early to address Seattleites' concerns, they might have earned enough support to fend off at least one of Nickels' challengers.
But they didn't. Their unresponsiveness only worsened the perception of City Hall as out of touch with the people of Seattle. And so, in this election, the mayor's faults ended up overshadowing his accomplishments (including the July completion of Sound Transit's Central Link light rail line).
Mallahan and McGinn were only too happy to take advantage of the situation, offering relentless criticism that they honed and sharpened as summer wore on.
A Nickels defeat would leave a gaping hole on the Sound Transit Board that has benefited from the mayor's courageous leadership. (Nickels is the current Board Chairman). More embarrassingly for the city, however, it means the United States Conference of Mayors will need to choose a new President, as Nickels will presumably be forced to relinquish the position if he is not reelected.
Thursday numbers are in from King County Elections, and the latest tallies show Nickels with a slightly larger percentage of the vote than he had yesterday. But Mike McGinn and Joe Mallahan also improved, negating Nickels' gains, and (in Mallahan's case) then some. Take a look:
Yesterday
Mike McGinn: 20,880 (26.48%)
Greg Nickels: 19,864 (25.19%)
Joe Mallahan: 21,101 (26.76%)
Today
Mike McGinn: 27,586 (26.69%)
Greg Nickels: 26,416 (25.56%)
Joe Mallahan: 28,126 (27.22%)
Mallahan now enjoys a more comfortable lead over second place, while the gap between McGinn and Nickels increased by over a hundred votes. It's looking increasingly likely that the general will be a contest between McGinn and Mallahan.
What surprises me are how many people there are who are surprised by this result. Anger and resentment over the Nickels administration's treatment of neighborhoods and political opponents has been festering for a very long time. Had Team Nickels acted proactively and early to address Seattleites' concerns, they might have earned enough support to fend off at least one of Nickels' challengers.
But they didn't. Their unresponsiveness only worsened the perception of City Hall as out of touch with the people of Seattle. And so, in this election, the mayor's faults ended up overshadowing his accomplishments (including the July completion of Sound Transit's Central Link light rail line).
Mallahan and McGinn were only too happy to take advantage of the situation, offering relentless criticism that they honed and sharpened as summer wore on.
A Nickels defeat would leave a gaping hole on the Sound Transit Board that has benefited from the mayor's courageous leadership. (Nickels is the current Board Chairman). More embarrassingly for the city, however, it means the United States Conference of Mayors will need to choose a new President, as Nickels will presumably be forced to relinquish the position if he is not reelected.
# Posted by Andrew : 4:54 PM
Comments:
"the mayor's courageous leadership"?????
Nickels lost because of "the mayor's self-serving leadership" - that is the message the voters of Seattle sent to our Chicago mayor.
I think Greg should move to majestic Redmond where he will have at least one courageous blogger sticking up for him.
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