The Nickels campaign machine, often regarded as a political juggernaut stomping toward an easy reelection, got tripped up last week by a small group of local Democrats gathered at an elementary school in Ballard.

They were all members of the 36th District Democrats, an organization that represents liberal voters in Ballard, Magnolia, Queen Anne, Interbay, and Phinney Ridge—and endorsed Nickels in 2001. That's another way of saying they were people one would expect to be in favor of Nickels, who has gone to the mat for liberal causes such as smart growth and light rail, while gaining national attention for bucking President Bush on the Kyoto Protocol.

But the 36th District Dems apparently didn't think much of Nickels's progressive bonafides. When the group's chair moved for endorsements in the mayor's race, a hand in the front row shot up and nominated former University of Washington professor Al Runte, the long-shot candidate for mayor who emerged as Nickels's opponent (from a crowded field of other long-shot challengers) when he scored a surprising 22 percent in the September 30 primary.

Per procedure, three people, including Dr. Runte himself, then spoke in favor of his candidacy at the 36th Dems' meeting. But when the chair tried to find three people to speak in favor of Nickels, only two people stood up, and neither of them was in favor of endorsing Nickels; they just weren't keen on Dr. Runte.

"It was basically a missed opportunity for the Nickels campaign," said Lawrence Winnerman, communications chair for the 36th Dems' executive board. And a rather embarrassing missed opportunity, as the district promptly voted to give Runte its endorsement for the November 2 general election.

The vote was more a sign of frustration with Nickels's leadership style and his recent withdrawal of support for the monorail than it was an enthusiastic approval of the idea that Dr. Runte should lead Seattle, felt Winnerman, a former Deaniac with an equally strong taste for city politics. But it meant that out of the five big legislative districts that cover the Seattle area, three have now declined to endorse Nickels. Not a good score for a supposedly winning team. In addition to the 36th, which endorsed Runte, the 43rd and 46th, which cover Capitol Hill, the University District, and North Seattle, chose to make no endorsement in the race. The two district endorsements Nickels did receive came from his home turf in the 34th District (West Seattle, Vashon Island) and the 37th District (Seattle, Madrona, Rainier Valley, and Skyway).

Nickels's trouble with district endorsements may be a sign, said one political observer with close ties to North Seattle politics, that his tough management style, while admired by his supporters, "just offends some of the sensitivities of some Northwesterners."

Winnerman said the members of the 36th Dems' executive board got an unwelcome encounter with Team Nickels's take-it-or-leave-it style when Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis and Nickels advisor Marco Lowe spoke to them days before the endorsement vote. The board was upset about Nickels's stance on the monorail and, Winnerman said, the Nickels staffers "tried to spin everything that was happening with the monorail as Nickels being a good steward of the city." It was another encounter, he said, that "crystallized in a lot of people's minds that Greg Nickels does what's good for Greg Nickels."

And then, on the night of the endorsement vote, Winnerman said, he didn't see one Nickels staffer in the room—although Runte had come, as well as candidates for city council and port commission.

Nickels campaign manager Viet Shelton said the campaign did send someone to the endorsement meeting: an intern. He wouldn't comment on why the usually thorough Team Nickels hadn't thought to make sure there would be people in the crowd who would nominate Nickels or argue against Runte. And he wouldn't offer a reaction to the 36th Dems' endorsement of Runte, other than to say, "We're focusing on the general election." (He also repeated the Nickels talking point about the mayor having received the highest percentage in the primary of any incumbent in the past 24 years.

Whether Nickels's loss of the 36th Dems to Runte will have a significant effect on November voting patterns remains to be seen. But it can't help the mayor that the 36th Dems will now be doorbelling against him and distributing Runte campaign literature to many of the district's 60,000 Democratic voters.

Runte, true to form, was quite pleased with the situation and said his endorsement by the 36th Dems was further proof that he's gaining on Nickels. "It means that the race is tightening," he said.

eli@thestranger.com