At a candidate forum last night, Jean Godden stumbled in her answers to some questions and refused to answer others.
At a candidate forum last night, Jean Godden stumbled in her answers to some questions and refused to answer others. Josh Kelety

Seattle City Council member Jean Godden did not have a good night last night.

At a candidate forum at Roosevelt High School, Godden stumbled in her answers to some questions, downright refused to answer others, and offered little in the way of specifics or new initiatives. She beat the drum for gender pay equity and reminded everyone we just got a paid parental leave policy for city employees, but she also mentioned Mayor Ed Murray and his plans for transportation and affordable housing more than she offered any ideas of her own.

In a lighting round gauging positions on issues like municipal broadband, rent control, and a citizen initiative to create publicly funded elections, candidates were asked to hold up cards indicating “yes” or “no.” On rent control, the public financing initiative, and turning a dilapidated slumlord-owned property near Roosevelt High School into a park, Godden refused to answer. (Usually in these types of things, candidates are given a “waffle” card if they can’t answer definitively. The 43rd and 46th district Democrats offered no such luxury and Godden was not pleased, refusing to say anything at all as she sat with a little smile refusing to raise either card.)

Godden, who’s been on the council since 2004, is running for reelection in the newly created District 4, covering northeast Seattle including the U-District. Also in that race and at the forum: Transportation Choices director Rob Johnson, parks activist Michael Maddux, and neighborhood council leader Tony Provine.

She dated herself by mentioning that District 4 is dear to her because she used to work at the University District Herald, where she started working when she was 19. And she answered a question about the city department charged with enforcing of the new minimum wage law—which some say we should be worried won’t do enough—by saying she thinks the employees in that office are “really dedicated.”

Early in the forum, when candidates were asked which committees they’d most like to chair and Johnson discussed transportation, Godden followed him by explaining her own transportation plan instead of answering which committees she hoped to chair. (Her plan, by the way, was to support the mayor’s plan, the $900 million “Move Seattle” levy the mayor is pitching for this fall. On affordable housing, she also deferred to his Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda Committee, which is expected to make recommendations next month.)

This was all truly painful to watch. I wasn’t the only one who noticed.

It’s no secret Godden is regularly on the mayor’s side (remember that time she ambushed a homeless encampment vote to help him get his way?) or that it sometimes seems like she’s “taking a li’l nap.”

Last night, though, it was hard to sympathize with Godden even on her signature issue, gender pay equity, which she says is the reason she wants another term. The city needs that fight to stay at the forefront and a feisty woman who’s been talking about it for years should be the best pick to do that. But as Godden kept stumbling on stage—alongside her all-male competition, by the way—you had to wonder how effective she’ll actually be at advancing the cause.

At one point, the forum’s moderator (Seattlish’s Sarah Anne Lloyd) forgot to call on Godden to answer a question about police accountability.

“It’s OK,” Godden said with a smile, “but I don’t want to be overlooked.”

Heidi Groover is a staff writer at The Stranger.