From the Oct 28 – Nov 3, 2004 issue

News

In The Hall

by Erica C. Barnett

Campaign-finance documents--those dry rosters of numbers and names that typically occasion visit only by intrepid activists and minutiae-obsessed political reporters--aren't ordinarily a rich trove of revealing campaign information. But then, this is no ordinary election. Case in point: a mysterious $30,000 outlay by the anti-monorail campaign to a company called JKM Research, which, in the shorthand parlance of disclosure forms, conducts "focus group research."

That expenditure, interestingly enough, corresponds almost precisely with a 180-degree change in the anti-monorail campaign's focus--from an anti-tax crusade into a "pro-transit coalition." It also corresponds with the sudden disappearance of the campaign's most entertaining standard-bearers, among them a Hummer-driving West Seattle resident fond of dragging his entire family along to council hearings; a posse of mostly elderly "concerned citizens" whose main concern seemed to be that the monorail not track unwanted elements, like mud on its concrete boots, into their upscale neighborhoods; and a treasurer who--whoops--failed to report a $20,000 contribution.

That (self-admittedly) inept treasurer, Liv Finne, was nowhere to be seen on Monday morning, when a pack of gray-suit-clad lawyers crowded into Superior Court Judge Julie Spector's courtroom to discuss whether the Seattle Monorail Project should be forced to hand over its still-secret bid to the anti-monorail campaign. The campaign's politically motivated records request has already eaten up 400 staff hours and occupied the attention of 15 percent of the SMP's 82-person staff. Spector's decision, which puts off the case until SMP lawyers can come up with a list of records they think are exempt, will keep the case out of court until after the election, when the issue could be immaterial. (One poll reportedly shows the anti-monorail initiative losing by a four-to-six-point margin, but polls are notoriously unreliable.)

Finally: Yes, this is a city hall column. And yes, I am still darkening the doorways of Seattle's civic bureaucracy. To prove it, here's an actual city hall story to conclude this final column before the election.

Turns out the mayor's decision to appoint Edsonya Charles, his special advisor on criminal justice, to a vacant muni court position is whipping up a whirlwind of gossip at city hall, where staffers are whispering that it wasn't just Charles' "exceptional" qualifications (as the mayor put it) that got her the gig. In the last few months, the mayor proposed cutting 44 crossing guards and suspending a popular homeless-feeding program, eliciting protests not just from human-service providers but from three city council members who served meals in defiance of the mayor's order. Charles staffed both debacles.

Now: Go vote against Initiative 83. Or the terrorists will have won.

barnett@thestranger.com