Mayor-elect Mike McGinn (photo by Martin)
Mayor-elect McGinn (photo by Martin)

Update: Joe Mallahan has conceded the election. Mike McGinn is Seattle’s next mayor.

Previously: Mike McGinn may very well be Seattle’s next mayor. The latest ballot drop from King County Elections gives McGinn a 4,939 lead of Joe Mallahan, continuing the trend of later ballots heavily favoring McGinn after closer margins with earlier drops.

Mayor of Seattle
Mike McGinn – 96,514 – 50.88%
Joe Mallahan – 91,575 – 48.28%

While many more ballots are left to be counted, Mallahan would need a near-impossible surge to take the election. Today’s count puts McGinn well outside of automatic recount range and limits the scope of any possible challenges that Mallahan could offer regarding ballots rejected due to signature mis-matches. Mallahan will hold a press conference at 5pm where he is expected to concede the election.

The Seattle Transit Blog Editorial Board gave Mike McGinn our endorsement after Mayor Nickels was defeated in the primary. Transit advocates have a strong partner in Mike McGinn, and we should look forward to working with him on expanding light rail to the west side of the city.

22 Replies to “Mike McGinn is Seattle’s Next Mayor”

  1. Yay McGinn! I think it’s all over. Hopefully we see a good plan for Seattle light rail pretty soon.

    1. A “good plan”?!? Did you know he want to make the same mistake made on the MLK way? There are so many things wrong with placing the light-rail in the middle of a congested arterial.

      If the The light-rail had been dug under SE Seattle, it could travel at a much faster speed, it would trap the noise of the screeching wheels, and it wouldn’nt interfere with raod-traffic and pedestrians above. Sound Transit built this light-rail on MLK as if it were a trolley. Yes, a trolley can go in the middle of the road; but Seattle’s light-rail is more of a subway. Seattle is too dense for at-grade trains.

      The MLK Mistake can be fixed. But making that same mistake in West Seattle would not be nearly as efficient as an underground subway…(which Mcginnypig is proposing)

      Seattle needs an underground subway… not a trolley-like light-rail!!!

      1. Andrew,

        You’re presenting a false choice. There was never any possibility of light rail under SE Seattle. There wasn’t the money to do it, and zero prospect of going back to the polls for more. If enough people had said “underground or nothing” they would have gotten nothing.

        Insisting on an all-underground alignment for Ballard to West Seattle means you’re pushing things back around 30 years, with no guarantee that what emerges at that point is in fact all underground.

        If you really want an underground alignment, start lobbying the State and the Federal government for about $3-4 billion for the city, because that’s the difference between what the City would need and what they have any hope of raising using current authority. If you start now it might be lined up in time for when the City would have to make the decision.

  3. That’s about the same as the total number of ‘contested’ or otherwise rejected ballots in King County, and far higher than the number of those ballots in Seattle.

    I’d expect a concession from Mallahan any time now.

  4. In the Tacoma mayor’s race, Marilyn Strickland also widened her lead over Jim Merritt.

      1. Brian

        Could you expand on this one a little? So she likes the proposed berm idea? That’s good.

        Any news on when the Le May car museum is finally going to break ground down there?

        Tim

  6. What’s Mike’s stance on the streetcar network? I know he’s not in love with the First Ave. line, but don’t have a sense of his thoughts on the rest of the planned network.

    1. He issued a great pro-streetcar document during the campaign. If you find my piece ripping into him for his stance, you’ll find a link to the PDF. Look at the last page of it when you do.

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