Why is nobody running against mayor Greg Nickels?

Greg Nickels will be mayor of Seattle next year, sailing comfortably into a second term. And whether or not you believe that Nickels has earned that second term, he would be a better mayor if he had to defend his record against that of a qualified challenger in this falls election.

Instead, his only challenger so far is one Christal Wood, a young, flaky activist type who has raised only $2,311.23 so far in her quixotic effort to unseat Nickels. Wood has run for office twice before, finishing dismally; she has no experience as an elected official, no name familiarity with voters, and, frankly, no chance of winning.

Nickels, by contrast, has raised a staggering $437,273.15 so far, much of it from the business and development communities that supported Mark Sidran four years ago. Nickels' efforts to remake Seattle as a little Manhattan have endeared him to Paul Allen and other major business interests, but they're far from universally popular. Nickels is vulnerable on the issues; at the very least, decisions that will shape the skyline of Seattle for decades to come deserve some sort of public referendum.

Don't hold your breath. There will be more Christal Woods entering the race before the July 29 filing deadline, but that's not what we need. We need a qualified, well-financed challenger who can provide voters with an alternative to the future Seattle envisaged by Greg Nickels.

In particular, the absence of any sort of progressive or neighborhoods-based challenger is telling, and sobering. There have been efforts. An ad-hoc group led by neighborhood activists John Fox, Matt Fox, Cindy Domingo, and others spent months trying to recruit someone to run against Nickels. They've given up, after being turned down by over a half dozen prospects. City Councilman Nick Licata said no. So did former gubernatorial candidate Phil Talmadge. So did County Councilperson Bob Ferguson, and state representative Sharon Tomiko-Santos and her husband, International District icon Bob Santos.

They turned down the idea for a variety of reasons, but central to most was money. Particularly at this late date, it will be nearly impossible to raise enough of it to mount a serious, credible challenge to Nickels. Anyone planning to mount such a campaign would have started months ago. At this point, It's exceedingly unlikely to happen.

Progressives ought to be wondering in general why they aren't mounting any campaigns for elected office in Seattle this year. Last time around, voter anger turned out several city council members and school board members, and there's every reason to believe voters have just as much anger, especially at the school board, this time around. Yet for the city council, beyond Licata's re-election, all progressives have to show for themselves is the erratic candidacy of Dwight Pelz, sort of, and the underfunded efforts of Angel Bolanos and socialist Linda Averill. A slate of four progressive reformers stormed onto the school board two years ago, yet this year, with two open seats, so far nobody from a grass roots background is trying to join them. The same holds true for the newly shrunken county council, where Ferguson is battling another incumbent for a newly created district, and for the Port of Seattle.

Progressive activism, the wellspring from which many of Seattle's Democratic-dominated elected officials emerge, and the only logical source of a mayoral challenger this year, seems to be strangely disorganized and quiet. As a result, There will be no meaningful opportunity for voters to express any displeasure with a mayor who's selling the farm to anyone who promises tall buildings. There will be no opportunity for anyone to throw the bum out. Were stuck with Greg Nickels, and his policies, whether voters want them or not. And that's a shame.

As for progressive candidates, one can only wonder. Licata is unopposed, again, in his run for a third term; he's easily one of Seattle's most popular elected officials. Yet nobody seems interested in following in his footsteps: someone who spent years toiling in the anonymity of grass roots organizing, and then used those years of contacts to mount a successful electoral campaign. Other Nick Licatas are out there; getting them to run for office seems, this year, to be unlikely. But there's still a month before the filing deadline, and a lot of races, mayor not included, where the money necessary to run a reasonable campaign isn't impossible to raise. There's still time.

Anyone interested?