Not Much Dough in Mayor McGinn's Re-Election Kitty
When a meager 23 percent of the city's electorate approve of the job Mayor Mike McGinn is doing, it is understandable that money for a possible bid for reelection might be hard to come by. As of November 30, Seattle's bike-loving, tunnel-hating chief executive has raised a total of $31,709. His cash on hand presently sits at $2,258, according to campaign financial reports filed with the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission.
By contrast, ex-Mayor Greg Nickels, at this same juncture in his first term (December of 2003) and nearly two years removed from seeking reelection in 2005 -- had raised $103,555 and had more than $70,000 in his campaign war chest.
In 2009, Nickels raised nearly $600,000 in his bid for a third term, almost three times as much as McGinn, but managed to finish third in the August primary. It is interesting to realize just how close that election was. McGinn won by less than one percent over Joe Mallahan, vice president of strategic operations at T-Mobile. McGinn collected 27.71 percent of the vote to Mallahan's 26.88 percent. Nickels was close behind, tallying 25.36 percent.
The 2013 mayoral contest promises to be a doozy. It's anyone's guess as to how many candidates will seek to bring down McGinn. The most frequently named potential contender include Seattle Councilman Tim Burgess and state Sen. Ed Murray, who considered a write-in candidacy after voters rejected Nickels.
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