Grand Forks’ New Councilman Has a Field Office

All politics may be local but campaigning can be done long-distance -- even from Iraq.

Marine Maj. Mike McNamara, stationed in Fallouja, has been elected to an open seat on the City Council of Grand Forks, N.D.

McNamara, 48, a reservist and senior watch officer, is serving his second tour in Iraq. He campaigned by e-mail, telephone and website, backed by his wife and children going door-to-door.

“I treated it like a military operation,” McNamara said in a phone call Thursday from Fallouja.

“I put together a timeline, talked to people and devised a plan.... We published the order, and we executed it.”

With five candidates seeking a seat on the council, McNamara grabbed 49% of the vote in last week’s election. He will participate in council meetings by telephone until his Camp Pendleton-based regiment returns in about two months.

When he’s in Grand Forks (population 48,000), McNamara is the host of a radio talk show, “Mac Talk,” known for his conservative views but for not using what he calls the “scorched earth” approach of some hosts.

A 1981 graduate of the University of San Diego, he spent a “boring year” with the Merrill Lynch stock brokerage in Los Angeles and later moved to Grand Forks to help with the Special Olympics for those with disabilities.

He and his wife, Susan, have four children ranging in age from 2 to 19.

McNamara’s father is longtime baseball manager John McNamara, who managed the San Diego Padres, California Angels and Oakland Athletics, among other teams.

The hot topics in the council race were rising property taxes and the propensity of homeowners to rent to groups of rowdy students from the University of North Dakota. He offered a plan to keep taxes down and restrict the number of students in rental units.

“Mac had done his research,” said Ta-Uyen Tran, a reporter for the Grand Forks Herald.

Susan McNamara said that her husband’s phone calls to voters -- made at his own expense at phone banks set up for troops -- were startling. “He’d say, ‘I’m calling from Iraq,’ and they’d say, ‘No, you’re not,’ and he’d have to say, ‘Yes, I am.’ They were floored.”

A registered independent, McNamara said he has already been contacted by partisan politicians encouraging him to join a party. But he is not sure whether politics is a new career.

“I’m interested to see how much I enjoy the political process,” he said, “and whether I’m any good at it.”