With more than four months to go before the June filing deadline, a dozen candidates have filed to fill two, possibly three, spots that are being vacated by Seattle City Council members in November. That should be cause for excitement—rarely do so many people take an interest so early in the relatively low-profile (and often dead-end) job of city council member. But the current crop is hard to get worked up about. So far, it includes:
• Sally Bagshaw, a onetime crusader for the mayor's doomed cut-and-cover tunnel. Her team includes some heavy hitters, but some key questions (why run? why now?) remain unanswered.
• David Bloom, a cofounder of the antidensity Seattle Displacement Coalition. Bloom's thinking on most issues parallels those of Nick Licata, who may be retiring; although Bloom would be a natural to fill his seat, the crowded field may not leave room for another old-school lefty.
• James Donaldson, a former Sonic who now runs a financially struggling chain of gyms. Donaldson (to the consternation of his consultant Christian Sinderman) is now rumored to be considering a run for mayor.
• Peter Holmes, the former head of the city's Office of Professional Accountability Review Board, a police-accountability panel. In 2006, Holmes made it onto several council members' short lists for a vacant council seat that ultimately went to Sally Clark.
• Jessie Israel, a King County Parks employee who has declared she's running for Licata's seat. Israel has said she won't take a leave from her job to run for council—an understandable decision, but one that will make it tough for her to compete against opponents who'll be running full-time.
• Tim Killian, a political jack-of-all-trades who's worked for Mark Sidran and as a lobbyist for Seattle strip clubs.
• David Miller, a neighborhood activist who used to head up the Maple Leaf Community Council and who has opposed several tree-cutting projects in North Seattle.
• Mike O'Brien, a Sierra Club activist and dynamic public speaker who alienated many in the environmental establishment when he (and the Sierra Club) came out against the 2007 roads-and-transit ballot measure.
• Dorsol Plants, a West Seattle activist and former chairman of the Highland Park Action Committee.
• Robert Rosencrantz, who's run for council enough times now that it seems fair to tag him with the "perennial" label.
• Jordan Royer, son of former mayor Charles Royer, who is seeking the seat being vacated by retiring council member Richard McIver. Royer's name familiarity and experience in city government (he used to work for Mayor Greg Nickels) give him a jump start on potential opponents.
• Robert Sondheim, owner of the Rosebud restaurant on Capitol Hill, who won 12 percent of the primary vote against Jean Godden in 2007—the lowest of the four candidates running.
It's likely that more candidates will get into these races (David Ginsberg, a WaMu employee from West Seattle, may jump in this week) and that people will continue to shift from seat to seat. Everyone's waiting to see what Nick Licata does; one theory has it that he'll announce he isn't running for reelection and lie low until right before the filing deadline, when he'll throw his name into the race for mayor. That could hurt the chances of other potential Nickels opponents, like former council member Peter Steinbrueck and current council member Tim Burgess; anti-Nickels sentiment may be rampant, but there's only so much of it to go around. 
