Semi-interesting new city council candidates!

Casually checking PDC filings as I often do, I just noticed that two new and notable candidates have recently filed for this fall's Seattle City Council races. First, 2005 mayoral runner-up Al Runte has joined the club in running for the seat being vacated by Peter Steinbrueck. Runte received roughly 1/3 of the vote in the mayoral contest, though in the 3rd position train-wreck he may have a real chance if he can hold most of that support. Secondly, and more excitingly I think, local Green Party bigwig Joe Szwaja will be running but has yet to decide which seat to target. Now, I'm no fan of the Green Party in general and haven't ever voted for one of their candidates. However, considering that I generally like outsider candidates and love it when Independents/third parties can compete with the big boys, I'm excited about Szwaja's prospects. He ran for Congress against Jimmy McD in 2000 and drew a respectable 20% of the vote, and I knew he'd be back to run for something after that and had been waiting for this day to come. If I had to pick a likely target aside from open seat, I kinda figure he'd go after Jean Godden, but that's just a guess. Now if only Ruth Bennett were to file...