Mayor McPipedream Hold Focus Group, Calls it a "Town Hall"

Hey, J-School kids, it's called a focus group.

As much as I like the idea of the mayor-elect having "Town Halls" I can not quite get over the fact that this was not really a Town Hall.

Dominic Holden got right to the point on who Mike McGinn announced as his first three staff members.
(emphasis mine)

McGinn's deputy mayors will be Phil Fujii, the community relations manager at Vulcan, and Darryl Smith, a Windermere realtor and former city council candidate. Julie McCoy (no, not this Julie McCoy), the managing director of the Mercury Group, which conducted strategy for McGinn's campaign, will be McGinn's chief of staff.
The Stranger

After the 1 hour, 45 minute, thing I think McGinn owes me a free sleeping bag for living through the mayoral version of a timeshare pitch. Here's larger message being given tonight, He needs our help, here are the questions, remember these words, say them back to me, I need your help.

Word to the guy in the red tie, Town Hall means you get your ass out there and we pepper YOU with questions and you try to answer them. For real, this bullshit should have been done 4 months ago. Here is an idea, know what the answers to those three questions are BEFORE you run for office. WTF are you asking these kinds of questions know for, other than to test your word cloud Vulcan/Windermere/Mercury marketing on those think tank subjects in the gym in North Seattle.

Is this Q&A, or push-polling?
Here is a tip, the crowd provided the "answers".

Tell me what you think of when you read these three questions:

How do we build the strongest possible team to achieve the policy objectives and values set forth by the campaign?
How do we build public trust in the new administration?
What do you view as the incoming administration and the city’s greatest challenge — what should the new administration do first out of the gate?
new.seattle.gov/input

Good, now that you are thinking these things, here are the words we have collected from other people in connection with these same questions (insert "word cloud", that's #7 of 9 tips here at www.FocusGroupTips.com).
Now, start talking to the questions, let's see if our "word cloud" words are part of your statements.

Note to the folks in the South end of Seattle, McGinn spoke for about 14 minutes (8 minutes opening, 3 minutes telling everybody that we have a $40 million dollar deficit next year, 3 minutes to close). I hope you are not expecting answers to your questions. I do not think they are ready to market answers yet.

Have a great day,
Mike Baker

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http://ManyWordsForRain.blogspot.com

The Stranger, Reading Today: A Nickname for Mike McGinn?

This question has been posed at the SeattleWeekly, as well as today in the Stranger; what should the be the nickname for the new mayor?

At Seattle Mystery Bookshop, it's time for Derek Haas. Columbus is about an international assassin who is nicknamed "The Silver Bear." I think "The Silver Bear" would be a great nickname for our new mayor.

posted by PAUL CONSTANT on SAT, NOV 21, 2009 at 10:04 AM
Reading Today: A Nickname for Mike McGinn? , The Stranger [Slog].

First, barf, second, I have selected my own nickname for McGinn.

I will be calling Seattle Mayor-elect Mike McGinn Mayor McTaft. This name is for his neighborhood "Dollar Diplomacy" that he is chasing, as well as serving as his own Secretary of War with the Washington State Legislature.

Have a great day,
Mike Baker

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http://ManyWordsForRain.blogspot.com

[Urban Legends] Urban Politics #282 - MAYOR ELECT MIKE McGINN REACHES OUT

In a year we will all look back and remember that these days were happening while Greg Nickels was still Mayor of Seattle, and Mike McGinn is Mayor-Elect of Seattle.

Urban Politics #282, November 16, 2009

By City Councilmember Nick Licata

I've used Urban Politics primarily to discuss pending and passed legislation, but this year I will also be providing more commentary on City Hall's workings and politics and how I see them helping shape legislation.

MAYOR ELECT MIKE McGINN REACHES OUT

Friday afternoon Councilmember Jan Drago stuck her head into my office and said in a jovial manner, "Hey if you want to see the new Mayor, come next door." That would be Councilmember Sally Clark's office. Drago and I found Mayor-Elect Mike McGinn in the middle of Clark's office, smiling broadly (his seemingly ever present smile may become his trademark) and talking in a casual style to both staff and Clark. Councilmember Tim Burgess soon walked over and joined us.

