Mike McGinn

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Mike McGinn

Prior offices

Mayor of Seattle

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Education

Bachelor's

Williams College

Law

University of Washington

Contact

Personal website

Mike McGinn was a candidate for mayor of Seattle in Washington. McGinn was defeated in the primary election on August 1, 2017. Click here to read McGinn's campaign themes for 2017.

McGinn was the mayor of Seattle from 2010 to 2013. He was defeated by Ed Murray in the general election on November 5, 2013.

Biography

McGinn earned his B.A. in economics from Williams College. He later received his J.D. from the University of Washington.

Elections

2017

See also: Municipal elections in Seattle, Washington (2017)

The following candidates ran in the primary election for mayor of Seattle.

Mayor of Seattle, Primary Election, 2017
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Jenny Durkan	27.90%	51,529
Cary Moon	17.62%	32,536
Nikkita Oliver	16.99%	31,366
Jessyn Farrell	12.54%	23,160
Bob Hasegawa	8.39%	15,500
Mike McGinn	6.50%	12,001
Gary Brose	2.16%	3,987
Harley Lever	1.81%	3,340
Larry Oberto	1.67%	3,089
Greg Hamilton	0.92%	1,706
Michael Harris	0.76%	1,401
Casey Carlisle	0.71%	1,309
James Norton Jr.	0.54%	988
Thom Gunn	0.25%	455
Mary Martin	0.23%	422
Jason Roberts	0.22%	405
Lewis Jones	0.19%	344
Alex Tsimerman	0.14%	253
Keith Whiteman	0.09%	174
Tiniell Cato	0.09%	170
Dave Kane	0.06%	114
Write-in votes	0.23%	418
Total Votes		184,667
Source: King County, "2017 election results," accessed August 15, 2017

2013

Mayor of Seattle, 2013
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Ed Murray	52.1%	106,384
Mike McGinn Incumbent	47.9%	97,935
Total Votes		204,319
Source: Seattle, Washington, "Historical Election Results," accessed June 21, 2017

Campaign themes

2017

McGinn discussed his themes for the 2017 campaign in his campaign announcement:

