When I told 37th District incumbent State Senator Adam Kline (D-Madrona, Rainier Valley) what his campaign rival Dawn Mason said, he flipped out. "What she is referring to in her euphemism is absolutely unfucking true. She is not so subtly accusing me of racism. That's simply unfucking true. And that's on the fucking record." Kline wasn't finished; again, for the record: "I would hope that she'd find something other to play than the race card. That's her one note. She does it habitually."

What did Mason, the 37th District representative from 1995-'98, who ran against incumbent Senator Kline in '98, and who is challenging Kline again this year, actually say? That while she was "comfortable" talking to constituents, Kline wasn't good at "communicating with the diverse district." (The district, which stretches from Madrona to Renton, is the heaviest minority district in the state.)

Kline, a 57-year-old white man and longtime trial lawyer, topped Mason, a 57-year-old black woman and longtime city employee, by just 986 votes in the '98 primary.

I tried to calm hot-tempered Kline, explaining that Mason, who also made an unsuccessful 1999 city council bid, talked about other stuff: Sound Transit's plan, the FBI clampdown on a Somali grocery, social-service funding in South Seattle, and under-performing schools. Mason also stressed that she didn't want the campaign to be a repeat of '98's ugly personal showdown. "The media focuses on all that. But I want this campaign to be respectful. I'm not spending a lot of time on Adam," Mason said. The personable Mason said she was urged to run by constituents who felt she would be more effective in Olympia to bring home the bacon. Mason boasted that in the last session she'd been called upon by current Seattle legislators to informally help out on legislation. "Our sitting senator couldn't get the job done," she said. "Why is it that they keep calling on me? The folks at the Central Area Motivation Project [CAMP] had to call on me about funding."

Mason's got her work cut out for her though, if she's arguing that Kline isn't a good liberal. Kline pushed to protect civil liberties in the wake of September 11, leading the fight to kill a Governor Locke bill that Kline believed was too broad and would have interfered with the rights of innocent dissidents.

Kline also dumped an extra $7.5 million into drug treatment--finding cash by crafting legislation to get low-level drug offenders out of jail and into rehab. He also pushed through legislation checking racial profiling.

Hmmm.... While race is supposedly taboo in this campaign, it's actually front and center: Mason talks about money for CAMP. Kline talks about racial profiling. Mason talks about the Somali grocery. Kline talks about discrimination after September 11. Let's see if the candidates can talk about these important issues without race-baiting.

josh@thestranger.com