Content area
Full text
Politics and crisis are what brought Mark Firmani to the Puget Sound region and, to one extent or another, they are what has kept him here.
Firmani - the founder, president and chief executive of Seattle-based marketing and public relations firm Firmani & Associates Inc. - left his home state of Indiana after the political campaign he led in 1986 lost in a recount.
"We won on election night. I had a job in Washington, D.C.," Firmani said. But "after a four-and-a-half month recount, we lost by 47 votes. That was the impetus to get out of town."
On a lark, Firmani drove across the country to Seattle, where his brother had established a successful contracting business.
"I loaded up my car and headed out here completely on a whim. It was going to be a stop on a longer trek," Firmani said. "The original plan was I was going to drive out here, take...