1. A new SurveyUSA poll shows mayoral candidate Mike McGinn in a statistical tie with his opponent, T-Mobile executive Joe Mallahan—a good sign for McGinn, who's showing momentum with each successive poll. Possible bad news for McGinn: Mallahan does much better with older voters, who tend to vote more reliably; McGinn does better with young voters, who frequently skip off-year elections.

2. The Mallahan campaign fired off a press release yesterday afternoon that was a little too late to make PubliCola's "Press Release Roundup"—our daily report card on the day's parade of official political pronouncements.

But it makes the Morning Fizz. The Mallahan release praised the city council's transportation committee for voting to move ahead with the $4.2 billion waterfront tunnel project. More important, it was a response to McGinn, who issued a statement of his own earlier in the day trashing the council for "rushing to assume an unprecedented financial risk."

We gave McGinn an "A" for telling the council exactly how he felt. But damn if we're not giving Mallahan an A+ for schooling McGinn with this zinger:

"My opponent accused the city council for rushing this decision," Mallahan said, setting up McGinn as a do-nothing, Seattle-process, obstructionist. "If eight years is rushing, how can he be trusted to get anything done?"

Ouch.

Mallahan continued:

"For the governor, for the city council, and for the working men and women of Seattle whose livelihood depends on the Viaduct replacement, this decision is a no brainer."

3. In making the viaduct replacement his signature campaign issue, McGinn has insisted that voters strongly oppose the tunnel and support his surface/transit option.

But at yesterday's city council meeting, the dozen-plus citizens who testified about the city's agreement with the state to commit to the tunnel,  referred to the tunnel in glowing terms, calling it the city's best opportunity for a "great urban waterfront" and a chance to reconnect central Seattle neighborhoods.



The only person who spoke out against the tunnel agreement was Gene Hoglund, a Ballard resident who's for rebuilding the viaduct, not McGinn's surface/transit option.

4. Claudia Rowe, the former P-I reporter who was supposed to start as the Stranger's news editor this week (a story first reported on PubliCola), has backed out of the position, the paper reports. Instead, she'll take a job at the Marguerite Casey Foundation that reportedly pays $65,000.

5. Music-community folks are holding a big fundraiser tonight at the Crocodile (2200 Second Ave.) to benefit mayoral candidate Mike McGinn, King County Executive candidate Dow Constantine, and city attorney candidate Pete Holmes.

Tickets for the show, which features The Presidents Of The United States Of America, Krist Novoselic, and the Maldives, start at $200 (VIP reception $350), with all proceeds to be split evenly between the three candidates; doors at 7.

6. An Eastside PubliCola reader reports getting a phone call testing negative messages about Rob Holland, who's running for Seattle Port Commission (Position 3) against David Doud. One allegation about Holland, who is black, is that he "vot[ed] against affirmative action"—a bit of info the Doud camp has been pushing for months about Holland's young Republican days that dates back to Holland's work for the Equal Citizen's Project in support of 1998's I-200 (an anti-affirmative action initiative).

The polling, if confirmed, wouldn't be the first hardball campaigning from Doud supporters. Last week, Lori Sotelo, head of the King County Republican Party, sent out a fundraising email on Doud's behalf trashing Holland for appearing at a candidate forum sponsored in part by ACORN, the scandal-plagued community organizing group. "Acorn, whose banner stands proudly in front of David’s opponent, has been making headlines for their continued illegal activities, including voter fraud and advocating breaking the law," Sotelo wrote.

However, Holland was hardly the only Port candidate to attend the forum, which focused on the third runway at SeaTac: All but two Port candidates attended.

This morning's Morning Fizz brought to you by Washington Conservation Voters.