ELECTION 2021: Mike McQuaid running for City Council citywide Position 8, planning West Seattle campaign stop Thursday

City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda has her first challenger for citywide Position 8: South Lake Union community advocate and business owner Mike McQuaid announced today that he’s running, and planning a citywide campaign tour tomorrow, including a West Seattle stop. The campaign news release describes McQuaid as “a fourth-generation Seattleite who served as elected member, president and transportation chair of the South Lake Union Community Council from 2010 – 19 during a period of significant growth and revitalization” and says he “has also served in a number of volunteer civic leadership capacities including a mayoral appointment to the Seattle Sister Cities Coordinating Council and a leadership role in the then Key Arena – Redevelopment Community Advisory Group.” The announcement cites pandemic recovery and neighborhood-business resiliency among his priorities and says the candidate is “passionate about Seattle’s parks, transportation infrastructure and neighborhoods.” McQuaid’s campaign stops in all seven council districts tomorrow will include a visit to Husky Deli in The Junction between 1:30 and 2 pm.

Mike February 17, 2021 (3:15 pm)

Good. I hope we see more strong candidates. Last time around, the candidates put up by the business community were pretty lame.

Anne February 17, 2021 (5:20 pm)

The announcement cites pandemic recovery and neighborhood-business resiliency among his priorities and says the candidate is “passionate about Seattle’s parks, transportation infrastructure and neighborhoods.” What does that mean..exactly? How does this represent a “strong candidate”?
- DC February 17, 2021 (5:56 pm)
  
  Code words for “Amazon and Chamber-backed patsy”
  - Runner February 18, 2021 (8:33 am)
    
    Great news!!!! You have my vote!
- Bradley February 17, 2021 (6:15 pm)
  
  Let’s start by addressing how “strong” the current council is or isn’t.

M February 17, 2021 (5:05 pm)

You had me at business owner….

Dingus February 17, 2021 (7:21 pm)

The business is a PR firm.
- WSB February 17, 2021 (7:23 pm)
  
  His business is linked in the story (campaign website not live until tomorrow).

Auntie February 17, 2021 (5:58 pm)

Let’s see – he was on the South Lake Union Community Council … look what happened to that area! It’s Amazonia and Vulcan-world. What community was he serving?

Neighbor February 18, 2021 (7:56 am)

Did you like it better when it was parking lots and run-down motels? It could have been our own Central Park if the city council hadn’t turned that down. I would have loved that, but if we can’t have that the at least the area has been utilized better than it used to be.
- Lagartija Nick February 18, 2021 (9:51 am)
  
  Neighbor, the Seattle City Council did NOT kill the Seattle Commons, Seattle voters did through a referendum. Please don’t spread misinformation.
  - Neighbor February 18, 2021 (10:57 am)
    
    You are correct- my apologies.

Pessoa February 17, 2021 (6:58 pm)

I’m sure he’s a solid guy, but I wish candidates would ditch that annoying compulsion to announce how many generations their family goes back in Seattle. It’s irrelevant.

KM February 18, 2021 (10:11 am)

Indeed. It’s a huge turn off.
- Greg February 18, 2021 (11:58 am)
  
  Not a turn-off if you have also lived in Seattle for generations! :-)
  - Rose February 19, 2021 (8:50 am)
    
    You got that right ! 4th gen here !
    - Notnative February 19, 2021 (9:58 am)
      
      But more of us Seattleites aren’t from here, so it’s basically just saying to me that he can’t relate to me and/or that he thinks he’s better than me for some reason because he got here first. It honestly is a little reminiscent of those Facebook posts from people saying their grandparents immigrated the right way so they should have more influence on the country than newer waves of immigrants. It’s really off-putting to voters, and as Pessoa said, irrelevant, so why even say it?

