For Seattle's September primary, most voters--and media--don't pay much attention until after Labor Day. Guess what? That's this week. Soon you'll be inundated with ads, stories, and bald-faced lies about people you don't really know. It's been many years since Seattle's mayor race has been this wide open. Who are these people? Let us help.

If you're a believer in big-money-buys-the-election (and Paul Allen recently made a convincing case), Jane Noland is the hands-down winner of this race. Cashing in her name recognition after 12 years (three City Council terms) of serving developers and business, she's collected over $100,000 so far--far outpacing most competitors. She has the support of Seattle's "public safety unions" (i.e., cops and firemen) because of her support for increased police presence on Seattle streets. Aside from beefing up the cop presence, the most revolutionary item on her agenda is to upgrade Seattle's sidewalks. The new cops will probably be responsible for that--enforcing the class-cleansing laws put in place by her pal, City Attorney Mark Sidran.

Noland is not, however, the big money candidate. That would be Paul Schell. Schell's a very good public speaker, looks great on TV, and has the backing of the conservative business community due to his recent stint as Port Commissioner. Schell can easily pull in support from businesses that will hesitate to support Noland and the other candidates. He raised $67,000 in his campaign's first two weeks, suggesting that he has some powerful friends out there, including Bruce Nordstrom and former mayor Charles Royer.

Schell has another strong constituency. He owns a development company, Cornerstone Columbia Development, which has renovated several buildings in downtown Seattle (contributing to its gentrification). He's got the construction industry, big business, and people who favor more downtown development behind him in this election. This might work against him, however, if enough people angry about the "all money for downtown projects" stance of the current city council and mayor get off their butts and vote for someone else in the primary.

Some of those "someone else" votes will go to Greg Nickels and Cheryl Chow. Nickels is the hardest major candidate to pin down. He served as an aide to Norm Rice when Rice was a City Council member. He's currently a King County Council Member, which removes him from the nasty mire of Seattle City Council politics (he can claim to be an outsider, not responsible for development at the expense of our neighborhood streets). He chairs the County Board of Health and is vice chair of the Regional Transit Authority, but for those titles he has no specific constituency. He does, however, have a lot of union support and the support of some Democratic party people. So far he's raised $45,000, a respectable sum for a candidate with a patchwork quilt of supporters and very little name recognition.

So what about Cheryl Chow? Well, she's young and photogenic. She likes kids. She really likes kids a lot. She has strong support from the Asian- American community. That got her a city council seat, but it probably won't win her the mayor's office.

More appropriately, the "someone else" votes should go to Charlie Chong. Chong's influence on city politics has been such that Noland, Schell, Chow, and Nickels have all adopted some form of "back to the basics" rhetoric as a response to his popularity. Without a clear "I'm all for growth" candidate, the media is at a loss about how to report this change in campaign rhetoric, or how to distinguish the bullshitters from the real thing. We'll see if Chong can get his message across in spite of this.

The populist Chong has made a big splash among both conservatives and progressives as the dissenting voice on the City Council. He's seeking to make a bigger impact on city politics by nabbing the mayor's job. To win this race or even survive the primary, however, he's going to have to raise a lot more than the $30,000 that he has accumulated so far. Give generously, give often, and more importantly, give now, before the primary. The nightmare scenario is that he might not survive the primary, and then we'd be faced with a pro-business, pro-police Jane Noland as the "alternative" candidate running against the conservative, pro-business, pro-development Paul Schell. Enough to make anyone lose their cookies.

For the conscience vote, there's right-winger Gordon Herr, Stan Lippman, and Scott Breen, the inevitable Socialist Workers Party candidate. Plus Mike the Mover, and Seafair Pirate Davy Jones...so many choices, so little substance. Next, in the swimsuit competition...