Mayor: Among the five major candidates, there's really only one possibly acceptable choice: Charlie Chong. He is inexperienced in elected office, lousy at compromise and tact, and his self-proclaimed championing of the underdog can be stirring at times and libertarian or NIMBYist at others. His constituency draws at least as much on social neanderthals as on folks who value Seattle's cultural and economic diversity.

That being said, Chong offers two characteristics virtually unprecedented among serious mayoral candidates here: he listens to everyone (not just the well-heeled), often before making up his mind, and he scares the shit out of the downtown elite. Both are strong reasons to support him. He's also a fiscal conservative--a useful attribute amongst the pollyannas budgeting on the historically impossible assumption that Seattle's current economic good times will last forever.

Of the other major candidates, Jane Noland--by virtue of jumping in the race before Norm Rice bowed out--has done the most to try to paint herself as an alternative to the status quo. It's a mirage. Her biggest difference is the desire to put more cops on the street. Greg Nickels is a better bet to, if not shake things up ala Chong, at least take a semi-fresh look at minor reforms. Cheryl Chow, along with her pro-business Council record, is sounding an irrelevant one-note campaign ("I love kids! I'll do it all for the kids!") that's more than a little asinine.

Then there's Paul Schell--a slick, dangerous, extremely rich individual backed by even richer friends. His approach to your tax dollars is exemplified by the two trips he's taken while Port Commissioner, at taxpayer expense, to Paris--not known as a seaport, but convenient to his property in the south of France. Schell's basic platform is that developers can run the city more efficiently by eliminating the middlemen and electing a developer--Schell--as mayor.

Among the other candidates, Seafair Pirate Jim "Davy Jones XLV" Guilfoil is a recreational fascist; retired State Sen. Gordon Herr is the professional kind. The sole socialist entry this year is the SWP's Scott Breen (see City Council #4). If nothing else, Chong should get your vote simply so that at least one non-downtown-apologist runs in November. If you're too pure to vote for someone who picnics with Thomas Stewart, stay home or waste your vote on Breen's party-building.

City Council #2: Essentially a three-person race: Richard Conlin, Sherry Harris, and Brian Peyton. Recent UW grad Jon Bartholomew is a nice guy, but hasn't mounted much of a campaign or developed a platform much beyond the basics that he's young and needs a job. The abyssmal 1991-95 City Council tenure of Sherry Harris--her betrayal in office of the activists that elected her, her eagerness to service landlords that is as responsible as anything for today's skyrocketing rents, and her efforts since then to weasel back onto the public teat--has been covered here before. That leaves Conlin and Peyton.

Richard Conlin is in many ways an exciting candidate. He's sharp, with a long history as an activist and environmentalist (publishing In Context, and more recently YES! magazine). His holistic outlook almost makes his lapses into We-Create-Our-Positive-Reality-isms tolerable--they don't tend to devolve into the Blame The Victim sneers many New Agers wield.

Conlin has also relentlessly courted, and largely won over, the downtown business establishment in his race. As with most downtown candidates, Conlin vigorously denies an "inside" and "outside" dichotomy in city politics; he wants all to work together as one happy family. Swell. But that's not how Seattle has worked, and it's an open question whether, if elected, he would bridge communities, advocate for the voiceless, or become Part Of The Problem. Indications aren't promising; his campaign manager, a former Rice aide, thinks opening up Seattle's political process is a really bad idea.

Conlin is getting downtown money on those merits, but also because of Brian Peyton. Peyton, of the 46th District Democrats, is recent head of the Civic Foundation, the current all-purpose downtown bogeyman; you'd think citizen involvement in how Seattle's run is revolutionary or something. Peyton lacks both the activist history and the focus of Licata, and acceptability to elites may make Conlin better-positioned to get progressive ideas put into practice. Of the three downtown-backed open seat candidates, Conlin is least likely to roll over and play dead for big biz. Unless that's what he wants to do--and he's not likely to ask you what you think. A slight edge to Peyton, and with luck these two will have seven more weeks to clarify positions.

City Council #3: Of the seven candidates for this open seat, the worst--and likeliest to survive the primary--is Thomas Goldstein. Goldstein is young, vague (using CEO metaphors for public officials), and in 30 years could become Paul Schell. His campaign got boatloads of downtown money and endorsements, and his inexperience virtually insures they'd lead him around by the nose.

