The 2009 Seattle mayoral election took place November 3, 2009. Incumbent Seattle mayor Greg Nickels sought reelection but finished third in the August 18, 2009 primary election. The general election was instead between Joe Mallahan and Michael McGinn. McGinn beat Mallahan in the election with 51% of the vote share, becoming Seattle's next mayor. Background In a November 2008 poll of likely Seattle voters, 31% of voters approved of Nickels's performance as mayor while 57% disapproved. A January 2009 poll found a net job approval of minus 33. Nickels' administration was faulted for not doing enough to prevent the Seattle SuperSonics NBA franchise from relocating to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Nickels was also heavily criticized for the city's policy of not using salt for snow removal due to potential environmental concerns, which contributed to the city's congested traffic in December 2008 after one of the greatest snowfalls in the city since 1996. The Proposed replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct and a tax on plastic bags at grocery stores were also major issues of the campaign. Primary candidates (in alphabetic order) Elizabeth Campbell, Magnolia resident and activist James Donaldson, former Seattle SuperSonics player Jan Drago, Seattle City Councilwoman Kwame Garrett Joe Mallahan, Vice President for T-Mobile, a cellular communications company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. Michael McGinn, Sierra Club leader and activist Greg Nickels, Seattle Mayor since 2001 Norman Sigler, former Alaska Airlines manager Joe Mallahan Joe Mallahan is a telecommunications executive, former Chicago community organizer and unsuccessful candidate in the 2009 Seattle mayoral election. In preliminary results in the August 18 primary, he and Michael McGinn received the greatest number of votes and, as a result of Washington State's nonpartisan blanket primary system, became the two candidates in the November 3, 2009 general election. Biography Joe Mallahan was born and raised in Everett and is the seventh of nine children. He completed his undergraduate studies in American politics at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he worked during college as a legislative aide to Washington State Democratic Congressman Al Swift. He also holds a master's degree in East Asian Studies from the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington and an MBA from the University of Chicago. During his studies for his master's degree from the University of Washington Mallahan spent a year in a fellowship at the Japanese Ministry of Education conducting research on