Michael McGinn

Michael McGinn (born December 17, 1959) is an American lawyer and politician.

He served as mayor of the city of Seattle, Washington, and is a neighborhood activist and a former State Chair of the Sierra Club.

In what was characterized as a "sea change in the power structure of Seattle," McGinn differentiated his campaign by his opposition to the proposed tunnel replacement to the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

According to McGinn, the club's political committee was "moribund" when he volunteered to lead it in the mid-1990s.

He left Stokes Lawrence in 2005 and started Great City Initiative, a nonprofit advocacy group.

McGinn is credited with increasing the influence of the Sierra Club, helping transform it into a "real political force" in Seattle.

McGinn stepped down from his position as head of the Greenwood Community Council in 2006 and stepped down as executive director of his nonprofit in March 2009 to run for mayor.

In 2007, McGinn used his position as a leader in the Sierra Club's Cascade Chapter to help successfully campaign against metropolitan Seattle's Proposition 1, a combined road and mass transit measure, in favor of a transit-only measure.

He later chaired the successful campaign to pass a Seattle parks levy.

McGinn's management record as an activist has come under scrutiny, including his chairmanship of Seattle's successful 2008 parks levy campaign.

Brice Maryman, a leader in the parks campaign, said, "There wouldn't have been a parks levy on the ballot ... without Mike McGinn's leadership", but some Seattle City Council members, including Tom Rasmussen, said that McGinn mismanaged the effort.

The City Council became "alarmed" at what members described as a disorganized effort.

It appointed Seattle Parks Foundation Executive Director Karen Daubert as co-chair to help save the levy campaign.

Rasmussen says that it was Daubert who "saved the day" for the levy.

McGinn credited his grassroots style of campaigning for the victory.

He was elected in November 2009 with the support of groups considered "political outsiders", such as environmentalists, biking advocates, musicians, advocates for the poor, nightclub owners, and younger voters.

Originally from Long Island, New York, McGinn earned a B.A. in economics from Williams College and worked for Congressman Jim Weaver as a legislative aide.

McGinn attended law school at the University of Washington School of Law.

After graduating, he practiced business law for the Seattle firm Stokes Lawrence, becoming a partner.

The group grew to 50 active political leaders by 2009.

McGinn is the founder and former executive director of the Seattle Great City Initiative, a nonprofit advocacy group, and a former head of the Greenwood Community Council.

At Great City, he oversaw a budget of $160,000 and worked alliances with companies like Triad Development, Harbor Properties and Paul Allen's Vulcan Inc. on environmental and urban development issues.

As a neighborhood organizer and head of his nonprofit, McGinn endorsed his future opponent Mayor Greg Nickels and worked with him to bar development of large, commercial "big box stores", eliminate street parking in favor of bus lanes and push for changes in zoning laws to encourage greater density in the Greenwood neighborhood.

McGinn announced his candidacy in the 2009 Seattle mayoral election on March 24, 2009.

He said his principal policy positions would center on schools, broadband Internet access and local transportation infrastructure.

He advocated replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a surface street instead of the planned tunnel; supplanting private broadband Internet service with a fiber optic system built and operated by Seattle City Light, the city's municipally owned electric utility; and greater local neighborhood control of parking taxes and meter rates.

He also raised the possibility of abolishing the city's independent school board, with operation of the schools to become a city government responsibility.

Mayor Greg Nickels proposed eliminating Seattle's business tax on single-occupancy vehicle commuters on the grounds it was no longer needed and was hurting business and job growth.

McGinn opposed ending the tax, called the Employee Hours Tax, which taxes business $25 for each of its employees who drives to work alone.

McGinn said that Nickels and fellow candidate Joe Mallahan, who also favored repealing the tax, were "out of touch" and too close to the "business elite".

McGinn rode his electrically assisted bicycle to and from political events and maintained no paid campaign staff.

In an upset, aided by exposure in the form of a cover profile from The Stranger, McGinn led the August primary with 39,097 votes, ahead of Mallahan's 37,933 and Nickels's 35,781.

By October 2009, the McGinn campaign had raised about $150,000.

In the general election, T-Mobile executive Mallahan was perceived as the "insider candidate", endorsed by Governor Christine Gregoire, a supporter of the tunnel.

McGinn defeated Mallahan on November 3 in a close race, with 51.14% of the vote.

Although the race was so close in the early vote count that a recount was considered a possibility, the gap between the candidates widened as the tally proceeded.

Mallahan conceded on November 9, saying of McGinn that "he seemed to be the superior campaigner this time around" and that McGinn's message "seemed to resonate" with Seattle's voters.

Describing the coalition that backed McGinn, University of Washington political science professor David Olson said, "these new actors are legitimate, numerically important and politically very skilled".

Mallahan criticized McGinn for "push polling" with robocalls to Seattle residents during the campaign.

Mallahan called one survey about the proposed Alaskan Way Viaduct "dishonest" but McGinn says the poll was legitimate research.