Of the four African-American women running, Dian Ferguson seems the most visible; she's picked up some Democratic endorsements and is running on her record as a professional consultant. (Wait! Come back! Don't be afraid!) This means she has Seattle's beloved language of soothing mediocrity down cold, but it's not at all clear what she'd do in office. DeCharlene Williams is running as a small business owner; Lenora Jones and Re'Gena Bell don't seem to be running much at all.

This leaves Fletcher Shives, the Civic Foundation fave, and Peter Steinbreuck, a downtown activist who jumped from the mayoral race when Chong declared. Neither is ideal, but Shives is much less ideal; he comes from the NIMBY wing of neighborhood activism, his civic involvement spurred by city plans to put facilities for the homeless near his home in Sand Point. It was an idiotic plan, but Shives opposed it because of his fear and hatred of the disenfranchised--not because the city was exiling them out of sight and far from any of the social services they need.

Steinbreuck, despite a solid record of downtown activism, has the distrust of some neighborhood advocates due to his support for Rice's comprehensive planning (urban villages) and the Commons proposals. However, the major problem with those plans wasn't the content so much as the process--a top-down mandate from the mayor's office that catered to developers and ignored neighborhood needs. That's been the strong point of Steinbreuck's campaign; along with Nick Licata, he's done the best job of listening to and incorporating the views of city activists, and will likely stay in office. Vote Steinbreuck.

City Council #4: City Council head Jan "Downtown Uber Alles" Drago is essentially unopposed, but has still raised enough money to insure that she'll be repaying the investments of her business friends full-time for four more years. Vote any of the other three candidates just on principle. The first two paragraphs of Bob Megamin's voter pamphlet statement concern his war and military experience. Civic Foundation type Patrick Kylen is the best, and has made surprising inroads against Drago on the endorsement circuit; with some primary support perhaps he can embarrass Drago into admitting some of her sins before she goes on to commit them again next term.

Lastly, there's Robbie Scherr, the SWP candidate. Scherr's voter pamphlet blurb contains specific policy stances on nine issues--not one of which have a damn thing to do with Seattle City Council. It's nice that he opposes NATO expansion and supports the Cuban Revolution blah blah blah. But if maybe, just maybe, Scherr and other relentlessly sectarian candidates could learn to use such platforms to speak in non-left-jargon about issues directly relevant to the race, the city, and its voters, they might not appear to have recently flown in from Mars. And, just maybe, they could gain enough credibility to then have a more receptive audience for their worldview. Or at least give Jan Drago nightmares.

City Council #6: Seven men want to replace Charlie Chong. Four have a shot: Fred Buhl, Bruce Bentley, Nick Licata, and Aaron Ostrom.

Buhl and Bentley, the two African-American guys, are less likely to survive. They got late starts, lack name recognition, and raised less money. Buhl was head of ACORN for a while, but seems to be running on his record as a banker. The charisma-challenged Bentley wants the small businessman vote; alas, he has the stump speech of a stump.

The dynamos in this races are Licata and Ostrom. Licata has a long activist record, including a City Council run nearly 20 years ago; more recently, he helped found the Civic Foundation, nearly single-handedly publicized the giveaway of a city-owned downtown parking garage to the Convention Center for $1, and led the opposition to the stadiums. His campaign manager is on leave from Seattle Tenants Union. The campaign itself, with the endorsement of Chong, has been one of the most open, and openly critical of downtown liberalism, in memory--and has still picked up an impressive number of mainstream endorsements.

Likely to face Licata in November is Aaron Ostrom, who also claims activist credentials through his founding of alternative transportation group ALT-TRANS. Ostrom might well better than many current council members; that's the problem. He might be. He sounds many of the right themes, especially for audiences that want to hear them. But he's not only attracting downtown money--the money that thinks he's the best bet to beat Licata--but counts Jan Drago as a personal friend and gave money to her campaign--which is located one floor up in the same building and reportedly shares some resources and volunteers. At best, this means that Ostrom wants a vote on council that would negate any and every populist vote he casts. At worst, it means that once elected, the relatively young Ostrom--properly educated by good buddy Drago, other council colleagues, big money contributors, city staff, and his wealthy parents--could change his mind on a lot of his current stances. Licata is a far superior choice.

