Mike McGavick

Mike McGavick was an unsuccessful Republican candidate from Vancouver, Washington, running for the U.S. Senate in the U.S. congressional elections in 2006 against Democrat incumbent Maria Cantwell.

Biography
McGavick is the former Chairman, President, and CEO of the insurance company Safeco. He has never held an elected political office.

McGavick was Chief of Staff to U.S. Senator Slade Gorton and manager of Gorton's campaign in 1988. He later served as Director of the American Insurance Association's Superfund Improvement Project in Washington, D.C., where he was the American Insurance Association's lead negotiator in working to transform the nation's Superfund environmental laws. He was also a staff member of the Seattle-based Washington Roundtable, a non-partisan policy research group composed of the chief executive officers of the state's largest corporations.

McGavick was Senior Financial Officer for Continental Casualty Company (CNA)'s Commercial Lines Group, Vice President of CNA's New Ventures group, and President and Chief Operating Officer of CNA's largest operating department. The department, with $3.5 billion in annual revenues, provided the majority of CNA's commercial insurance products. It also was responsible for managing and strengthening CNA's relationship with its independent agent distribution system.

Fundraising: Swift Boat Connection
The web address for donations to Mike McGavick is that for Donation Report.com (plus an extension code for Mike McGavick).

The connection for DonationReport.com website arrives at a Login page&mdash;requiring both a User ID and Password&mdash;which belongs to eDonation.com, a member of The Donatelli Group, a fundraising company that has raised campaign funds for the Republican National Committee, Republican National Convention, Bush-Cheney '04 Inc., John McCain, the NRA, and an exhaustive list of Republican members of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as other political organizations. 

The Donatelli Group, using its "primary segment" Campaign Solutions, is associated with Creative Response Concepts, the public relations firm that advised Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the "organization that accused Kerry of inflating his Vietnam War record" during the 2004 presidential campaign. 

The Donatelli Group, which produced the RNC website, also created the SWIFTBOATVETSFORTRUTH.ORG website July 30, 2004, with Connell Donatelli Inc. (a.k.a. The Donatelli Group) as Registrant. Connell Donatelli Inc. was also listed as both Administrator and the Tech Organization for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth website. 

Confession of failings
In an August 24 open letter on his campaign's blog, McGavick confessed a series of personal and professional failings. He cited his first marriage which ended in divorce as the most important, because it resulted in his first son Jack growing up with a "part-time dad". Second, he claimed to have been cited in 1993 and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol when he blew a 0.17 in a breath analyzer test, well above the .10 legal limit in Montgomery County, Maryland. However, on September 1, the Everett Herald newspaper uncovered the original police report and disclosed that McGavick was actually charged with running a "steady red light" (not "cutting a yellow a little close" as he had claimed) and arrested for both the moving violation and the DUI, not merely cited. The DUI charge was later removed from McGavick's record, in accordance with Maryland law, after completing an alcohol awareness program, paying a fine, and a year's probation.  McGavick found himself swamped in criticism by local media, and appeared on the KING 5 Up Front Program with Robert Mak in hopes of setting the record straight.  Lastly, McGavick cited a series of tough decisions he made as CEO which resulted in laying off employees at Safeco.  McGavick initially told employees that the worst was behind them after layoffs in 2001; later more cuts were neccessary, and the company trimmed back its sails again in 2002.

Resources

 * MikeMcGavick.com, Mike McGavick for U.S. Senate 2006 official website.
 * "Is this Mike on?" a.k.a. The Fudge Report. Scroll down to link on righthand side of front page.

Profiles

 * Mike McGavick in the Wikipedia.
 * Mike McGavick On the Issues.

Local blogs and discussion sites

 * Democracy for Vancouver (www.d4v.org)

Articles

 * "McGavick Pumps $2 Million from Golden Parachute into His Political Campaign: So Why Are SAFECO Shareholders Still Subsidizing a $1.275M No-Interest Loan On His House?" The Fudge Report, undated; accessed August 15, 2006.
 * "Safeco CEO Mike McGavick: Rock star or greedy hypocrite?" WSLC.org, June 10, 2005.
 * grant, "Washington - Meet Mike McGavick!" BetterDonkey.org, July 19, 2005.
 * "Mike McGavick's Unimpression," Seattle Weekly, January 25, 2006.
 * Alex Fryer, "Cantwell-McGavick Senate race a contrast of moderates," Seattle Times, April 17, 2006.
 * Josh Feit, "Mike McGavick: Debating the War is Inappropriate While Troops are Still in Harm’s Way," The Stranger Blog, July 21, 2006.
 * Goldy, "Mike!™ McGavick lied to The Stranger," HorsesAss.org, July 24, 2006.
 * Alex Fryer, "Father was taproot for McGavick's grounding in politics," Seattle Times, July 28, 2006.
 * Holly Yeager, "US businesses spend to protect Senate seats," Financial Times (MSNBC), August 2, 2006. Business Industry Political Action Committee (BIPAC)'s "candidates this year include Mark Kennedy, a Republican House member and former finance director at Pillsbury, the baked goods maker, who is running for an open Senate seat in Minnesota, and Mike McGavick, former chief executive of Safeco, a Seattle-based insurer, who is challenging Maria Cantwell, Democratic senator from Washington."
 * David Postman, "McGavick's hardball consultant," Seattle Times, August 7, 2006.
 * Neil Modey, "McGavick gave misleading DUI account" and "McGavick misstated details of DUI arrest. He was arrested, cuffed and fell asleep at station, police say," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 1, 2006. Also see DUI report posted online by Seattle Post-Intelligencer].
 * Mike Carter, "McGavick stumbled, fell asleep after DUI arrest, 13-year-old report says," The Seattle Times, September 1, 2006.
 * Matthew Daly, "GOP Senate challenger's arrest detailed," Associated Press (Seattle Post-Intelligencer), September 1, 2006.
 * Robert L. Jamieson Jr., "McGavick won't get a chance to fool us twice," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 2, 2006.
 * Joel Connelly, "McGavick digging a bigger hole for himself," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 6, 2006.
 * "McGavick DUI Clip," YouTube, added September 6, 2006.
 * Alicia Mundy, "State AG's Office wants Safeco data made public," Seattle Times, September 8, 2006.
 * Neil Modie, "Cantwell widens her lead. McGavick's DUI goof may be a factor," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 12, 2006.

Campaign contact information
Email: info@mikemcgavick.com Phone: (206) 838-7479 Fax: (206) 838-1158 Mailing Address: McGavick for Senate P.O. Box 9247 Seattle, WA 98109 Campaign Office: 501 8th Ave N Seattle, WA 98109