A Transit-Loving, Car-Hating, Bike-Riding, Progressive Environmentalist Who's Passionately Supporting Joe Mallahan
A common perception about this year's mayor's race is that Mike McGinn is the guy with the fervent supporters. His all-volunteer campaign has been powered by a flock of righteous, genuflecting, "Mike Bikes"-emblazoned activists and bloggers who seem to view their man as the second coming of Obama. 
Mallahan at the Book Fair this past weekend. Photo by Susanna Williams, deputy campaign manager for Mallahan
Mallahan, meanwhile, seems to have picked up more measured support from people who support the tunnel, think McGinn is elitist, or generally find Joe the "safer" choice. He seems like he's been the fallback, and one not embraced with enthusiasm.
That's why it was so interesting to hear from Judy Lightfoot, a longtime educator, writer, and dyed-in-the-compost greenie (and also a friend of mine), who is strongly committed to Mallahan and devoting her time to his campaign. I asked her to write up the story of how she got here. It's after the jump.
A TRANSIT-LOVING, CAR-HATING, BIKE-RIDING, PROGRESSIVE ENVIRONMENTALIST CASTS HER VOTE FOR MAYOR
by Judy Lightfoot
I cycle, walk, and ride transit so routinely it feels weird to drive the family car (average annual mileage: 4000). I adore a poem written by my husband, also a transit fan, titled "Reasons to Take the Bus" (the first reason is "Because it kneels for us all"). I conserve resources, recycle scrupulously, fret about environmental degradation, and nag politicians to halt global climate change. It would be reasonable for anyone who knows my M.O., especially anyone who also knows my love of language as a writer and a former English teacher, to think Mike McGinn would be my choice for mayor. Certainly Mike's articulateness, gained perhaps from repeated experiences as a lawyer having to make a persuasive case, appealed to me.
But ever since my first glimpses of the candidates I've been concerned about what seems to me a stubborn self-righteousness in the way Mike stands for the good things he believes in. Next to this, his grace as a public speaker shrinks in importance. Besides, it's one thing to address an audience gracefully, and another to engage in successful give-and-take with people you're working with on something delicate or complicated. We who speak well from a lectern often suck at moving a working group forward on a project, and vice-versa. It seemed to me unlikely that the give-and-take required for leading a sizeable city with multiple concerns would be the forte of someone who acts like an environmental ideologue.
For example, we need to get more people out of their cars and into mass transit, but Mike, convinced that his way was the only "right" way, threatened to block the tunnel project even though he knew that delays would drive up the costs of a viaduct solution and put public safety at risk. And when he caved on the tunnel, as my Crosscut colleague Skip Berger put it on KUOW last week, Mike should have said "Though I dislike the tunnel solution that Seattle wants, as Mayor I'll make sure we get the best, safest, most economical tunnel built as quickly as possible." It was as if Mike would rather kvetch than lead.
In sum, the tireless righteousness that has drawn like-minded people to Mike's various causes in the recent past began to seem like the wrong strength for a mayor to bring to Seattle's sometimes contentious diversity of voices and visions. An effective mayor has to be pragmatic, flexible, capable of blending and tweaking different approaches to solving problems, and willing to offer wholehearted leadership on solutions he may not have originated himself. Nor was there any reason to think that Mike would, in office, be a better friend to the environment than Joe.
So I decided to volunteer for Joe's campaign. I phone-banked a little, then offered to interview family and friends who have known him since way back, for a series on his website that the campaign dubbed "I Know Joe" (I was feeling frustrated that Seattle didn't seem to see past the suit and tie and sometimes clumsy self-presentation). I also agreed to write about Joe's tours around Seattle neighborhoods.
Watching him with other people, I've witnessed a level of engagement and a genuineness that's rare even in people not trapped in the political spotlight. There's nothing particularly smooth about his sociable moves, but he draws people into the warmth of his interest in them. Joe enjoys conversing with people in Spanish and Japanese, and Jennifer Clark, a U Chicago grad school friend of his who he worked with on last year's Obama campaign, told me Joe will try speaking any language. "His energy makes up for accuracy," she laughed. He clearly loves discussing issues with anybody wanting to engage, and I've seen him freely disagree with voters instead of pandering or making promises he might not be able to keep. I noticed, too, that his inexperience in elected public office, so like his opponent's, seemed balanced by a willingness to listen to opposing views as well as to admit that he didn't know the answers to some of the questions he was asked.
