At a time when a strong-arm mayor is pushing around the city council (especially for sweeping redevelopment in South Lake Union), it's important to retain loudmouth Judy Nicastro. Not only is Nicastro noisy about challenging Nickels (most people don't know that Nicastro brazenly led the organizing against Nickels' chum Gary Zarker), but she also puts every piece of Vulcan-generated South Lake Union legislation under her proletarian lens. The best example: her fight for low-income housing guarantees when Vulcan bought five acres of city property in 2001.

Meanwhile, Nicastro delivered on her '99 pledge to fight for renters: passing legislation that made it easier for tenants to sue landlords, ensuring tenants' organizing rights, and protecting seniors' rents. She also encouraged low-income housing and density (Nicastro thinks Seattle should be a real city) by amending parking-space requirements citywide for developers who provide low-income housing. Keep Nicastro.

City Council Position 5:

Vote for Dick Falkenbury

Dick Falkenbury, running against washed-up 12-year city council incumbent Margaret Pageler, would be a welcome addition to a council that desperately needs vision, not consensus. Monorail visionary Falkenbury's refusal to pander to Seattle's passive-aggressive political conventions may be just the antidote to the council's current malaise; and his brain full of ideas is needed on a body that complains the mayor is driving the city's agenda.

A vote for Falkenbury is a slam against goody-goody conservative Pageler, who's spent her time on the council as head cheerleader for Mark Sidran's draconian, unfair "civility" laws.

City Council Position 7:

Vote for Heidi Wills

Yes, Heidi Wills pushed legislation to protect circus animals. And good on her! For the record: A large constituency took Wills' Green rhetoric seriously and brought the issue to her attention (she ran as a Green D in 1999, winning with 55 percent); she held a packed public hearing, crafted legislation, rounded up four votes (hardly a fringe issue!), and went for it. And it took only two weeks (likely a record in process-oriented Seattle)!

While her critics can't move on, worker-bee Wills certainly did: With detail-oriented smarts, Wills crafted class-conscious legislation to ding greedy energy customers (battling the mayor over it) and came up with reforms to the city's building-heights incentive program and Rainier Vista development in order to protect poor people.

As to running as a Green D: With a notebook full of new enviro rules to her credit, she's the council's leading environmentalist.

City Council Position 9:

Don't Vote for Jim Compton

Like all good reporters, Jim Compton follows the money. Unfortunately, as a city council member, that means he's a sure Vulcan vote. Not only is Compton a pushover for Paul Allen, he's also a wimp when it comes to the mayor: He flinched at Richard McIver's smart challenge to Nickels' fire levy and famously caved on the budget after Nickels' staffers passed him a threatening note. Meanwhile, as chair of the city's cops committee, Compton's been unaggressive (relying on council colleague Nick Licata to get serious with the cop union).

Vote for Compton's opponent, John Manning.