City Council #8: Richard McIver, appointed last January to replace wife-abuser John Manning, has--with no electoral experience--magically raised an enormous pot of money. Honest to God(dess), why don't they just make it a part of the City Council job description to collect unmarked brown envelopes from the Financial District each day? McIver's pot has scared away any serious challengers, leaving some of the more colorful wingnuts this year--especially Richard Lee, a cable access host obsessed with Kurt Cobain's death, and Falcon Hollister, who--judging from personal mannerisms--you'd think was on drugs if his whole campaign were not screaming and yelling about drug dealers. Maybe he got ripped off. Skip this one.

King County Executive: Democrat Ron Sims and Republican Suzette Cooke will face off in November, with a bozoid on the Demo side the only reason this race appears on the ballot this time.

King County Council #1: In Northeast Seattle, incumbent Maggi Fimia made headlines and incurred the wrath of big money (and sports zealots) by taking the lead amongst elected officials in questioning the idiocy of Seattle's two now-publicly-financed new stadiums. As a result, she'll be up against a lot of money with either of the two Republicans vying to face her in November. Fimia is a fiscal conservative, not very ideological, who deserves support for her principled risk-taking.

King County Council #5: A south end seat with three candidates. Jack Richards is an old white guy running on a jobs and public safety platform. The real race is between incumbent Dwight Pelz and community activist Sharon Tomiko Santos (spouse of the ID's Bob Santos). Both have impeccable progressive credentials; it boils down to a question of rewarding the incumbent for his record, or getting a non-white to represent a largely non-white district. Slight nod to Santos, but either would be one of the best members of County Council.

King County Sheriff: In the first actual election after voters last year changed this from an appointed office, appointed incumbent and career cop Dave Reichert faces no real opposition. Isn't democracy grand?

Port Of Seattle #1: David Ortman, former director of Friends of the Earth, is the best candidate for Port Commissioner to run in modern history. He would bring a desperately needed environmental and human rights perspective to the Port Of Milton Friedman. As an added bonus, he'd displace ossified, 24-year incumbent corporate parasite Jack Block. Vote Ortman. Twice.

Port Of Seattle #5: The other incumbent--and Port head now that Paul Schell's off trying to buy City Hall--is Paige Miller. She's another lesson in why people, seeing a list of unfamiliar names, shouldn't automatically vote for a woman; her three male opponents would all be upgrades. Jim Bartlemay comes from the anti-third runway movement; Ronald Newenhof is an ILWU longshoreman; Chris Rayson is the SWP guy. With Bartlemay primarily a single-issue candidate, and Rayson mired in rhetoric like "the growing working class resistance...to the rulers" (honestly, do they train these people with cassettes?), here's a mild preference for union rep Newenhof.

Seattle School Board #5: Three seats are up for election in November, but in only this one is the incumbent contested. That's too bad; in particular, Don Nielsen, the wealthy, arrogant jerk who led the effort to auction our kids off to corporate advertisers, deserves retirement.

Instead, one of the saner voices on Board, Michael Preston (also the only African-American), is facing serious challenge--partly because he's been a sane voice, partly because he ran into a little difficulty recently with fraud charges relating to his private business. Of the challengers, by far the best is activist Robert (Alec) Stephens, who's been a leading force behind the African American Heritage Museum and local PTSAs, and who would provide a good, community-based counter to the hierarchic, militarist tendencies of SSD's Gen. Stanford.

Probably the most visible and well-funded challenger is Janice Van Cleve. She's also the only non-African-American in the race, on a board that will have no other black representation. (Sorry, Stanford doesn't count.) You don't even need to know that she's a Microsoft exec who used to work in Army Military Intelligence. Vote Stephens.

Court of Appeals, Div. 1, Dist. 1, #3: Judge Anne Ellington is running unopposed, in traditional Soviet style. Vote against her on principle.

Seattle Proposition #1: The problem with grandiose and saccharine ballot titles like the "Families And Education Levy" is that they don't say anything, and distrust of such names might keep folks from supporting things they should. This is a renewal of an existing funding mechanism for Seattle schools; there are some minor changes from the current setup, but the bottom line is that the badly underfunded Seattle schools needs whatever money they can get, and there's enough of a brain-dead, anti-tax vote in this city that such measures need "yes" votes unless they're seriously flawed. This one's not.