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How McGinn took lead in Seattle mayor's race

By EMILY HEFFTER | The Seattle Times • Published November 08, 2009

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SEATTLE – Moments after the first returns were posted in the Seattle mayor's race, Mike McGinn's volunteer field director took the stage at the Capitol Hill party.

"It's still really, really close," Derek Farmer shouted. "We need everybody that has a phone to help."

What happened next has become campaign lore among McGinn supporters.

Partygoers set down their beers, accepted scripts, phone sheets and pay-as-you-go cellphones, and The War Room bar became an impromptu phone bank to contact voters who hadn't yet mailed ballots.

The campaign said it ended up delivering 200 ballots to the post office at midnight - a chunk of votes in a race that has McGinn and his opponent, Joe Mallahan, separated by 2,384 votes. It's a slim but seemingly insurmountable lead. To catch McGinn, Mallahan would have to take about 54 percent of the remaining votes.

By all accounts, McGinn was the underdog in the race. He was out-fundraised by more than 3-to-1, and he lacked big-name endorsements. He was opposed by Gov. Chris Gregoire, the chairman of the state Democratic Party, and most of the business and labor communities.

What he did have was a fleet of volunteers so devoted they deferred graduate school, borrowed money from their parents and spent hours contacting voters for McGinn.

The grass-roots campaign seemed to tap into Seattle's idealism, as McGinn spoke about listening to people and bringing them to consensus, stopping plans for a deep-bore tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct and expanding light rail.

"I don't think it's just about Mike," said David Hiller, advocacy director of the Cascade Bicycle Club, which endorsed McGinn. "I hope that it sort of reinvigorates the grass-roots political movement."

McGinn, who quit his job as head of the nonprofit Great City to run for mayor, relied almost entirely on volunteers for his low-budget campaign. For three months, they campaigned out of his living room until he could afford cramped office space on Aurora Avenue.

McGinn himself traveled without an entourage. He spoke without notes, rode his bike to campaign events and gave reporters his cellphone number.