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Vote early… CHS 2013 Mayoral Primary — UPDATE

Thursday night, Seattle City Council member Bruce Harrell kicked off his campaign to become Seattle’s mayor with an event at 14th Ave First AME Church. He’s in for a long race. To date, six candidates have already filed for the race and reported campaign contributions — two more have declared their intentions to run. And a small raft of potential challengers still waits in the wings. The real primary isn’t until August but we’re ready to start separating the wheat from the chaff.

Below, we’ve posted a few notes about the candidates and a CHS primary survey asking you to select all of the current candidates that you’d consider voting for. You should be able to see the results as they compile. We’ve left the survey open indefinitely with no cutoff date. It will continue to tally forever — but we’ll take a look at results later this week. Who knows? We might save a few of these candidates some work.


Note: Poll was reset at 4:35 PM after discovering our original candidate roster was incomplete. New respect for King County Elections! Yes, you’ll need to vote again.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world’s leading questionnaire tool.

UPDATE: Results– ChartExport

Candidate: Mike McGinn (Incumbent)
Reported contributions as of 1/13:  $103, 701
Capitol Hill connection? Declared candidacy at Piecora’s in 2009  
What they’re saying: “He has, however, gradually developed a knack for politics.

Candidate: Ed Murray
Reported contributions as of 1/13: $124,070
Capitol Hill connection? He lives here and has been a champion for gay rights for decades.
What they’re saying:   “…many specifics of his campaign will be on hold until a decision about mounting a campaign with ‘unique challenges.‘”

Candidate: Tim Burgess
Reported contributions as of 1/13: $100,972
Capitol Hill connection? Former cop is City Council member since 2007. Promised exclusive on mayoral campaign to Stranger, apparently.
What they’re saying: “Burgess is a formidable candidate. He Seattle native, product of the city’s public schools (and the University of Washington) a onetime journalist, former Seattle Police officer and successful businessman.”

Candidate: Charlie Staadecker
Reported contributions as of 1/13: $71,306
Capitol Hill connection? Lives in Mount Baker!
What they’re saying: “His campaign kicked off a month ago with a theme song and four pillars: education, jobs and economic security, quality of life, and safety and core services.

Candidate: Peter Steinbrueck
Reported contributions as of 1/13: $8,823
Capitol Hill connection? Has fought SLU re-zone 
What they’re saying: “Five years later—after leaving a council seat he’d held for a decade to go back to his roots in architecture, urban planning, and consulting—Steinbrueck is ready to return to city hall, this time as mayor, because, he says, ‘I don’t feel the city has strong leadership right now.'”

Candidate: Kate Martin
Reported contributions as of 1/13: $133
Capitol Hill connection? Lives in North Seattle!
What they’re saying: “She ran for School Board on a platform of giving individual schools more freedom and establishing a mentorship program, but lost to incumbent Sherry Carr.

Candidate: Bruce Harrell
Reported contributions as of 1/13:  n/a
Capitol Hill connection?  Campaign HQ in the CD at 23rd and Union
What they’re saying: “This is the heartbeat of the city right here. … We had a forum at Garfield [High School] where there were people who grew up in the community saying, ‘this is my community, and you folks moved here.’ I would like to see a Seattle where people of color could afford a house anywhere they want in the city.

Candidate: David Ishii
Reported contributions as of 1/13:  n/a
Capitol Hill connection? nope
What they’re saying: “His campaign website is called papabigfoot.com, featuring an animated elephant that bounds across the screen while farting a cloud that reads “Happy Valentines Day.”

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14 Comments
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lifeguard
11 years ago

Looking forward to hearing the platforms people will run on.

Uncle Vinny
Uncle Vinny
11 years ago

Looks like you need to add “Harrell” as an option on your list.

jseattle
jseattle
11 years ago

Worst cut and paste ever. We’ve reset the totals and re-opened the polls.

pick one
11 years ago

Not even knowing the background of some of these candidates. I am confident that any one of these candidates whose name does not end in McGinn would do a better job that what we are currently tolerating.

calhoun
calhoun
11 years ago

I agree completely, and say “ABM” (anyone but McGinn)

It’s very strange that the poll so far shows a lot of support for McGinn, yet other polls show he is very unpopular and unlikely to win re-election. What’s going on? Is someone stuffing the ballot box?

Ryan in the sky
11 years ago

Calhoun, it shows a lack of support for other candidates. Me, I’m “Anyone But Burgess”.

Bill234
11 years ago

I am for ANYONE but Steinbrueck. He is the only lobbyist running for mayor. I have serious ethical concerns about any candidate who has dedicated the past few years of his career to lobbying City Hall on behalf of a few wealthy clients, many of whom live outside Seattle and care more about the profit they make next quarter than the long-term future of our city.

Abbot
11 years ago

Looks like he opened up a campaign office on Pike and Summit, where CK Graphics used to be.

JayH
JayH
11 years ago

I am still supporting McGinn because he has shown a willingness to compromise and follow the will of the people. Examples are the 99 tunnel that he opposed and his very recent decisions to back off on drones. There is something to be said for a strong leader, but there is more to be said for someone who recognizes that compromise is not a dirty word.

Vote Out McGinn
11 years ago

surely you’re more intelligent than that, JayH. McGinn is solely responsible for a TWO YEAR delay in the SR99 tunnel project that cause the price to skyrocket and now creates a serious funding issue for Metro. Couple that with the man’s obvious war on cars of any kind and you have the makings for the most pathetic mayor Seattle has had in contemporary history.

calhoun
calhoun
11 years ago

JayH, McGinn blatantly lied during the election campaign and said that he would not oppose the tunnel, then he proceeded to do just that once elected. He did everything he could to stop the tunnel….thank goodness he didn’t prevail on that one.

Do you really want to support a guy like this?

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[…] results echo what we recorded in the CHS 2013 Mayoral Primary (probably the first of many!) we held in […]

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[…] the the 43rd District Democrats voted to endorse their State Senator for Mayor of Seattle. In a CHS survey earlier this year as candidates first threw their hats in the ring, Steinbrueck finished fourth. Of the respondents […]

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[…] mayor — but it’s not all negative even though Harrell finished only fifth in an online survey CHS ran way back in February. Those who said they lived on the Hill and that they would consider […]