Moreover, I've learned that Joe's commitment to social justice, a concern that matters hugely to me, is neither "put on" nor shouldered as a weary burden. It's a glad, thoroughly integrated part of his character, rooted in growing up as a member of the Mallahan family. Mike Russo, an old friend of Joe's from his organizing days in Chicago, told me that Joe's parents and the nine children ate plain rice for Friday dinner so that the money saved could be donated to worthy causes. Today, three of Joe's siblings work (respectively) in Tanzania, Guatemala, and Oaxaca on behalf of the poor. According to Russo, when Joe's brother here in Seattle heard that a local bed-and-treatment facility for teen prostitutes had lost its funding, he promised a city councilmember, "I'll raise the money you need for the facility, or I'll pay for it myself." In short, taking action for social justice is in Joe's blood. Clark remembers that back in Chicago, when Joe and his wife bought their first sofa, they saved up twice the price of the one they wanted and gave half the total to charity.
So Joe's business experience feels relevant to me, but not in the narrow sense the media present. They don't quote him when he says that as a corporate insider he's committed to leading his former colleagues to take more responsibility for helping people stuck on the margins build better lives. They don't hear him say that as a public servant he hopes to use what he learned in business to increase the number of jobs that pay living wages and to use savings from more efficient city budgets and departments to enhance human services. They don't listen to his reason why we need more police officers: because staff shortages keep the police force in constant crisis mode, and more officers will mean more time for them to relax and talk peaceably with the citizens they serve. In this world of unexamined sound-bites some friends of mine shudder every time Joe uses the word "efficient," because it reminds them of his corporate background. But especially in an economy with engines flooding like the Titanic's, where will support for human services come from, if not out of savings squeezed from efficiencies? And who is more likely to squeeze more effectively than an experienced manager?
A story told by an old friend of Joe's sums up, for me, his gift for solving complicated or emotionally fraught problems. It's a combination of openness, empathy, and an intelligent detachment that lets him reframe an issue in a compelling way. Someone had told Clark's young son that Santa was a myth and that parents were the ones who bought the presents and stuffed the stockings. The boy was devastated. "If there's no Santa, then there's no Easter bunny, no tooth fairy!" he wept, and his parents could not console him. Joe, who was visiting at the time, drew him aside to talk, and after a while the parents saw their son smile again. Joe had quietly led the boy to see that he'd crossed over into the circle of people who make magic for others.
We need a mayor capable of leading us to cross over barriers of difference into a widening circle of people who will make, if not magic, a better life for others and our city. Of the two candidates, Joe seems like the man who can do this. And that's why he has my vote.
Judy Lightfoot, a former teacher, is a contributor to Crosscut. She's also a Freestyle Volunteer, meeting for weekly coffee and conversation with individuals sharing our public spaces who are socially isolated by mental illness or homelessness. Currently she's volunteering as a phone-banker and unpaid writer for the Mallahan campaign.
23 comment(s)
Mr. Baker says:
Thanks.
Posted On: Tuesday, Oct. 27 2009 @ 10:38AM
Norman Sigler says:
Great article Judy. I saw the same thing between the two choices during our primary campaign. I am supporting Joe (even though I was the better choice).
Norman
Posted On: Tuesday, Oct. 27 2009 @ 11:40AM
Marwood says:
Joe is so committed to Seattle he can't bother voting in the last 13 of 25 elections. That's what I call dedication!
Posted On: Tuesday, Oct. 27 2009 @ 2:51PM
Kate Martin says:
Thanks, Judy.
I couldn't agree more. It's great that you are able to articulate this with such a human touch.
I really am looking forward to a Seattle led by Joe Mallahan.
Posted On: Tuesday, Oct. 27 2009 @ 2:55PM
Michael Cornell says:
It is more clear each day, that Joe Mallahan is the only sane and clear choice to be Seattle's next Mayor.
Posted On: Tuesday, Oct. 27 2009 @ 5:23PM
Rhonda Smith says:
Judy, In fairness, I think you should spend equal time with/for Mike McGinn to get and present a balanced view. This would help people make a more informed decision.
Posted On: Tuesday, Oct. 27 2009 @ 6:49PM
Mr. Baker says:
Ya, like Norm Sigler did...wait, in "fairness", fairness to Judy?
She appears to be ok with her opinion.
I do not think she is a reporter, so, who does she have to be fair to?
Ok, I confess, I posted a link to this story over at Publicola to taunt them in a passive-aggressive way.
I have been watching as much video as possible of the candidates, even back when Norman was playing match-maker with two opponents.
My two picks coming out of the primary were Mallahan and McGinn. The more I watch both support their positions, the more I saw the nature of the individuals show up. I came to the same conclusion as Judy.
I viewed it in the context of how Seattle has to find better ways to find mutually benefitting situations with the state, county, and other cities. I see Mallahan as the better choice.
Not every point is an argument, as it appears to be with McGinn.
