"Mallahan lands more union endorsements, but West Seattle Dems stick with McGinn"

Politics Northwest (Seattle Times):

He was a target of union attacks during the primary, but Seattle mayoral candidate Joe Mallahan has started to pile up a stack of union endorsements.

As we reported a week or so ago, Mallahan received the endorsement of the Seattle firefighters and police unions.

And Mallahan's campaign says he has now been endorsed by other unions: Council 2 Washington State Council of County and City employees (which represents Seattle library workers, among others); the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades Council, District 5, and the executive board of Carpenters Local 1144.

Significantly, two officials of the Pacific NW Regional Council of Carpenters, which helped pay for phone calls attacking Mallahan before the primary, also have now endorsed him.

Charla Neuman, Mallahan's campaign spokeswoman, said more union endorsements are in the works.

The backing is significant for Mallahan, the T-Mobile executive who has been criticized for his leadership role at a company that has resisted unionization of its workers.

Tonight, as Mallahan unsuccessfully tried to convince the 34th District Democrats of West Seattle to endorse him, the union issue was raised again. A man (who refused to give me his name later) attacked Mallahan for failing to stand up for unions as an executive for the company.

"This guy over here said nothing and did nothing," said the man, who identified himself as a union member.

Mallahan has said he wasn't involved in union issues for T-Mobile -- and he's repeatedly said he supports unions and would respect them if elected mayor.

As he was leaving the West Seattle meeting, Mallahan told me he's confident he'll pick up "a broad array" of union support for his candidacy.

Whether it was because of the union issue or not, the 34th District Democrats tonight decided to stick with their earlier endorsement of Mike McGinn. They had dual endorsed McGinn and Mayor Greg Nickels in the primary.