City Hall
McGinn's $25,000 Expenditure on Focus Groups Raises More Campaign Questions
As we reported in August, at least one focus group conducted in June asked participants about Mayor Mike McGinn's performance, accomplishments, position on the tunnel, and bad polling numbers. Today, McGinn's 2013 reelection campaign reported spending just over $25,000 on the focus groups. The money went to a firm called JKM Research, and was conducted in a downtown facility owned by a company Consumer Opinion Services. (Most focus group firms don't own their own facilities; instead, they rent out rooms run by focus-group facility companies.)
At the time, the focus group was the subject of an ethics complaint by a group supporting the August tunnel referendum, which complained that the anti-tunnel camp had benefited from focus groups conducted by the mayor. The city's ethics and elections commission dismissed the complaint on the grounds that the pro-tunnel campaign had failed to demonstrate that the anti-tunnel group, Protect Seattle Now, had conducted any focus groups or received any information from focus groups conducted by anyone else.
However, the commission's dismissal letter continued, "To the extent you wish to file a complaint with the SEEC against someone other than PSN regarding focus groups allegedly convened by the Mayor, I ask that you provide us with a firmer basis for initiating an investigation" than the Seattle Times blog post on which the original complaint was based.
Today's report could provide the commission with fodder for revisiting the complaint.
Ethics director Wayne Barnett says Protect Seattle Now campaign manager Esther Handy told him the campaign "did not get any intel from focus groups," adding, "I’d need a complaint alleging that focus group info was shared with PSN" to justify reopening the investigation.
The firm that conducted the focus groups is part of a group of interlocking companies with long ties to McGinn. JKM is partners with (and was initially part of) a consulting firm called Gogerty Marriott, formerly Gogerty Stark Marriott. A spinoff firm, GSM Mercury---AKA the Mercury Group---is McGinn's consulting firm. That firm is run by Bill Broadhead, who also did work for (and donated $5,000 to ) the anti-tunnel campaign. Broadhead is married to Julie McCoy, McGinn's chief of staff.
The mayor's reelection campaign is currently more than $13,000 in the red.
At the time, the focus group was the subject of an ethics complaint by a group supporting the August tunnel referendum, which complained that the anti-tunnel camp had benefited from focus groups conducted by the mayor. The city's ethics and elections commission dismissed the complaint on the grounds that the pro-tunnel campaign had failed to demonstrate that the anti-tunnel group, Protect Seattle Now, had conducted any focus groups or received any information from focus groups conducted by anyone else.
However, the commission's dismissal letter continued, "To the extent you wish to file a complaint with the SEEC against someone other than PSN regarding focus groups allegedly convened by the Mayor, I ask that you provide us with a firmer basis for initiating an investigation" than the Seattle Times blog post on which the original complaint was based.
Today's report could provide the commission with fodder for revisiting the complaint.
Ethics director Wayne Barnett says Protect Seattle Now campaign manager Esther Handy told him the campaign "did not get any intel from focus groups," adding, "I’d need a complaint alleging that focus group info was shared with PSN" to justify reopening the investigation.
The firm that conducted the focus groups is part of a group of interlocking companies with long ties to McGinn. JKM is partners with (and was initially part of) a consulting firm called Gogerty Marriott, formerly Gogerty Stark Marriott. A spinoff firm, GSM Mercury---AKA the Mercury Group---is McGinn's consulting firm. That firm is run by Bill Broadhead, who also did work for (and donated $5,000 to ) the anti-tunnel campaign. Broadhead is married to Julie McCoy, McGinn's chief of staff.
The mayor's reelection campaign is currently more than $13,000 in the red.
