Final Vote
Disappointed that Mark Sidran lost the mayor's race, Sidran supporters like the Seattle Chamber of Commerce and City Council Member Margaret Pageler are now lobbying for the next best thing: getting lordly conservative council member Jim Compton seated as the next Seattle city council president.
With Greg Nickels (a guy who doesn't even owe the downtown business community a return phone call) camped out in city hall's 12th-floor executive offices, the city's traditional conservatives surely don't want the council's progressive contingent calling the shots from the 11th-floor legislative offices as well.
Unless conservatives can install Compton, they will be facing trouble--namely, "sustainability" guru Richard Conlin as council president, left-winger Nick Licata as Transportation Committee chair, and Green wonk Heidi Wills (last seen at an animal law conference in Oregon!) firmly in control.
The key to getting Compton the job may only come with a major concession from the conservatives: giving lefty Council Member Judy Nicastro a piece of the pie. Ever since Wills just said no to Compton, Nicastro is shaping up as the fifth vote that Compton needs.
Why would Nicastro abandon her progressive colleagues to support Compton-- one of the few council members who voted against her landmark renters' rights package? Simple. Compton took Nicastro up on her request to chair the high-profile Transportation Committee. Richard Conlin, the left's presidential front-runner, told Nicastro he doesn't cut deals.
Question: Can Compton actually convince conservative council cohorts like Jan Drago and Pageler that Nicastro isn't too much of a bomb thrower to head up that important committee?
More important: If Compton can put Transportation in Nicastro's lap, indebting her to the conservatives, what becomes of the already tenuous lefty council coalition? In hock to Compton, will Nicastro really be able to forward a progressive transportation agenda? Nicastro says yes: "This is a clean vote trade. I can make him president if he can give me Transportation. After that, we owe each other nothing."
Unappealing Appeal
Last June, Five to Four recommended that anyone running for city office should challenge the city code that prevents candidates from talking about their opponents (typically incumbants) in the Voters Pamphlet. In August, The Stranger's Manchurian candidate, Grant Cogswell, took our advice and dragged the city to U.S. District Court--fighting for his First Amendment right to bust on his opponent. The court ruled for Cogswell.
In an executive session on Monday December 10, the city council (nine folks with a vested interest in preventing political challengers from talking about incumbent records) decided to appeal the decision.
