Welcome back, Rob

Ever since all the decent candidates chickened out of the Sherill Huff coronation, I haven't felt a whole lot like blogging. That changed today, when I read that Robert Rosencrantz is running again for city council in Seattle. Rosencrantz is the personification of the type of public servant Seattle needs more of, i.e. a pragmatic, good-government liberal. He narrowly lost council primaries in 2003 and 2005, and while it's not yet known which council seat he is seeking, it is likely he will once again be a solid, credible candidate. Good to have you back, Rob.

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...

Nobles files for Seattle City Council

Monorail board member Jim Nobles has filed for the Seattle City Council, joining a mash of candidates after the seat being vacated by Peter Steinbrueck. Best known as the only Republican currently elected to office in Seattle (albeit for a nonpartisan office), Nobles' entry is significant not only in that he offers the GOP a credible candidate in Seattle, but also in that he makes no attempt to hide his affiliation (he also ran in the GOP primary for lieutenant governor in 2004).

Also running for the open seat are Bruce Harrell, former Councilman John Manning, and Venus Velázquez. Carrie Shriver had filed for the seat but has since reneged. Last week's issue of The Stranger speculated that several others, including very liberal Rep. Phyllis Kenney, may soon enter the race (or any of the other four seats on the ballot). Odd as it may seem, Nobles likely stands as good a shot as any of the others currently in the race. In a divided primary, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see him make the top two spots, though a scenario where he could win the general election matchup just isn't feasible at the current time.

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.

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.

GOP wants to contest Seattle

When I first saw this article's headline in my P-I automail this morning, I was hoping this to be a sign that the King County GOP was being smart about running candidates tailor-made for their districts, something I've oft pointed out as a requirement to the GOP having any hopes of rebuilding their party in the suburbs. Now, I'd certainly like to see them try to contest seats in Seattle at all levels of government, but upon reading statements by King County GOP Chair Michael Young in the article it sounds like more of the same strategy -- running the same old social conservatives in liberal districts with the misguided hope of the electorate behaving differently than in every other recent election. If they would nominate liberal Republicans in Seattle, someone similar ideologically to Fred Jarrett or even a Rob Rosencrantzish libertarian-leaning Democrat, it might not be completely out of the question to compete there. If they would open their ballot line to moderately-liberal candidates like the GOP does in New York City, then something could happen for the better.

Walk with Rosencrantz

I happened upon a neat thing the other day while visiting the campaign site of Seattle council candidate Robert Rosencrantz. He's putting together a grassroots campaign by taking walks through Seattle neighbourhoods to talk issues with residents and listen to ideas. Robert is a moderate-liberal who seeks to make Seattle more fiscally-responsible. This stands in stark contrast to his opponents, both left-wing Democrat partisans. It's time for a change from the status quo -- put an independent voice who hasn't lost touch with the public on the Council. I'd urge Seattle residents to periodically check the above link to see what's happening with his campaign walks.