“	First, before any new taxes, we will thoroughly review our budgets to cut the cost of grandiose projects and save money in operations. I did that when I took office in the depths of the Great Recession, cutting $60 million in annual expenses, while preserving essential services. Except this time we don’t have to do it just to balance the budget, this time we can do it to put money toward our real priorities. It is what we should be doing in this time of extraordinary wealth in our city. It’s even more important to prioritize when Trump and a Republican Congress are planning to cut human services and transit projects. Here is the first priority - we must house the homeless. We need to look at what’s working, and scale up our support for that, while at the same time trimming what does not work. Given the depth of the problem, we will likely require more resources. But need to start working with what we already have. It is the height of foolishness to think that the Feds or the State are going to rush in with dollars, and we have wasted precious time waiting for them. When we do that, when we can ensure safe and accommodating housing for people, when we’re not just pushing people from place to place, we can and will enforce our rules against camping in parks and on sidewalks. I did that as mayor. I know all of this will be hard and there will be controversy and passion from all sides. But we are going to move fast on this. Because the situation now is unacceptable. When we do that budget review, we will also get back to basics. Filling potholes, making our streets safe for all users, keeping officers on patrol, maintaining our buildings, keeping and expanding hours for libraries and communities centers, maintaining direct human services, and ensuring that small businesses get great customer service from city agencies. We’ll innovate - like we did to avoid a new city jail, to prioritize drug treatment over incarceration and to get more police on the street in hot spots. Politicians love the legacy of expensive signature projects, but good government is about doing a lot of little things right. Now, I don’t deny we may need to raise money for important priorities. But if we do so, I will urge we not go straight to sales taxes, property taxes or other regressive fees. My starting point is how do we get the hugely successful individuals and big companies to pay their fair share. For example, I support a city income tax. I’ll use this opportunity today to urge the City Council to pass one this year, as soon as they can. We know it will be challenged legally, so we should get a test case in front of the courts right away. But since we can’t rely on an income tax surviving a legal challenge, we must also ask our biggest companies to help pay for the impacts that their growth has on our city. Along with that, we could also expand the B&O exemption for small businesses. Like our households, our small businesses are also getting squeezed by rising rents and costs. Here’s why I believe our biggest companies can do more. It wasn’t long ago we were worried about attracting big downtown employers. That’s changed. We have tens of thousands of new jobs in our city. Now, we need to think about how the big companies can pay to mitigate their effects on this city - and keep it livable for regular working people and small businesses. Whether that’s helping pay for services, or helping expand local transit, the big employers can’t just benefit from our beautiful diverse creative place, they need to help keep it that way. Seattle faces a fundamental problem. We simply can’t keep asking middle- and lower-income families in this town to pay more in regressive taxes to deal with the growth -- while at the same time they have to deal with the rising cost of living caused by that growth. That is why housing costs, like our budget and taxes, must also be a priority. I commend Ed Murray for asking stakeholders to bring forward their best ideas to address housing. HALA - the Housing and Livability Agenda - has some good ideas in there. But ideas are not enough. If you want public support, the public has to be involved. You can’t tell them that a bunch of people in a room have made a “Grand Bargain” when the people most affected - the public - didn’t have a seat at the table. I’m reminded of the old proverb - if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. And we have far to go. If elected, immediately upon taking office, I would launch true neighborhood driven planning across the city. Invite everyone - those who think we’re growing too fast, those who think we need to build more housing fast. Homeowners, renters, builders. And let’s have it out. Standing still is not an option. And neither is discord and controversy around solutions. I have my own opinions on the best solutions, you can find it in my record. I support making it easier for small changes like backyard cottages, mother-in-law apartments, townhouses and small apartment buildings. I think luxury developments should help pay for affordable housing. I believe we need to scale up publicly-owned housing. But as mayor, I learned my opinion is far from the only one that counts. We can’t solve this problem without the public being part of the solution. We used this approach on the Family and Education Levy, on the Road Safety Action plan, on economic development and on police reform - by inviting those most affected to be part of the solution. On growth and our quality of life, that’s everyone. Again, this will be a controversial and contentious discussion, but the current cost of housing can’t stand. We will push this process toward action. We’ll also ask neighborhoods to identify their highest priorities for investments in services, public safety and transportation. That will inform how we prioritize our spending. Now, I’ve focused here on housing, homeless and the budget. But there is more we can do to make Seattle work for all of us. When I was mayor, we passed Paid Sick Leave. Mayor Ed Murray and the City Council raised the minimum wage - that was the right thing to do. Our next opportunity for leadership is to pass Universal Paid Family and Medical Leave and eliminate gender pay inequity. I’m going to stop there. Obviously there are a lot of other issues to talk about, which we can talk about now and during the course of the campaign. I just wanted to use my opening remarks to focus on what’s truly important here. This city has always been known for its openness and, for its quality of life, for its innovation. Those of you who came to town, like me, probably remember that feeling crossing the I-90 bridge so many years ago and seeing the skyline for the first time. Seattle was a promise - a promise that we can be little better and do a little more than we could anywhere else. The people here created that promise. That promise is threatened. Right now, every time the rent goes up, or a house goes on the market at an unaffordable price, it doesn’t just squeeze out who’s here now. It squeezes out our dream of what our city can be. A place where your kids can choose to live near you. Of a stable community that grows around you, instead of being shattered by growth. A place where a school teacher, artist, or non-profit worker can forgo some salary, because they want to make all our lives better through education, or art, or helping the needy. A place where somebody can quit their job to take on the risk of starting a new business. A place that a refugee can move to and find people who speak his or her language, food that seems right and a bus line to carry them around. A place to live. We all benefit when we keep that Seattle. We can’t let this city become San Francisco, trending rapidly towards an enclave only for the wealthy. We need a city for the rest of us - a truly livable Seattle.	”
—Mike McGinn (2017)

Endorsements

2017

General election

The following table displays group endorsements issued in Seattle's 2017 general election. Click [show] on the box below to view endorsements.

