Jim Camden at the Spokesman-Review pokes a bit of (deserved) fun at Seattle for how white and male our mayors have been compared to Spokane.
But during the period in which Spokane elected a major, strong or otherwise, it had three women in the job: Vicki McNeill, Sheri Barnard and Mary Verner. (It also elected an African-American mayor, Jim Chase, eight years before Rice, but that’s kind of rubbing it in.)
All three were very different politically. None campaigned primarily on being a woman or won because of, or in spite of, gender. In McNeill’s case, she ran against another woman, Margaret Leonard. Seattle has never had a general election mayoral race between two women.
Spin Control would never use the gender diversity of a city’s chief executive as proof of much of anything. But the next time a Seattle resident gets too over the top about how forward thinking his or her city is, remind them that Spokane has had three times as many female mayors, who held the office six times as long as Seattle. It might keep them quiet for a minute or two.
For my Seattle readers, if someone from Spokane gives you shit, you can mention that even if Ed Murray wins, Spokane will have nearly a decade’s head start in electing a gay mayor. That will hopefully move the conversation to one where we figure out how to get more diversity in our elected officials. Because I think we can all agree that 3 women in several decades, or one woman in 1926, it isn’t a good track record.
Well, Seattle has never elected a virulent anti-gay child molester as its mayor either, so you got us there too Spokane.
We’ve never elected a woman as president. But c’mon….
“Hillary. It’s time.”
There has to be a better reason than that to elect anyone. Using that rationale, NM Governor Susana Martinez should be the next GOP candidate, and Dems should have spent more time promoting Bill Richardson when he had presidential aspirations.
C’mon.
How about if we just look past gender and skin color when electing mayors, and choose mayors based on their policies and leadership ability?
@2 “There has to be a better reason than that to elect anyone.”
She’s not a Republican.
“Spokane will have nearly a decade’s head start in electing a gay mayor”
Depends on if you believe the (quite possibly inaccurate) rumors about Norm Rice, I guess.
Except for Mary Vernor, how many of the other women were elected before the Charter change that made the Spokane Mayor a stronger position. If I remember, that was roughly 2000 when it happened.
Also, the guy who beat Bertha Landes, I believe he was re-elected once, and after that, swiftly recalled, by a landslide. The guy should not have fired the head of Seattle City Light.
Having worked on a mayoral campaign, I was stunned by the amount of open misogyny demonstrated toward this year’s women candidates. The contempt with which they were ridiculed, excluded, or dismissed – even when especially in the case of Kate Martin and Joey Gray, they had valuable things to say – went far beyond the treatment given the male dark horses. Kate was reduced to tears at a City Club forum when she showed up and wasn’t allowed on stage; one forum organizer told one of them, to her face, that she should have stayed home in the kitchen.
There’s something about the prospect of a woman executive – as opposed to a woman legislator – in City Hall that really rubs more than a few members of our local political and media establishment the wrong way. Including some women. It helped me understand why, even though some well-qualified and well-funded women have run (most recently Jan Drago & Cheryl Chow), it’s not just that no woman has been elected here – none has even come close to surviving the primary. The behind-closed-doors misogyny in this city’s politics – much like its behind-closed-door racism – is still, in 2013, alive and very, very well.
I tried googling this and this is the best I could come up with..
Strange that after claiming to work on a campaign you don’t have any more substantial recollections.
More details unless people conclude you’re just another troll dropping yet another anti-Seattle rant..
Kate Martin was saddened that she wasn’t a member of the “250k” club? Welcome to politics in this day and age Kate..
I’m reminded of the Libertarian candidate who took out a mortgage on his house so he could join the 500k (million?) dollar club, of which Maria Cantwell and Mike! McGavick were members, and get on the U.S. Senate TV debate.
Good thing he did. He brought to the table a diapproving perspective about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan that definitely needed to be discussed and neither of the major candidates were willing to touch.
Perhaps Kate could have done similarly?
Oh my.. Indeed, air out the racism..