Derek February 17, 2021 (10:02 pm)

Gross. No thanks. Last thing we need is more business oriented people that neglect the poor and homeless. Pass.Mosqueda all the way!

flimflam February 18, 2021 (6:47 am)

“More” business oriented people? When has there been one on the city council in recent memory? None of them have any business experience at all, and it shows. it does actually help a city leader if they have experience in that realm as opposed simply being activists or whatever they consider themselves.
- Asdf February 18, 2021 (10:37 pm)
  
  Alex Pedersen and Mike O’Brien off the top of my head. There are many examples.
Ron Swanson February 18, 2021 (8:11 am)

Yes, the current “compassionate” council is doing a great job with the homeless issue. Good observation!
Dawson February 18, 2021 (8:35 am)

Oh yes, because the current council isn’t ignoring that problem already and the issues it creates in our neighborhoods. In fact they’re proposing to make it even more entrenched by legalizing some of the behavior.
L February 18, 2021 (8:48 am)

Last thing we need is more of the community activist council we have had in the last few years … look at the results. Practically anyone would be better than Mosqueda.
wscommuter February 18, 2021 (9:21 am)

Your logic is Trump-ian. You assume (and hey, maybe you’re right) that this guy is pro-business … I’m curious; how does that get you to concluding his plan is to “neglect the poor and homeless”? I didn’t realize this was a binary choice. While I think Mosqueda is a decent councilperson, I’m open to other options as it is clear that the current configuration of our city government is failing in many respects. What I am pretty sure of, however, is that if this election becomes Seattle’s version of our recent presidential election, where the far-left crowd is our local version of the MAGA-nut jobs and demonizes anyone who doesn’t agree with them, then it will be a very ugly 10 months. Our problems concerning homelessness and poverty are not going to be solved by having 9 anti-business/far left council members who are more concerned with being “woke” than being awake to what’s happening in our city. Perhaps Ms. Mosqueda will recognize that and if so, I’d vote for her. But if she chooses to veer to the far-left, she loses my vote.
- Xuu206 February 18, 2021 (3:37 pm)
  
  👍

Huck February 18, 2021 (6:56 am)

Doesn’t anyone remember what south lake union looked like before all the business moved in? No one can tell me they’d like to go back to those days of burnt out delapadate buildings.

Greg February 18, 2021 (12:02 pm)

This is great news! Seattle needs to balance things out. It is way too divisive now, and nothing gets done. Kudos to anyone with the courage and passion to run these days.

T Rex February 18, 2021 (1:15 pm)

If South Lake Union had not been built up, it would be filled with the RV’s and tents that we now all see in most of the Seattle area and surrounding neighborhoods. I took a trip recently downtown and was disgusted at what I saw. Busted up buildings, tents and homeless people everywhere, boarded up windows and it makes me think that this city will never recover. But hey lets defund the police, have our underpaid social workers respond to people in distress (that by the way will never happen) and let’s change the world and all live as one happy family. Just like Woodstock. Three days of love, peace and music. That is about how long it will last. Three flipping days.
Our city council is a joke yet the same types of people keep getting elected. The Lisa Herbold, who in my opinion is lame as they come and good old Teresa Mosqueda even worse. Retirement and moving away from here has never looked better.

Diane February 18, 2021 (3:59 pm)

Agreed. It takes a brave and confident person. I am happy to back Mike! Our City Council needs a balance of voices and Mike will help with that balance. I expect him to encourage thought-provoking conversations with the full council in effort to present ideas with a united, rather than divided front.

Ken February 19, 2021 (11:26 am)

Seattle needs to dump the current city council before the quality of life declines any further.

Cogburn February 24, 2021 (4:37 pm)

We need more functional diversity on the council. By that I mean more talent than just a bunch of social engineers, which is important, but so is keeping the city infrastructure running – for one thing look at the bridges – failing, broken and the city itself admits budgeting only 9% of needed maintenance (which really means 5%). Much more than that needs to be done. Without some changes on the council we will need a city department to replace broken windows downtown, people poop scoopers at parks, new blue tarps, and a schedule for closing I-5 for safer protests. Really, do you think we now have a balanced council?

Sorry, comment time is over.