Mike McGinn’s position is clear:

“I support Mayor Nickels’ efforts to ban firearms from parks and public places. There is no reason for people to carry guns in our parks, and tragedies like the Folklife shootings cannot be allowed to occur.”
- Mike McGinn, public safety platform, September 14, 2009

Meanwhile, Joe Mallahan no longer supports the gun ban:

Joe Mallahan… signals he won’t continue the ban if he’s elected mayor… “Far too many guns are carried in Seattle today illegally and I think that’s where we really need to focus.”
- Essex Porter, KIRO-TV, October 15, 2009

“Joe Mallahan says, while he supports what the mayor is trying to do, he is not certain if this is the right way to do it.”
- Tonya Mosely, KING-TV, October 15, 2009

“Joe shares concerns about family safety, especially in public parks, and thinks we should look for additional measures to increase safety,” says Mallahan spokesperson Charla Neuman. “He has concerns about whether this is the most pragmatic solution though.”
- Caleb Hannan, Seattle Weekly, October 15, 2009

“Pragmatic solution” seems to be Joe’s code phrase for ignoring public opinion (See Tunnel, deep-bore).

We are excited to present Mike’s new television commercial. Check out the video and share it with your friends online. If you have your own blog, we encourage you to embed our video directly into your site.
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Dorsol Plants, a neighborhood activist and homeless shelter counselor, ran for City Council this fall as an advocate for homeless Seattleites. He believes the City’s current plan to address homelessness just isn’t going far enough, so he joined the ranks of McGinn Campaign volunteers, believing that McGinn was the candidate who could bring the right kind of change to the policies that guide the City’s relationship with its homeless citizens.

“After spending time with Mike,” said Plants, “both as a candidate myself and while working with him, I have found him to be someone who understands that you just can’t treat the symptoms. You must get at the root causes of society’s ills. I have full confidence that Mike will address the issue of homelessness in such a manner, one that will put the needs of the people first and make strides towards providing a safe and stable environment for everyone.”

Read Mike McGinn’s homlessness and social services policy here.

.PDF Version

Dick Lilly, a former member of the Seattle School Board, made a strong case for the next mayor focusing on programs designed to put high school kids to work.

Lily wrote: Only the mayor can bring the city together to make it happen. The mayor can lead. He can jawbone. He can say this is what we’re going to do: We in Seattle, the businesses, governments, and nonprofit enterprises that are the economic engine of this place are all going to step up and provide every youngster in Seattle public high schools at least one year of part-time work, real work, during their four years of high school.

Dick Lilly is right. Putting high school kids to work is a mission that we need to accomplish as a city. Not only will we help build confidence and opportunity for our city’s less advantaged youth, but if we’re successful, we will have fewer kids turning to gangs and other negative directions.

I strongly recommend Mr. Lilly’s article to everyone interested in working on ways to re-vitalize our public schools. If elected mayor, I look forward to working with people from all backgrounds to
ensure that our city does not fall short of preparing our kids for life after high school.

The article, “Hey kids: Get a Job”, can be found at Crosscut.

This morning, Local 925 of the SEIU endorsed Mike McGinn for Mayor of Seattle.

With a membership over 23,000, the union represents workers in education and public service across the state, including employees of the University of Washington, public schools in western Washington, and family child-care workers.

The SEIU is Washington’s largest union, with 100,000 members in the state and 1.8 million nationally.

Monday’s endorsement was the second major union endorsement for McGinn in the last week, following the UFCW Local 21, which endorsed last Wednesday.