Edmonds Mayor Mike Cooper: "I Don’t Think I’ll Stay Out of the Public Eye"

Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series on outgoing Edmonds Mayor Mike Cooper. .

Departing Edmonds Mayor Mike Cooper may not know what his future holds, but he certainly knows where he’ll be on Dec. 6: Olympia.

Cooper will be giving the oath of office to his son, Jim Cooper, who won a seat on the Olympia City Council. The younger Cooper, 36, beat challenger Brian Tomlinson and will serve the remainder of a term vacated after a former Councilmember resigned.

“He was in a race that had an appointment as well,” said Cooper, who was appointed mayor in July 2010 when Gary Haakenson resigned to become Snohomish County Deputy Executive. Cooper will not be mayor again, however, as to Dave Earling. “I’m very excited. It’s the fourth generation of our family that’s held elected office. My grandfather was elected a constable in Texas and my dad was elected to the school board when he lived here.”

In the immediate future, Cooper, says he’ll be spending some time with his wife, Crystal, at their Edmonds home. They’ll be welcoming their fourth grandchild next month and having visits with their other two grown children, daughters Marsha and Rebecca.

Cooper also hopes to travel a bit. The football team of his alma mater, Linville College in McMinnville, OR, is in the NCAA Division 3 playoffs. He plans to travel to Salem, VA, to watch the team if it makes it to the national championship, the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl game.

When Earling is sworn into office on Nov. 29, it will mark the end of Cooper's 31 years of public service, 13 in polities—including positions with the Snohomish County Council and the state House of Representatives—and the rest with the Shoreline Fire Department. Of course, politicians don’t ever really retire, and Cooper—who has a state pension from his fire service days—says he is not ruling out running for office again.

“I’m too young to stop working,” he said in an interview this week from his third-floor office in City Hall. He turns 60 in January. “My dad’s 81 and he’s still working. I don’t think I’ll stay out of the public eye. I think I’ll do something in public service, somewhere, in some way.  It’s just a matter of whether it’s elected office, a consultant or a volunteer. I’ll look carefully and make sure the right thing comes along instead of the first thing someone offers me. That could be next week. It could be sometime next year. I think with my background there’s always the opportunity to go into consulting or lobbying—the dark side, as I like to say.”

One thing Cooper says he won’t do is hang around Edmonds City Council meetings as a gadfly.

“I’m not going to be the person who come to city council every week and speak like some former elected officials do,” he said. What he will do, however, is be actively involved in U.S. Congressman Jay Inslee's bid for the governor’s seat in 2012. Inslee supported Cooper in his mayoral race. “Of all the people running for office, Jay’s my highest priority, as a person who’s hung around the Democratic party most of his adult life.”

Cooper will also make it a priority to call more wrestling matches for Edmonds-Woodway, whose season begins soon. He’s a lifelong wrestling fan who has been a coach and was on hand as announcer during E-W’s first season with a wrestling team, in 1989. “I coached a lot of years, so getting a chance spend more time around the high school athletic program is something I’m kind of excited about. I haven’t had the time before.”

Cooper grew up in Sunnyside, southeast of Yakima, and moved to Edmonds with his family at age 12 when his father was named Edmonds’ first paid fire chief. Even thought he was only mayor of his hometown for a short time, he says it was a dream come true.

“When I first got into elected office, I told people that I wanted to retire as mayor of Edmonds.  I obviously hoped it would be more than one short, 16-month term. It was a great honor for me to be mayor of Edmonds.”