McGinn explained that rather than making courtesy calls to all the Councilmembers, he thought it better to just walk over and meet face to face on a casual basis. This is a departure from Mayor Nickel's style, which was to rely more on his deputy mayor Tim Ceis to walk the Council hallway.

In another way McGinn is making a more dramatic departure from not only the Nickels' transition but others that have gone before him as well. Rather than appoint a distinguished list of civic leaders and activists to head up his transition team, he is relying on a more diffuse collection of community people. As one of them explained to me, "He wanted to avoid a sense of who was in and who was out in this effort."  And there still seems to be a lot of campaign volunteers willing to continue with their assistance. McGinn shared with us that up to six volunteers a day were currently working in the transition office in the Municipal Tower across from City Hall.

McGinn is also asking a number of community leaders to solicit opinions from their contacts in the general public by answering several questions. I received such a request from Sharon Lee, the Executive Director of the Low Income Housing Institute. And with her encouragement I'm passing on these questions to UP readers. For those who wish to answer the following questions, send your comments directly to Sharon at sharonl@lihi.org by this Friday. She will compile them and submit them to a smaller group working directly with Mayor Elect McGinn.

Mayor Elect McGinn's Three Questions:

How do we build the strongest possible team to achieve the policy objectives and values set forth during Mike's campaign?

How do we build public trust in the new administration?

What do you view as the incoming administration and the city's greatest challenge - what should we do first out of the gate?

I applaud this effort and wish him well in his administration's first challenge: figuring out how to best use this flood of information. I hope he also shares the compiled responses he receives with the Council and the public. This could be the start of an open and vigorous conversation on where Seattle should be headed

This "reaching out" is not limited to just council members, oh no. You too can run in place with Mayor-Elect Mike McGinn is inviting YOU to participate in the post-election campaign.
Read the vision, give your input to a web page, and read the list of people that have filled our resumes, uh, drones, er, Outreach Meeting people.
new.seattle.gov

What flavor is your kool-aid?

Reality Catcher: Marijuana Decrim, Frank Chopp, and the Case of the Missing Balls

Reality Catcher: Marijuana Decrim, Frank Chopp, and the Case of the Missing Balls

I am no dope smoker, but blocking reasonable legislation by Frank Chopp has to stop, and not with just this subject.

Seattle Times Newspaper: Mallahan concedes Seattle mayor's race to McGinn

Best of luck to Mayor-elect Seattle Mike McGinn. Today his opponent, Joe Mallahan conceded the race to McGinn.
Read the newspaper report, here.

See Mike McGinn's campaign stump speech here:


My reasons for voting for Mallahan left with him, but not my reasons for voting against McGinn.
To quote myself:

The knock I have on Mike McGinn is that he has promised all kinds of things, with many of them requiring cooperation from the state government. Asking for help keeping some of his promises while Mike McGinn battles the state for two years trying to stop the current plan to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a deep bore tunnel, sounds absurd. He has ideas, not really a plan. Much of his leadership experience appears to be pitting one group against another and fighting.

How would he be viewed at the state level, by the rest of the state? Is he the scruffy lawyer finding every hair to split in his battle with the State of Washington on one hand, while on the other claiming that the state will just fall in line to support his "surface" proposal. That is laughable.
Me, on 10/10/2009

It is up to me to stay engaged in the things that are important to me, even when opposed by Mike's way, or the highway attempts to run me over.

Word to the mayor, I have no fear.

Have a great day,
Mike Baker

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http://ManyWordsForRain.blogspot.com

KING5/SurveyUSA Election Poll #16015: Mallahan 45, McGinn 43

I predict: Mallahan 51%, McGinn 48%, 1% other.

Here is the current KING5/surveyusa.com poll. Joe Mallahan 45, Mike McGinn 43, 12 undecided.

Can Joe Mallahan get 5 of the 12% that is left? Yes, that is possible.
Can Mike McGinn get 7 of the 12% that is left? Yes, that is possible.
Margin of error was 4.1%

McGinn has closed ground on Mallahan, but the question is if McGinn can get over 49.9% while opposing the tunnel.
It is possible, though I do not think so. I think the ceiling for the anti-tunnel candidate is 48%.

Have a great day,
Mike Baker

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Visit me here:
http://ManyWordsForRain.blogspot.com