Early peek: 2007 Seattle City Council elections

Even at this early date, three presumably credible challengers have filed for this fall's Seattle City Council seats. The first to announce was Timothy Burgess, formerly Chair of the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission and the Queen Anne Community Council. Burgess has a reputation as a moderate, and is currently running against incumbent David Della for the 7th position. Of course, as Dwight Pelz showed us in 2005, this is not set in stone. The next to file was Bruce Harrell, an attorney who once worked for then-Councilman Paul Kraabel. Harrell has not singled out which incumbent to oppose. The third candidate is Venus Velazquez, who has apparently filed just in the last few days. She was a finalist for the appointment to replace Jim Compton last year, an appointment that would eventually go to Sally Clark. However, Velazquez has set her sights on first-term incumbent Jean Godden rather than Clark, who made quick work of frequent candidate Stan Lippman in last fall's special election.

The other incumbents whose seats are up this year are Peter Steinbrueck and Tom Rasmussen.