Photo by Dan Miller

Why is south Seattle neighborhood activist, Windermere realtor, and one-time Seattle City Council hopeful Darryl Smith suddenly speaking for Mike McGinn's campaign?

Rumor mill has it that Smith, a longtime McGinn supporter (and board chair at McGinn's non-profit, Great City), is queued up for a top spot in a McGinn administration, perhaps deputy mayor.

Yesterday Smith emerged as the campaign spokesperson.

Smith, however, tells PubliCola that McGinn has not approached him about a spot and called his supposed anointment "nothing more than talk" and "some sort of a silly rumor. I don't think he's talked to anyone about anything" like that, he added.

"First," he quipped, "I think we need a few more thousand votes. We've got to get the guy in office."

He added that "Mike is a brilliant guy, and I'm confident he will surround himself with people who will challenge him, not just 'yes men and woman'."

As to his sudden role as TV spokesperson yesterday, Smith says: "You no how we operate around here. No one has any titles. We're all voluteers. Yesterday, I happened to be the campaign spokesperson."

Although Smith did seek the council seat now held by Sally Clark (who was appointed when Jim Compton stepped down in 2005) and has been rumored to be running for various offices since, his only formal governmental experience is serving on the Seattle Planning Commission's neighborhoods committee.

According to one rumor circulating on Election Night, diversity is McGinn's highest priority in choosing a deputy mayor. If he wins, however, many observers (supporters and detractors alike) have suggested that the political neophyte surround himself with a staff that has the deep government experience he lacks.

Additional reporting by Erica C. Barnett