Running on Semi-Empty

Every year, ETS! takes a progressive/electorally skeptical look at who's running and what they're promising to deliver if elected. And every year, it seems, we bemoan the dearth of good local folks who should be fighting the good fight to get their (and our) issues out in front of the public. Like it or not, elections and campaigns are the best way to do that for a public that rarely cares about anything other than TV headlines and their own lives except when election time nears.

State and federal races wait til next year--464 days until George Bush is unseated!--and so this year, the marquee races are for local, for Seattle's city council. And frankly, those races are a disappointment -- they should have far stronger progressive candidacies than they do. But in many of the "lesser" positions, strong activists are running who deserve your support, and that of your friends. Vote for them early and often.

As ETS! is getting more and more popular and widely read, we're breaking a bit with tradition this year by issuing our picks an issue earlier than usual. That's for three reasons: because more and more people are voting early by absentee ballot; because it gives you an issue to respond and write letters telling us why we blew it (or why we were right); and because each year it seems like we have at least one embarrassing mistake. This'll give us a chance to correct that inevitable gaffe. Moreover, since we're doing it earlier (and consequently with less information) this year, we may make more this time.

That brings us to the usual disclaimers: this is a purely subjective take on the primary election. Don't take our word for it, or anyone else's; do your own homework. Or, ignore the exercise entirely. As always, it's up to you.

King County Assessor: Only one per party here, so this is a meaningless warmup for the general election in November. But, for the record, incumbent Democrat Scott Noble is reasonably good, and R. challenger Richard Pope is a creep. Scott Noble.

King County Council: Okay, here's why people think elections are a farce. Our county is one of the most populous in the country (in many big metro areas, the suburbs are in different counties), and the county council is one of the best-paying public gigs in the state. But while seven of the county council's 13 seats are up for grabs, only a handful don't have the incumbents coasting to an uncontested re-election. Nobody in this country, no matter how good, should be re-elected unopposed and without having a meaningful challenge to their job. Larry Gossett, this means you, too.

The most interesting races: Position 2, where ossified Demo-hack Cynthia Sullivan is facing her first challenge in 20 years from Bob Ferguson, a former executive director of the King County Democrats who's running on a platform of reforming Sound Transit. In the end, he might not be much better, but Sullivan outlived her usefulness long ago. Bob Ferguson.

Pos. 9 is a Republican dogfight. The Dem. nominee will be Barbara Heavey, but on the Republican side appointed incumbent Steve Hammond, who ascended when Kent Pullen died last spring, is being challenged by uber-nut Pam Roach and former state representative Phil Fortunato. Roach is both a serious menace and, in a three-way race, a real threat to advance to the general election; she's both a long-time aide to Pullen and a long-time state legislator most recently notorious for accusations by two former employees who say she pulled a gun on them in separate incidents. Pistol-packin' Pam is Ellen Craswell with a foul mouth; vote Republican, while we still have an open primary, just to keep her out of the general election. For this strategic voting, Steve Hammond would be the best choice.

And, in Pos. 12, Brian Derdowski has been heavily involved with the Greens and with community organizing since he was, as a Republican, ousted from his five-term seat in the primary by David Irons two years ago. Now, as a Democrat, he's back, trying to regain his seat from Irons. Derdowski is outstanding. Port of Seattle: Another of those agencies so fundamentally corrupt it begs for good challengers. Traditionally it draws few, because it's hard to run a county-wide race with no name recognition. In Pos. 2, Incumbent Bob Edwards, who in only one term has shown himself to be as corrupt as the rest, faces two non-entities; skip it. But In Pos. 5, activist Christopher Cain is back for a second run at incumbent Clare Nordquist. Another challenger, Alec Fisken, is also decent, but Cain is a dedicated reformer and global justice advocate; Cain, all the way.

Seattle City Council is this year's disappointment. "Strippergate" -- which my erstwhile employer, Seattle Weekly (I'm actually freelance there, not on staff) has been beating to death, is a tiny blip compared to the eight lobbyists Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures has been siccing on City Hall. Yet for all the wrong reasons it may well take down Judy Nicastro, who's more vulnerable than Jim Compton and Heidi Wills, the others ensnared in it. Meanwhile, you've got dilettantes like long-time gossip columnist Jean Godden running on a platform of nothing more than "city council should be more serious"--code words for "I hate those progressive resolutions." (Somehow, tearing down dams and opposing wars are always on such critics' lists, but Florists' Appreciation Day isn't.)

And all the while, decent, credible candidates go begging. But there are a few.

Position 1: Judy Nicastro, in her first term, was supposed to be part of a progressive troika including Nick Licata and Peter Steinbreuck. Instead, she's been erratic, opportunistic, and frequently infuriating (remember her anti-Green Party posturing over Nader's 2000 run?) But for all her problems, she's still better than her challengers. Art Skolnik is the best of the establisment icons who've lined up to challenge her; Kollin Min is in the middle; Jean is the worst. (There's also a socialist, David Ferguson.) Godden, in both her Seattle Weekly and Stranger editorial board interviews, displayed absolutely zero understanding of civic issues. She seems to view her election (isn't the campaign a formality?) and service as a sort of noblesse oblige to the elites whose cocktail parties she's been breathlessly reporting on for a quarter-century. That sort of attitude got us Jim Comptom. Stop Jean Godden. Judy Nicastro.