I’m all for it.. The unintended consequences most definitely..
@ 10
Where’s the racism there, YLB? Someone says something unsubstantiated about a political opponent, it gets some air play, then gets dropped……
That doesn’t happen in white v. white campaigns?
Nikki Haley was accused of marital infidelity in her campaign for governor. Mean, contemmptible? Sure. Racist? No.
Where’s the racism there, YLB? Someone says something unsubstantiated about a political opponent, it gets some air play, then gets dropped……
Worst. Revisionism. Ever. Seigel went on an absolute jihad against Rice, which involved constant promotion of hatred against Rice on that radio sewer, KVI. These included the outright lies about Rice’s supposed gay liaison, and the hateful fiction that Mrs. Rice had shot her husband. Either Seigel lacked the intelligence required to tie his own shoes, or he knew these were all lies. While that does not prove racism, it’s far beyond the apologetic softpedaling you gave it.
@ 12
So, Harry Reid alleges that Romney didn’t pay taxes for 10 years —–> not racist.
If Reid were to have alleged the same thing of, say, Herman Cain had he gone further in the primaries last year ——–> racist?
Sorry, don’t think so.
Nasty, hateful lies have been spewed against opponents in political culture for decades, at least. It’s only in the past 6 years that playing hardball has been equated with racism.
“and the hateful fiction that Mrs. Rice had shot her husband”
The best reasons to vote for a person always turn out to be false. Why is that?
@13. It’s only in the past 6 years that playing hardball has been equated with racism.
I see the difference is ,now when it is racist, we call people on it.
Like people, to this day, who won’t accept the president’s Birth Certificate. That’s racist, not politics.
Like people, who don’t question the lack of initial police investigation at all when a black kid is shot walking home. That’s racist, not politics.
Like people who ridicule the appearance of African American girls and claim it was a misunderstood joke. That’s racist, not politics.
13, 15 – What has changed is rightwing racists can’t get rid of uppity minorities by lynching them anymore, so they have to work harder at keeping them from voting and getting elected.
Oh Rice was a “political opponent” of Siegel’s? Strange.. Who knew Siegel was running for mayor..
Siegel had a creepy obsession with
“Norman B. Rice”..
It ended BADLY for Siegel and a good thing it did.. Hate talk radio in Seattle was never quite the same after that.. 9/11 was a defibrillating jolt for sure but by 2004/2005 it was all downhill..
Black major city mayor equates to corruption in knee-jerk right wing minds.
Imagine Siegel bagging a black city mayor, putting that notch in his belt – ticket to the big time on the right. Imagine some kind of higher profile media job – in those days a nationally syndicated klownservative hate talk radio show. (Faux News hadn’t started yet.) Book deals.. Speaking fees..
@8 It was a private conversation. Duh.
I’m not in a position to name names, so obviously all I can provide is hearsay, which you’re free to believe or disbelieve. Whether people do or not depends a lot on their own experiences. Just as a wild guess, the commenters that seem so vested in not believing that stuff like this goes on behind the scenes are probably white men. Because women and people of color in this city are fully aware of what lies beneath our polite liberal veneer, and the kind of attitudes too many people have. Unlike white guys, they don’t have the luxury of choosing to think about it or not. That’s part – a small part – of what white and male privilege looks like.
As for Kate Martin raising 250k, I wouldn’t begin to speak for her or her campaign, but whether she otherwise could have or not, it’s hard to raise that kind of money when so many media and political figures treat you like a joke. Donors read the papers, too.
Imagine Siegel bagging a black city mayor, putting that notch in his belt – ticket to the big time on the right.
Rice was sitting Mayor, but running for Governor, not re-election; Seigel broadcast the lies statewide, to hurt Rice’s chances. No one in Seattle ever took Seigel seriously. So it was kind of a draw; Rice lost the primary, and Fisher Broadcasting canned Seigel after Rice stood up to the bully. A bully who can be challenged and defeated so easily is no bully at all, hence no Wingnut moolah for Seigel.