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Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Mallahan Announces Advisory Board

Posted by on Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 6:50 PM

Mayoral candidate Joe Mallahan announced members of an advisory board this afternoon that includes heads of endorsing organizations, elected officials, and community leaders. It's a weighty list.

The announcement comes on the heels of yesterday's prediction from challenger Mike McGinn that Mallahan would soon announce the advisory board, naming Tayloe Washburn, chair of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, as its head. While Washburn is listed among the members, he isn't credited with any title. Some of Mallahan's advisers are predicable, such as Rich O'Neill and Kenny Stuart, presidents of the local police and fire unions, respectively, which have both endorsed Mallahan. Absent are some of the progressive leaders representing sustainability and environmental interests, which former Sierra Club chair McGinn has locked down. But the roster of gravitas does speak to Mallahan's ability to assemble a strong team—the sort of organizational prowess that McGinn, who has an overwhelmingly volunteer-run campaign, has yet to prove.

The full list is after the jump.

Members of Mallahan’s Campaign Advisory Committee Include:

Bob Santos, Former Executive Director of Inter*im, civil rights and housing advocate

Nate Miles, Chair, African American Agenda and Trustee of Mt. Zion Baptist Church

Kenny Stuart, President Seattle Firefighters Union

Rich O’Neil, President, Seattle Police Officers Guild

Tina Podlodowski, President/CEO of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Puget Sound and former Seattle City Council member

Michael DeBell, President of Seattle School Board

Tayloe Washburn, former Chair of Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce

Bob Donegan, stakeholder, Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall Replacement Project

Dean Nielsen, Regional Director of Progressive Majority, former director of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

José E. Gaitán, former Chair of Urban Enterprise Center and former chair of Academic Accountability and Achievement Commission

Bill Block, Project Director, King County Committee to End Homelessness

Harry Bailey, former Assistant Seattle Police Chief, Co-Chair Rainier Corridor Traffic Safety Project

Ollie Garrett, President of Tabor 100

Bernie Matsuno, former Acting Director, Seattle Department of Neighborhoods

Jared Smith, former City of Seattle Regional Transit manager and head of Transportation Policy and Planning, board member of Futurewise

Peter Masundire, board member, African Americans Reach and Teach Health, community organizer in SE Seattle

John Engber, former State Director, US Senator Patty Murray

Gael Tarleton, Seattle Port Commissioner

Judy Clibborn, Chair of House Transportation Committee

Dan O’Neal, former Chair of Washington State Transportation Commission, board member of Cascade Land Conservancy and Puget Sound Partnership Leadership Council

Judy Runstad, co-chair of Governor Gregoire’s Washington Global Competitiveness Council, first woman president of Downtown Seattle Association, counsel of Foster Pepper, PLLC

John Littel, Vice Chair Seattle Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, Political Director of Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters

Lee Newgent, member Sound Transit Diversity Oversight Committee, Executive Secretary of Seattle/King County Building and Construction Trades Council

Fred Kiga, Vice President State and Local Government Relations, Boeing

Bob Watt, former Deputy Mayor of Seattle, Chair of Seattle Foundation, and former board member of Children’s Alliance and Thrive by Five

Craig Dawson, President of Retail Lockbox and former president of Tabor 100

Karen Daubert, President of Seattle Parks Foundation

 

Comments (12) RSS

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1
Don't you think that running a quite successful mayoral campaign with an all-volunteer staff is evidence that he has organizational prowess, not that he lacks it? How would Mallahan be faring without his army of highly paid staffers?
Posted by April on September 22, 2009 at 7:41 PM
Supreme Ruler Of The Universe 2
Absent as well are any for-profit businesses or large corporations!

Guess everyone in Seattle is on the dole...
Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe http://yrihf.com on September 22, 2009 at 7:42 PM
3
All of these people are more qualified to be Mayor than both Mallahan or McGinn. And everyone on that list knows that to be true too.
Posted by West Seattle Waiter on September 22, 2009 at 9:24 PM
seandr 4
The only people on this list I've heard of are Rich O'Neil, who should lock up the douchebag vote for Mallahan, and Tina Podlowski.

So, I have to assume by "weighty" you mean that the people on it are fat. That's a rather insensitive remark, Dom.

