Tonight won't be the first interesting candidate forum of the city council election season. That honor already went to the District 4 event on April 29 at which council member Jean Godden drew a lot of attention by refusing to answer some questions.

But it will be the first forum featuring council member Kshama Sawant and her challengers in District 3, which covers Capitol Hill and the Central District. That race—in which one of Sawant's challengers has already mocked her for responding to the State of the Union address and another thinks she's too focused on a "socialist revolution"—will be a referendum on the council member's closely watched first year on the council.

The fun starts when doors open at 6 p.m. at Mount Zion Baptist Church. Mingling begins at 6:30 and the program is at 7. Longtime local political reporters Josh Feit and Erica C. Barnett will moderate.

Word is all of Sawant's challengers will be there: LGBT rights advocate Rod Hearne; Urban League president Pamela Banks, who's supported by council member Bruce Harrell and made the State of the Union remark; Morgan Beach, who's campaigning on gender pay equity and made the "socialist revolution" comment; and retired TV broadcaster and neighborhood activist Lee Carter.

The forum is hosted by the 43rd District Democrats, and only the 43rd District Democrats, thanks to some Dems vs. Dems drama that's been playing out over the last week.

This event was originally planned as a collaboration between the 43rd and the 37th District Democrats (City Council District 3 touches both legislative districts), but the 37th District Democrats didn't want to allow Sawant at the forum since she's not a Democrat.

“The concerns raised were that as a local Democratic group, our mission is to elect Democrats," 37th District Democrats Chair David Corrado told KUOW, "and by lending our name, we were giving this stage to someone who is not a Democrat."

The 43rd group wasn't having it. So, the 37th split off and scheduled their own event for Districts 2 and 3, which was supposed to happen last night. Neither Sawant nor Josh Farris, an occupy activist challenging incumbent Bruce Harrell in District 2, were invited. (Still confused about which council district is which? Here's a map.)

Then, in the run-up to the forum, the group received a letter signed by 73 of its members, including Pramila Jayapal (the state senator from the 37th who's endorsed Sawant) asking the leadership of the 37th District Democrats to allow Sawant to participate.

"Even if people do not agree with her views or her style," the letter reads, "that does not mean we have the right to try and stop people from hearing what she has to say—that actually seems antithetical to our Democratic party values."

Instead of inviting Sawant, the group canceled the forum, arguing that its bylaws prevent a non-Democrat from participating in its events. (That's disputed by Jayapal, according to Publicola.)

In this new council district system, local party groups like these are likely to be more involved in hosting candidate forums. But that also opens the door for disagreements like this.

"The 43rd thinks we're nuts," says Jeanne Legault, a precinct committee officer in the 37th and a member of the citywide group Democrats for Sawant. "She's the most popular city council member in our district. I don’t care what someone labels themselves. We’ve had Democrats run who’ve been anti-choice and homophobic. I don’t call them Democrats. On the other hand, Kshama is like my dream representative working on all the issues that are important to me, so labels shmabels."

And what kind of effect does all that division have?

"I've gotten over 100 emails," Legault says, "from people saying all this has done is make me want to work harder for Kshama."

See y'all tonight!