Posted On: Tuesday, Oct. 27 2009 @ 7:35PM
ralph says:
Judy: I'll be biking right next to you to the polls, thanks for pointing out that many of us serious enviros think that McGinn is a danger to our movement.
Posted On: Tuesday, Oct. 27 2009 @ 9:08PM
Shortsighted says:
Judy, this is really unfortunate. You are a great writer, and volunteer...and essentially a "hired gun" when you do stuff like this. I know you have not spent the time with Mr. McGinn that you have spent writing for Mr. Mallahan and you are really kind of spreading falsehoods about who he is without knowing him. Please document for us how much time you have spent with Mr. McGinn to come to these conclusions.
Posted On: Wednesday, Oct. 28 2009 @ 12:08AM
Nail, meet head says:
"It seemed to me unlikely that the give-and-take required for leading a sizeable city with multiple concerns would be the forte of someone who acts like an environmental ideologue."
This was never better reflected in the robocall McGinn approved. Anything to win, and then once in office anything to get what HE wants regardless of what the city actually needs.
Joe is a leader, McGinn just wants power so he can do what he wants.
Posted On: Wednesday, Oct. 28 2009 @ 9:03AM
Wilbur Hathaway says:
I co-founded the Belltown P-Patch, have never (by choice) owned a car, love bikes, walking & work/live at the Pike St. Market.
I 100% agree w/this author, it's a character thing.
Please sign me --
Wilbur Hathaway
Posted On: Wednesday, Oct. 28 2009 @ 9:35AM
Judy Lightfoot says:
I believe a "hired" writer gets paid. I wrote as a private citizen interested in the leadership qualities of the candidates, and have actually spent more time talking with Mike than with Joe.
I learned about Mike from a two-hour meeting with Crosscut writers and from his public self-presentations. I knew Joe solely through his public appearances. To me, Mike had significant shortcomings as a mayoral candidate, and it began to seem unfair to me that while Mike "as a real person" was being conveyed through media stories about his cycling, his favorite foods, videos of his wife and kids and kitchen, etc., Joe "as a real person" remained unknown. Voters were unlikely to see his strengths via the media, so I volunteered for the Mallahan campaign and asked to write interviews for the website like the series (also unpaid) that I wrote for Senator Cantwell in 2006.
Although I sat beside Mike for two hours at a meeting where he talked with a dozen people and answered questions, I've never had a sit-down with Joe, even in a group. But I've talked with people who've been close to him for a long time, and I've followed him around while he engaged with people in the neighborhoods. He strikes me as a highly competent and very good man, with values rooted in social justice and a special gift for leadership even if he sometimes falters on the stump.
Now you know everything I know about him (well, the picture's fleshed out a bit in the "I Know Joe" series and nabe tour notes at joemallahan.com - please check them out!). You'll draw your own conclusions, obviously, but though Mike has good qualities, I've concluded that Joe is by far the one who can lead Seattle most effectively.
Thank you for liking my writing.
Posted On: Wednesday, Oct. 28 2009 @ 9:55AM
Tom Phan says:
Yes, a vague story told by a friend of a friend which doesn't have a punch-line - that's the sort of thing which gives an insight into a politician.
Posted On: Wednesday, Oct. 28 2009 @ 9:56AM
El Politico says:
Mallahan would be a great City Manager.
A Mayor is someone who enjoys politics, someone who wanted to vote already in his early teens and eagerly participated to the political process since he/she could remember.
Sorry, if he's not voted most of the times in his lifetime, he doesn't deserve our vote.
Maybe McGinn can hire him to do some practical social work in his administration.
Posted On: Wednesday, Oct. 28 2009 @ 9:57AM
Anonymous says:
So you are for public transportation but voting for a candidate that won't expand light rail ? You are pro environment but voting for a candidate that says good things about it but doesn't DO much, and against the guy who's formerly run the Sierra Club ?
You can say all you want about Joe Mallahan's character, but I've seen how many forums and other events he's backed out on at the last minute, I don't think that speaks highly of his moral fiber. He looks like a candid that's trying to ride it out and hope for victory.
Also, I agree with the others posters who say that you shouldn't really comment on McGinn's character when you don't know him. You're projecting and, not to mention, saying things that aren't true.
How an activist and true environmentalist got cast as "elitist" as opposed to the wealthy cell phone execute is beyond me. Or wait... that's what you're job is, isn't it ?
Posted On: Wednesday, Oct. 28 2009 @ 10:00AM
David Schraer says:
This is a wonderful article. Character has replaced the tunnel as the defining issue of the Seattle mayoral race and is an important reason to vote for Mallahan. The McGinn campaign has been deceitful and dishonest, using every trick from the Karl Rove play book - there is no reason to believe his administration would act differently. McGinn's strategy and tactics documented at:
www.lightandair.wordpress.com
Posted On: Wednesday, Oct. 28 2009 @ 10:21AM
Anonymous says:
Judy: thank you for writing such a great article.