Candidate endorsements
Endorser	Mayor	Position 8	Position 9	City attorney
Alliance for Gun Responsibility Victory Fund	Jenny Durkan	N/A	M. Lorena González (i)	Pete Holmes (i)
Democracy for America	Cary Moon	N/A	N/A	N/A
Equal Rights Washington	Jenny Durkan	Teresa Mosqueda	M. Lorena González (i)	Pete Holmes (i)
King County Democrats	Cary Moon	Teresa Mosqueda	M. Lorena González (i)	Pete Holmes (i)
M.L. King County Labor Council	Jenny Durkan	Teresa Mosqueda	M. Lorena González (i)	N/A
Seattle Education Association	Cary Moon	Teresa Mosqueda	M. Lorena González (i)	N/A
Seattle Weekly	Cary Moon	Jon Grant	M. Lorena González (i)	Pete Holmes (i)
SEIU 6	Cary Moon	N/A	N/A	N/A
SEIU 925	Cary Moon	N/A	N/A	N/A
SEIU 1199NW	Jenny Durkan	N/A	N/A	N/A
Teamsters Joint Council No. 28	Jenny Durkan	N/A	N/A	N/A
The Seattle Times	Jenny Durkan	N/A	Pat Murakami	Scott Lindsay
The Stranger	Cary Moon	Jon Grant	M. Lorena González (i)	Pete Holmes (i)
UFCW 21	Cary Moon	N/A	N/A	N/A
Unite Here Local 8	Cary Moon	N/A	N/A	N/A
Washington State Council of County and City Employees	Jenny Durkan	N/A	N/A	N/A

Primary election

The following table displays group endorsements issued in Seattle's 2017 primary election. Click [show] on the box below to view endorsements.

Candidate endorsements
Endorser	Mayor	Position 8	Position 9	City attorney
Civic Alliance for a Sound Economy (CASE)	Jenny Durkan	Sara Nelson	M. Lorena González (i)	N/A
M.L. King County Labor Council	Jessyn Farrell Bob Hasegawa	Teresa Mosqueda	M. Lorena González (i)	N/A
Metropolitan Democratic Club of Seattle	Bob Hasegawa	Teresa Mosqueda	M. Lorena González (i)	Pete Holmes (i)
Seattle Democratic Socialists of America	Nikkita Oliver	Jon Grant	N/A	N/A
Seattle Education Association	Bob Hasegawa Nikkita Oliver	Teresa Mosqueda Sheley Secrest	M. Lorena González (i)	N/A
Seattle Hospitality for Progress	Jenny Durkan	Sara Nelson	N/A	Scott Lindsay
Seattle Subway	Cary Moon	Teresa Mosqueda	N/A	N/A
The Seattle Times	Jenny Durkan	Sara Nelson	Pat Murakami	N/A
SEIU 775	Jenny Durkan	Teresa Mosqueda	N/A	N/A
Sierra Club PAC Washington State	Mike McGinn	Teresa Mosqueda	M. Lorena González (i)	N/A
Socialist Alternative Party	Nikkita Oliver	Jon Grant	N/A	N/A
The Stranger	Cary Moon	Jon Grant	M. Lorena González (i)	N/A
The Urbanist	Cary Moon	Teresa Mosqueda	M. Lorena González (i)	N/A
UFCW 21	Jessyn Farrell	Teresa Mosqueda	M. Lorena González (i)	Pete Holmes (i)
Washington Conservation Voters	N/A	Teresa Mosqueda Sara Nelson	M. Lorena González (i)	N/A
32nd District Democrats	Bob Hasegawa Mike McGinn Cary Moon	Teresa Mosqueda Sheley Secrest Hisam Goueli	Pat Murakami	Pete Holmes (i)
36th District Democrats	N/A	Teresa Mosqueda	M. Lorena González (i)	Pete Holmes (i)
37th District Democrats	Bob Hasegawa	Sheley Secrest Teresa Mosqueda	M. Lorena González (i)	Pete Holmes (i)
43rd District Democrats	Jessyn Farrell	Teresa Mosqueda	M. Lorena González (i)	Pete Holmes (i)
46th District Democrats	Jessyn Farrell Bob Hasegawa	Teresa Mosqueda	M. Lorena González (i)	Pete Holmes (i)

See also

Seattle, Washington	Washington	Municipal government	Other local coverage

External links

Suggest a link

• Office of the Mayor of Seattle
• Campaign website