Loud, flashy, thoughtless statements – that’s how most Austrians imagine a Republican politician. Just like Donald Trump. In Washington State, a counterexample sits in the mayor’s chair of Mukilteo.
Joe Marine is proud of his town, located 25 miles north of Seattle. Early on, the mayor asks if anyone has explored the area. The sight: the small, white lighthouse on the harbor. The buildings look like something out of a movie: one wood-paneled house after another perched on the hills. If you didn’t know better, you’d think you were driving down Wisteria Lane from the show “Desperate Housewives.”
Homelessness and unemployment are foreign concepts in the city of 21,000. A few miles from Mukilteo, Boeing produces the 787 Dreamliner, among other things, with 66,797 employees. A model in the Marine office reminds us of this. Supplier companies have settled in the area. The area is home to countless engineers and their families. Real estate prices have skyrocketed in recent years. A single-family home can cost just under a million euros. If you have a view of the sea, you often pay double that.
The challenge of housing density
And that brings us to Joe Marine’s first problem. Housing density needs to increase. But this won’t happen without sufficient infrastructure measures such as road construction, traffic management, medical care and other public services. “The state has passed a lot of laws in recent years that take away our local control, especially when it comes to housing,” Marine complains. “I think the city council and the mayor should decide together with the residents what this city should look like.”
The Republican is also concerned about the parking shortage. The extra housing construction will create a shortage of space. “People will be angry about this,” predicts Marine.
No control over Airbnb apartments
And where housing is scarce, the Airbnb challenge is not far away. “We don’t know how many homes are being rented online. It’s getting out of hand. Because the owners are often not on site, there’s a lack of accountability and control, which puts an extra burden on the city government and the police.”
Joe Marine was elected mayor for the third time. As a Republican in a deeply Democratic state, this is no easy feat. Even without party affiliation on the ballot, the patriarch of the family carries the stamp of Republican. “The state of Washington as a whole is much more liberal than, say, Texas, and to get elected, Republicans have to tend to move more to the center,” says Travis Nelson Ridout, a politics professor at the University of Washington in Seattle.
When you talk to Joe Marine about Donald Trump, his relaxed demeanor is blown away. He sits up straight and thinks long before answering. While he supports some of the former president’s policies, he is critical of Trump’s political approach and personal style. “He doesn’t think about what he says and he’s not a typical politician.”
The mayor would describe his color as red-violet. But at the city level, that doesn’t matter to him. “I prefer nonpartisan politics, especially at the local level. It really allows you to address the city’s problems in a nonpartisan way.”
But the Republican comes through clearly on one issue: guns. The Marine favors ownership, but emphasizes that responsibility is focused on the people who do harm with them. “The gun itself is not evil. It’s the person who uses it.”
When it comes to abortion, the mayor takes a different position than many of his party members: “I think the government should stay out of it. It has no business being there.”
No election advertising for Trump
Despite his Republican affiliation, Marine avoids emphasizing his political identity. There’s no indication in the office or on his homepage that the father of the family is a Trump supporter. Nor will he campaign for him. “Why would I want to alienate a large part of the city that I know is Democratic?” he asks rhetorically. “The things we do in this city are not Democratic or Republican. So there’s no point in doing that.”
Even after city council meetings, the politician meets Democratic colleagues for a beer. And it has become a tradition that they take turns paying.
If you look at the current US election campaign, it seems impossible that you would meet Donald Trump and Kamala Harris together in the same restaurant. “In recent years, the two sides have become very hostile camps,” analyses Martin Weiß, president and CEO of the Salzburg Global Seminar and former ambassador to the US. Mukilteo looks like a Gallic village. “On a local level, this dispute then resolves itself. The focus is then on city government, waste collection and good schools.”
This article was created as part of the Transatlantic Summer School of the “FJUM – Forum Journalism and Media Vienna” in Seattle.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