Posted by seandr on September 22, 2009 at 9:39 PM
5
A new and inexperienced mayor is going to need a lot of support in the city to be effective... these endorsements say a lot to underscore that Mallahan will have that support.

Will McGinn get that same kind of support to make up for his inexperience if he is elected?
Posted by DDementia on September 22, 2009 at 9:57 PM
6
First, who says or believes that Mallahan had anything to do with assembling this team? This is what high priced consultants (and former heads of the Chamber of Commerce who are concerned that their pet pork infrastructure project is going down in flames along with their puppet candidate) do. Second, a team is only as valuable as what it produces, and to date, team Mallahan has produced very little for a lot of money; whereas team McGinn has produced a TON for almost no money. Third, what are the chance that all of these incredibly busy folks will actually be able to contribute anything of substance (other than money and some ideas) to Mallahan's campaign? Not much. So what's left? A bunch of weighty folks on a list for Mallahan to trumpet, now that's what I call driving efficiency across the organization and leveraging synergy.
Posted by CMB on September 22, 2009 at 11:13 PM
gloomy gus 7
I remember this from a grade-school quiz:

What weighs more, a ton of concrete or a ton of feathers?

Mallahan or McGinn? We gotta pick one.
Posted by gloomy gus on September 23, 2009 at 8:06 AM
8
"Gravitas"? Some worshipping of the power elite going on here. This bunch is behind the bored tunnel a multi billion dollar scam resting on illegal laws putting cost overruns on Seattle alone, and lies that "there will be no overruns"; the "benefit" is to speed up vehicular traffic, not transit, by about 6 minutes per trip, or if you believe the consultants of the proponents, about 11 minutes per trip. This tunnel also doesn't carry about half the trips the viaduct carries which are TO downtown, not thru it; so as the power elite's choice of the massive megadollars for a lifetime it really sucks just based on its transportation "benefits" alone.

Then there's that whole green thing? Remember how green we are in Seattle?

To this crowd that's just a bunch of talk.

All hail their gravitas. And lo, behold the Wise Mallahan Surrounding Himself With Wise Men, Bond Counsel, Developers, Lawyers, Donors, and the entire colby underwood list of who really governs Seattle.

The reason Mallahan needs gravitas is because apart from his trite nostrums of effective management, he hasn't had one idea for anything in Seattle ever, nor has he been involved in anything that demonstrates any vision.

So what would a business do? Go hire some vision. Okay, so who's for hire? This bunch. The price? Giving all policy over to them, natch.

So how is this gravitas when his flip flops on Mercer and the trolley are coming as the quid pro quo?

If this is gravitas we should just eliminate the mayor and council and make a junta out of the top 50 donors on the underwood donor list.
Posted by Um -- "Gravitas" or just the "Gravitrain"?? on September 23, 2009 at 8:15 AM
9
And the one elected person on the list? Michael DeBell, president of the School Board. And Mallahan will have no control over schools because that's not part of the job description. (Of course, the way things are going, someday running the schools might be the job of an appointed superintendent....appointed by the mayor.)
Posted by westello on September 23, 2009 at 8:43 AM
Baconcat 10
Judy Clibborn is virulently anti-rail. She's the reason Light Rail to the eastside is getting pushed back, and will probably help Mallahan in his quest to see the Sound Transit 2 expansion, as voted on, stripped of rail expansions and all that money devoted to van pools or more car lanes. She hates Nickels, and Seattle has long been an obstacle to her.

Also, she's heavily devoted to her Mercer Island interests, and by extension, I-90, which helps Mallahan as a gimme to T-Mobile.

If you think he's running "for the people", you're wrooooooong.
Posted by Baconcat on September 23, 2009 at 8:51 AM
Kinkos 11
@10 - hear hear...

i have an ulcer just thinking of the transit policies clibborn will concoct.

4 years of mallahan would be like a mini-bush era for seattle. frightening.
Posted by Kinkos on September 23, 2009 at 10:28 AM
Will in Seattle 12
So, I guess that answers the question of who the Insider Establishment candidate is.

Well, that and the King County Dems endorsing Mallahan while all the Seattle District Dems endorsed McGinn.
Posted by Will in Seattle http://www.facebook.com/WillSeattle on September 23, 2009 at 10:52 AM

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