Make It a Mandate

In the September primary, voters showed a willingness to shake things up across the political map. The job isn't finished. On Nov. 4 comes the aftershock. As we head to the polls, let's remember the Seattle School District's $34 million deficit, the Port of Seattle's failure to preserve our working waterfront, and the Seattle City Council's knuckling under to deep-pocketed developers.

Let's sweep out all the incumbents on the Seattle School Board. The train wreck that passed for a superintendent search revealed the weak nature of the current board in graphic detail. Choices for Seattle City Council require more care, however. Some incumbent council members do a pretty good job of looking out for the public interest and remain worthy of our support. Likewise, one incumbent in the fishbowl at Pier 69, the world headquarters of the Port of Seattle, is worth keeping, while you can toss the other commission member back into the sea.

In detail, here's what we think. We only make endorsements in contested races.

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SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL

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POSITION 1

This race has developed into a clear but complicated choice. Ours is Judy Nicastro, based on her continued advocacy for tenants and her willingness to protect the public's purse from raids by Mayor Greg Nickels and Paul Allen for risky biotech development in the South Lake Union neighborhood. While Nicastro's behavior was appalling when the strip-club lobby was trolling with fat checks for votes, we think she learned a lesson about the strings attached to special interests.

After a slow start, former Seattle Times columnist Jean Godden has demonstrated a good grasp of the issues, but we fundamentally disagree with her politics. Godden has suited up for the landlord-developer team, and we're rooting for the other side. Nicastro won't always play for the right side, but she'll be with us more often than Godden.

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POSITION 3

Peter Steinbrueck earns our vote by embodying several important Seattle political traditions: He puts people first by fighting hard for human services and housing. He wants to preserve the broader public's quality of lifea terrific recent example being his effort to stop the monorail from railroading through Seattle Center. And he works hard to safeguard Seattle's unique political cultureits nonpartisan system of checks and balancesfrom the bare-knuckled politicking of the mayor and the misguided citizens' initiative on district elections.

We disagree with opponent Zander Batchelder's blind boosterism of the monorail and ward politics.

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POSITION 5

Tom Rasmussen hasn't made this an easy decision, but we are recommending him over incumbent Margaret Pageler. Rasmussen has not done a good job of defining himself, making vague, agreeable-sounding noises. He has, however, insisted that his door will be open. He guarantees that he will do a better job of listening to important constituencies like environmentalists, neighborhood groups, and housing activists than Pageler has done. Vote for him and hold him to that promise.

Pageler has worked hard on the council for the past 12 years in what she sees as the public interest. We find her definition of that to be too weighted toward hard-line civility laws and the business community. If re-elected, Pageler hopes to rewrite the city's land-use code to make it more developer friendly, and that's not a use of her considerable talents that excites us.

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POSITION 7

Since the primary election, the case for challenger David Della has become stronger as incumbent Heidi Wills' missteps on Strippergate have been fleshed out. Wills has revealed that she took part in an illegal meeting at a strip club in Lake City with two people lobbying on behalf of the businessan inexcusable lapse in judgment. The council member seems similarly unable to separate the city's interests from special interests in South Lake Union, where she is an unabashed cheerleader for everything Vulcan.

We're confident that Della's dogged effort to hold Wills accountable for her poor stewardship of City Light means he will be a strong ratepayer advocate if elected. We are also hoping that his roots working for social justice and human services will come to the fore if he is a policymaker. That combination would be a most welcome addition at City Hall.

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POSITION 9

Every so often, a race comes along that is truly a stinker. This is one. Neither candidate is acceptable, so we recommend neither. Former City Council member John Manning resigned in 1996 after pleading guilty to domestic violence charges. We don't think he's done enough since to merit the public's trust again. Jim Compton, who came into office in 1999 as a tough-talking journalist, has been a real disappointment. He spent the summer embroiled in Strippergate and revealed that he took a ride on Paul Allen's jet to see Allen's Trail Blazers play basketball in Portland. In each case, he initially ducked the media. The Allen plane ride rankles us the most. With his involvement in deciding plans for South Lake Union development, which would enhance Allen's many acres of land through the use of much public money, Compton should be smart enough to steer clear of a potential conflict. He seemed clueless. Meanwhile, as chair of the council's Police, Fire, Courts, and Technology Committee, he has not been as assertive as we'd like in the ongoing debate over police accountability. That's why we're unable to recommend Compton for a second term. We make no endorsement. You're on your own with this decision.

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SEATTLE SCHOOL BOARD

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Four seats out of seven are on the ballot, but think of this as a package deal. Three incumbents, from a board that has run Seattle's schools into the ground, and a "what, me worry?" PTSA mom are opposed by four smart, principled reformers riding a wave of public outrage over the consistent lack of accountability shown by the present board. We are endorsing the reform slate. Three of our four choices won pluralities or better in the primary. All the board has done since is turn the search for a new superintendent into an embarrassing farce.