I too am an environmentalist turned off by McGinn's deceitful robocalls and divisive campaign tactics.
The more I follow the election, the more I am impressed by Mallahan. His platforms on transportation, the environment, the economy and education are all sound and progressive. And he has shown himself to be a pragmatic leader who listens.
Posted On: Wednesday, Oct. 28 2009 @ 1:05PM
Wells says:
It's David Schraer using deceitful, dishonest Karl Rove playbook tactics, not Mike McGinn. The telephone poll David complains about was no more than a run-of-the-mill research poll. Making a reasonable defense of Mike's position against the Deep-bore tunnel with David Schraer is like talking to a brick wall. I've tried.
The by far better tunnel option is the 4-lane cut-n-cover, WsDOT's Scenario 'G' drafted a year after the March 2007 voter rejection of what was then called 'tunnel-lite', a half-baked version that WsDOT couldn't honestly predict the construction impact voters feared and voted against.
Seattle transportation planning agencies need and deserve consequential reforms. McGinn is the man for that job, not Mallahan.
Posted On: Wednesday, Oct. 28 2009 @ 1:18PM
Wells says:
Correction:
David Schraer complained on his blog about a purportedly "dishonest, deceitful push-pull poll" from the McGinn campaign. I contacted the McGinn campaign and got a direct answer that the poll was "run-of-the-mill research poll".
As for the gun ban Robocall, Mallahan supporters didn't like hearing the truth, boo hoo.
Posted On: Wednesday, Oct. 28 2009 @ 1:34PM
Bill B says:
McGinn and his supporters believe that we can somehow build ourselves to sustainability. The Great City Initiative has always sold the snake oil of "Density + Livability = Sustainability".
What they really want to do is make it easier to build and build big.
Look at McGinn's crew and the Light Rail proponents - big developers, the cutely named "Quality Growth Alliance" (which includes the Master Builders Association, Washington State Chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP) - an organization dedicated to improving the climate for commercial real estate development, the PSRC - that is promoting the 300,000 people moving to Seattle, and others urging the rapid high densification of our neighborhoods), and the design and development firms that profit from this growth.
Posted On: Thursday, Oct. 29 2009 @ 6:33PM
David Stoesz says:
I give up trying to understand Mallahan supporters.
You have a rich corporate guy who wouldn't be in the race if he didn't fund it himself and who has been so little involved in civic life that he rarely voted versus a neighborhood activist who's built a dynamic grassroots organization on a shoestring, powered almost solely by the enthusiasm he inspires.
I get that this enthusiasm can come across as irritatingly trendy or whatever, but how this could POSSIBLY translate into support for Malllahan--who, once again, could not until recently even be bothered to VOTE--seems like pure contrarianism of the most perverse kind.
Judy Lightfoot's account adds nothing but the usual complaining about the tunnel (the quote from Knute about what McGinn SHOULD have said sounds an awful lot like what he actually said) and some anecdotes about ... his willingness to try foreign languages?
Like I said, I give up.
Posted On: Thursday, Oct. 29 2009 @ 7:27PM
Bill B says:
@David S - McGinn wouldn't be in the race if it weren't for The Stranger and their readers that blindly clip and vote based on the shag-ass journalism found in that rag.
Re the lack of voting - it is a red herring. How many people that vote actually have a clue about what they are doing anyway. Phonebanking the last few days confirms that for me - when you have people say they voted, and can't remember who they voted for or who is who.
Let's get real about light rail. We barely have ridership and won't get substantive ridership for another 10 or more years. Certainly nothing to justify its expense. As a transit system it does not serve Seattle well - it is a regional system and only makes sense for Seattle if we build a few mini-cities around the transit stops. This will also take time.
What us Mallahan supporters don't understand about you McGinners is how you can be so delusional about the world and how it works.
As far as leadership, and his inspiration, there are just as many who have worked with McGinn who are unimpressed or worse.
As I stated in a previous comment above, most of the McGinn enthusiasm comes from development professionals that would benefit from his growth policies. Them and those that have drunk the density=sustainability Kool-aid.
Posted On: Friday, Oct. 30 2009 @ 3:29AM
matto says:
Thanks for this article. It is not enough to sway my vote at this point--I'll be voting for McGinn, but it has offered some good points of consolation if Mallahan wins. This helps me feel like Seattle will be in good hands no matter the winner. I really wish Mallahan would get fully behind light rail and street cars, though. Those who have lived in cities with real mass transit know that buses cannot compare in ease of use and accessibility.
Posted On: Tuesday, Nov. 3 2009 @ 10:52AM