You've heard it everywhere: Steinbrueck out

Seems we will have an open Seattle City Council seat this fall after all. Unfortunately, it comes at the expense of one of the better members, in my opinion. Councilman Peter Steinbrueck has announced he will not seek reelection to his seat and will instead focus on defeating a new Viaduct and continuing to push his surface/transit option. Council President Nick Licata thinks Steinbrueck may be lining up a run for mayor in two years, and some good press fighting a rebuild could certainly help him out.

As for electoral repercussions, four challengers are already running for the Council, and I'm sure some will change their focus to this open seat in the near future. According to the P-I, Shea Anderson is currently challenging incumbent Jean Godden and Tim Burgess is challenging incumbent David Della, with Bruce Harrell and Venus Velázquez having not committed to a seat yet. I had been under the impression Velázquez was also challenging Godden, though the P-I says differently.