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Tuesday, March 5, 2013

City Poll Shows Voters Love Council Member Licata, Don't Know Who the Hell O'Brien Is

Posted by Dominic Holden on Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 2:52 PM

Licata

Voters have generally favorable feelings toward all four members of the Seattle City Council up for reelection this year, according to a poll last week of likely primary election voters. But among those four incumbents, there's an interesting divergence: The council's two liberals are on opposite end of the spectrum of both familiarity and likeability.

Leading the pack is Nick Licata, a social-justice progressive wrapping up his fourth term, who had the best name recognition of the bunch with 76 percent of voters recognizing him as an active city councilman. The poll, conducted by by Winpower Strategies (which is run by consultant John Wyble, who is working for Licata), also found Licata's favorability rated highest at 74 percent.

O'Brien

On the bottom of the spectrum—but an arguably narrow spectrum—is Council Member Mike O'Brien, who has used his freshman term as an envelope-pusher for social justice, transit, and the environment. Sixty percent of likely voters had favorable feelings toward him, while only 38 percent of voters knew he was on the dais, putting at the bottom in both categories. This largely confirms conventional wisdom: O'Brien may be most vulnerable incumbent, particularly after introducing bills that annoyed big business, including bills that have let people opt-out of phone book delivery (struck down in court after a challenge from the Yellow Pages), ban plastic bags (to the chagrin of the plastic and grocery lobbies), and reform election rules (upsetting cronyistic business interests that donate to malleable council members). While other incumbents have no challengers, O'Brien already has two: business guy Albert Shen and corruption slayer Sam Bellomio.

But these tea leaves could bode well for O'Brien in the long haul.

Licata was once considered by some as the ineffectively radical lefty of the council, but after surviving a few terms, he's now the most popular. Being at the vanguard of issues ultimately makes voters remember and appreciate you.

Dreyfuss

The other council freshman up for reelection, Sally Bagshaw, was in the middle of the pack with 65 percent of voters feeling favorable about her and 48 percent of voters knowing she was on the council. Meanwhile, actor-turned-politician Richard Dreyfuss, who was elected the same year as Licata and dabbled as a composer and teacher in Mr. Holland's Opus, had fuzzy feelings from 68 percent of voters and was known by 65 percent of voters. The poll surveyed 600 voters and has a margin of error of 4 percent.

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Comments (7) RSS

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How can you have favorable feelings about someone's job performance if you literally have no idea what job they hold, much less what they have advocated in the course of doing that job?

Posted by d.p. on March 5, 2013 at 3:11 PM

You mean Richard "Tunnels Are Free" Dreyfus ... Right?

Posted by Will in Seattle

on March 5, 2013 at 3:11 PM

#3

Or as Obama would put it, the Richard Dreyfuss who found that little E.T.

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on March 5, 2013 at 3:57 PM

What makes Licata such a progressive? Lately I've known him more for opposition to density more than anything. This simply pushes up the price of housing, which is hardly progressive.

Conlin pushed to remove the parking requirement for new buildings (the parking requirement adds to the cost of construction which adds to the price of rent). He supported a smaller park and ride at Northgate and a bridge to the other side (where NSCC is) instead. I read his blog regularly and find little in there I disagree with. Basically, I think he is as progressive as anyone else on the board. Plus, he seems to understand how government works. For example, he completely understood the Roosevelt station snafu. It had less to do with local opposition, and a lot more to do with bad management. If had been handled better, we would have had more big buildings (which means more places for people to live) without local opposition.

I suppose the Stranger hates Conlin for the monorail and the tunnel. Fair enough. But the monorail had lots of real problems: http://seattletransitblog.com/2008/03/19…. It really was poorly planned. That doesn't excuse him (or Licata, or anyone else who was in power back then). They should have stepped forward and proposed something more feasible (like light rail). But they didn't. Then again, once the voters knew how much it would really cost, maybe they would have rejected it.

The viaduct is a different story. O'Brien had it right, which is why I voted for him the first time. The panel that considered the system in detail came up with two proposals: rebuild the viaduct or go with a surface solution. The surface solution was not "build nothing" but a series of other improvements (to transit, I-5, other streets, etc.). It would have cost a fair amount of money, but not nearly as much as the tunnel. Of course, all of that is state money. One nice thing about our mayor is that he has repeatedly said that he hates the tunnel and doesn't want to pay for it. This is good for the city, but bad for the state (so sad, Lynnwood, you will have to pay). Basically, the city won't pay a dime. Guys like Licata and Conlin recognized this, which is why they figured it wouldn't hurt (Seattle). All of this means that Seattle will have a nicer waterfront than if it had a rebuilt viaduct. It also means that there is no way we are going to build all the suburban highway systems that some members of legislature want us to build. With the tunnel and 520, we simply don't have the money.

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Posted by Ross on March 5, 2013 at 7:02 PM

How do more people know Sally Bagshaw than Mike O'Brien? Whatever she's done these last 3.5 years, she hasn't gotten any press coverage for it. She strikes me as a far more vulnerable candidate. Weird!

Posted by the other sally on March 5, 2013 at 7:52 PM

O'Brien? I always thought his position was on his knees, sucking McGinn's dick. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Posted by Unbrainwashed on March 6, 2013 at 12:19 AM

The Dreyfuss joke really wasn't funny the first time. Each new unexplained repetition, dependent on readers remembering the ever-further-removed original, just seems more confusing and unprofessional than the last.

Posted by lostboy