​Even before Mike McGinn's adorable children swore him in as Mayor of Seattle, he was making cuts. McGinn says he will get rid of 200 of the more than 900 political appointee positions left over from the Nickels administration.

He also got a jump on the requests from reporters for salary information of those appointees and released a broad list of who makes what in the new mayor's office. (Mark Matassa, the new Robert Mak, is pulling down $100,000 compared with his predecessor's nearly $160,000).

So, there's no question Seattle's new mayor is off to an early start shaking things up at the hall. What is in question is how much shaking up he'll be able to do beyond Seattle's borders.

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Courtesy of King County

Judge Bruce Hilyer swears in Jan Drago flanked by her backers (from left) Republicans Pete Von Reichbauer and Regan Dunn and Democrat Larry Phillips.

​Before the winter holiday break, the County Council deadlocked over who would replace Dow Constantine. The Democrats on this non-partisan-in-name-only council wanted State Senator Joe McDermott, who plans to run for the seat anyway and is widely considered the favorite this coming November.

The Republicans wanted a caretaker in the hopes of forcing McDermott to fight for his seat without an incumbency advantage. So they backed Jan "Hope Springs Eternal" Drago as a caretaker.

Today Larry Phillips broke the deadlock and backed fellow primary election loser Drago.

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E-mails show Christine Gregoire conspired to get the tunnel elected mayor of Seattle.

​The Seattle Times took 1,500 words in a front-page, above-the-fold story to tell us that Christine Gregoire didn't violate state election laws, but her office really, really did not want the Seattle mayoral election to unhinge the tunnel deal.

The story was inspired by a complaint to the Washington State Executive Ethics Board by Elizabeth Campbell, a mayoral candidate in the primary, who claimed that the state broke election rules by using government computers, e-mail services, and employee time to campaign for Mike McGinn's rival Joe Mallahan.

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You know it was photoshopped because they're all together AND smiling.

​

Last night, the King County Council was supposed to replace Dow Constantine. And in typical Seattle fashion, the process of getting to a final vote was both long and carefully considered.

An advisory committee narrowed down the 11 applicants to four finalists--all with elected office experience. All four were brought in for half-hour long interviews. The council left open the option of appointing someone who would run for the seat on a permanent basis or a caretaker who promised not to. And after all that planning, consideration and process...

They decided to start over.

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McGinn, left

​It is now certifiably official that Mike McGinn beat Joe Mallahan by 7,190 votes and will become Seattle's next mayor no matter who was really elected.

The final November election summary shows that 12,900 votes cast countywide were disqualified and not included in the victory count. King County's Canvassing Board report does not break down that figure by cities. But there's enough speculative wiggle room (were, say, 8,000 of those votes for Joe?) to keep die-hard Mallahanians wondering what if.

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This time around, Jan Drago made the first cut.

​Jan Drago finally made it to a general election--kind of. An advisory committee created by the King County Council recommended four people to fill now-King County Executive Dow Constantine's vacant council seat. Drago was one of eleven people that applied for consideration last week.

It remains to be seen whether or not the council will appoint a caretaker who agrees not to run for the position permanently next year (as they did in naming Kurt Triplett to replace Ron Sims) or someone who plans to use it as a chance to claim incumbency in 2010. The general buzz around the county is that the latter is more likely, but if the council goes with the former, Drago made the short list.

The committee's final four are:

For a non-caretaker: State Sen. Joe McDermott and State Rep. Zack Hudgins

For a caretaker: State Rep. Sharon Nelson and retiring City Councilmember Jan Drago

We knew McGinn would be nothing but smiles after softening his tunnel stance.

​Last night, at Del Rey, Publicola sponsored a boozy mayoral campaign debrief featuring, among other participants, Mallahan surrogate Charla Neuman. Commenting on Mayor-Elect McGinn's late shift of stance on whether he'd lay in front of pile drivers intent on boring out a tunnel to replace the viaduct, Neuman said: "It was a brilliant move, genius. For the first five minutes, I thought, 'yep, this is my Christmas present.' Five minutes later, I thought, 'oh, fill in the blank with your favorite four-letter word.' This could really work for him. Flip-flopping is an inside baseball game. And Mike McGinn is no John Kerry, he can articulate things very well."

So can the Daily Weekly, it turns out.

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Li'l Scoop

Even though he failed to be taxed, the Bagmonster still loves Mayor Nickels.

​Can we throw the bum back in? That was the message sent by a staggeringly pro-Greg Nickels crowd at a Seattle Climate Partnership-sponsored event at the Aquarium last night.

There, the outgoing mayor was feted for, among other things, leading the light rail and streetcar charges, bringing other cities in accordance with the Kyoto Treaty when President Bush refused to, planting trees, enacting pro-bike policies, and trying to tax the hell out of grocery bags. Even though Nickels failed on the final front, a man dressed entirely in plastic bags (pictured) still came up and hugged him. So cute.

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Being a donkey has its challenges.

​Managing the conflicting agendas of labor and business--both of them critical campaign contributors--is always a contortionist exercise in the state legislature. But it's likely to be even more uncomfortable in the state house this coming session.

As today's Seattle Times reports--echoing stories that have been in the media all year--there's been a major falling-out between the usually-cozy state Democrats and labor unions. Labor donations to Democratic caucus PACs this year are "a fraction of years past," says the Times.

What the Times, strangely, doesn't mention at all is why this a particularly awkward time for labor to be throwing its weight around.

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Greg Nickels is done rocking the boat.

​During Bill Clinton's final days at the White House, he pushed through a series of controversial pardons. In 2004 Utah Governor Olene Walker took advantage of being forced out in the Republican primary to push the state out of a deadlock over protecting wilderness areas. In California, Arnold Schwarzenegger held the legislature hostage by vetoing most bills until they came to an agreement on water supply problems.

Surely a Chicago-style heavy like Greg Nickels has some last minute things he's always wanted to do and could use his last seven weeks in office to force on the voters that kicked him out of office.

Apparently not.

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