Pos. 3: Peter Steinbreuck has been council president this last term, and he's reportedly lining up to challenge Nickels for Mayor in two years--that's one reason, but only one, why Nickels will back whoever survives the primary against him, most likely the anemic Rudi Bertschi. Steinbreuck isn't what he should be, either, but he's still far better than Bertschi. Peter Steinbreuck.

Pos. 5: The execrable Margaret Pageler, sadly, faces no real challenge. The only serious challenge this year is from Monorail folk hero and loose cannon Dick Falkenbury. Also in the race is the Freedom Socialists' Linda Averill, a dedicated activist and nice person, and I wish her well, but for my tastes she's shown little so far beyond the ability to spout the usual socialist cliches, some great and some completely irrelevant to city council or the 21st century. If you can stomach that sort of thing, vote Averill; otherwise, Dick Falkenbury.

Pos. 7: Incumbent Heidi Wills is a Democratic insider, a money machine with no real principles beyond her ability to raise astonishing amounts of money. That ability has kept most serious challengers out of the race--but David Della, an International District and labor activist icon, is a notable exception. Della has more integrity in his little finger than Wills has in her entire family tree. Christal Wood, whose mayoral endorsement by the Greens two years ago caused the Greens such embarrassment, is also back in this race. David Della

Pos. 9: Jim Compton won this seat four years ago solely due to his TV-career name familiarity and stage presence; he's gone on to chair the public safety committee and, in that role, help ensure that the Seattle Police Department faces perhaps less serious scrutiny or accountability than any other big-city police force in the country. This is the object lesson of what happens when egomaniacal media whores get it into their minds to make public policy. John Manning, the disgraced former cop and council member who resigned in 1996 in the wake of his third domestic violence complaint, is back for a run, and so is pseudo-progressive Susan Harmon, but by far the best is activist Angel Bolanos. Compton deserves a much, much tougher race than this, but Bolanos is our best hope.

Seattle School Board: As I've written for years, both the school district and its governing board are train wrecks, and in this past year they've finally wrecked badly and publicly enough to draw widespread public outrage. The sole consolation to the brutal cuts kids will face as they return to school next week are a set of unusually fine reform candidates challenging for the school board. They include WTO folk heroine Sally Soriano in North Seattle's District 1; Darlene Flinn in District 2 (Green Lake/Wallingford); ETS! fan and former Green Party co chair Brita Butler-Wall in District 3 (Northeast Seattle); and West Seattle's Irene Stewart in Dist. 4. All face incumbents except Stewart, whose main open seat opponent is PTSA activist and edubureaucracy auto-vote Betty Hoagland. Between newcomer Mary Bass and the quartet of Soriano, Flinn, Butler-Wall, and Stewart, there's real hope of getting a solid block or even a majority on a board that has been led around by its nose for far, far too long. This set of candidates is the best Seattle's seen in a long time.

Seattle Popular Monorail Authority: The Monorail Board is facing its first election, with two seats up for grabs. In Position 8, the well- connected Cindi Laws is probably the best bet of a mediocre bunch. But in the Pos. 9 race, there's a real gem: Brett McMillan, who's been one of the most studious, articulate, and effective critics of the downtown establishment's mostly successful efforts to coopt the "people's transit." For only one example, it was McMillan who almost single-handedly discovered that there were to be no contribution limits for campaigns for these board seats, and got some limits imposed. He's also managed, from the peanut gallery, to get environmental impact statements done for neighborhood impacts and to get a recent board retreat to the public. He would be a breath of fresh air, and Joel Horn's worst nightmare. There can be no higher recommendation. Brett McMillan.

Ballot Measures: Initiative 75 would make pot the lowest enforcement priority of SPD. It probably won't survive either the courts or federal hostility, but it's very, very obviously the right idea. Yes.

I-77 is the measure that would tax lattes to pay for child care. Now, please understand; I hate coffee. I consider it one of the most vile concoctions in the natural or unnatural world. I hate the smell, the taste, and certainly the popularity. And child care is obviously not just a worthy but essential and badly underfunded cause. So this should be a no-brainer.

But it's not. Something about I-77 is just too inherently ridiculous for me. I-77 essentially treats lattes like a sin tax or luxury tax, something to be singled out as either socially unnecessary or undesirable. But it's not undesirable, really--just obnoxious to my tastes--and it's no less unnecessary than thousands of other consumer products. So why lattes? Why not saltines, or socket wrenches, or--hey, here's something both related to day care and socially undesirable, plus, it smells just like coffee--disposable diapers? I never thought I'd side with Starbucks and against day care, but this one makes no sense to me. Fund day care, but do it right. No.