Conventional wisdom predicts that City Attorney Mark Sidran will beat King County guy Greg Nickels to become Seattle's next mayor. So, note pads in hand and eager to hear why Seattleites have the hots for Sidran, we walked the streets of Queen Anne, Downtown Seattle, Ballard, Green Lake, and Madison Park last week (a month before the election) to hear what typical Sidran voters had to say. In short, we wanted to know why Mark "Republican" Sidran, a man who has lined up endorsements from former Republican governors Dan Evans and John Spellman, is appealing to a city that voted 66.7 percent for Democrat Al Gore in 2000 and has two liberal Democratic reps in the U.S. Congress (Jay Inslee and Jim McDermott). Here's what Sidran fans had to say:

"I'm voting for Sidran. I'm tired of the crime. I think Sidran will help keep down crime rates." --Steve, 45, clinical pharmacist at Harborview who lives in Eastlake.

"Crime rates" is the key phrase here, Steve. A simple look at recent crime rates in Seattle shows that we don't have a crime problem. For example, from 1997 to 2000, violent crime in Seattle (murder, rape, assault, burglary, and auto theft) dropped steadily by an average of 6.9 percent from year to year.

"I'd vote for Mark Sidran. Sidran seems to have a more responsible approach to transportation." --John, 55, painter at Boeing.

"Seems" is the key word here, John. Mark Sidran has no discernible transportation plan. While Sidran has jumped onto the anti-Sound Transit bandwagon, he hasn't put forth any tangible idea of his own. Catch the wishy-washy nonsense in a recent Sidran press release, where, you'll notice, Sidran neither supports nor condemns the two major plans on the table: "Whether light rail or monorail, let's make sure we get the biggest bang for the buck," Sidran says in classic Seattle wishy-washy mode.

"I'll vote for Sidran because I think we need someone who will take charge and get things done, and not engage in these 'nice' politics." --Bob, 43, business analyst from Capitol Hill.

"Get things done" is the key phrase here, Bob. While we agree that Seattle politicians are paralyzed and cowed by the quest for consensus, we don't want someone who gets unconstitutional things done. We've been through this list before, but it's worth repeating: Sidran's proposed "Added Activities" ordinance was derailed when the idea was ruled unconstitutional by a federal court. Sidran lost a state court of appeals challenge to his use of drug-abatement policies when the court found that Sidran's office (in cahoots with the SPD) had violated the constitutional rights of local bar owners. Sidran lost the court of appeals challenge to the city's pre-employment drug testing policy, because the policy was unconstitutionally broad. Sidran lost a King County Superior Court case regarding his impound ordinance when Judge Michael Trickey found that the ordinance violated the state constitution. In the wake of that ruling, when four city council members requested a briefing on the ordinance, Sidran simply said Trickey was wrong. Sidran also lost in King County Superior Court when his office went to the mat defending city hall's rash of closed-door meetings.

"Sidran--to get someone new and different." --Brian, Lower Queen Anne.

"New and different" are the key words here, Brian. Sidran has been city attorney since 1990. And quite frankly, his repeated attacks on poor people are getting old.

"Nickels doesn't present his ideas as strongly as Sidran." --Ann, 30s, Madison Park.

"Present" is the key word here, Ann. What you really mean is that you've seen a lot more Sidran presentations than Nickels presentations on TV. That's because Sidran is a millionaire. He's pledged $100,000 of his own money to his campaign, and has already directly kicked in $11,000. (Nickels has kicked in about $600 of his own money.) Sidran's wealth guarantees unlimited TV presentation time.

"Sidran. He's the smartest guy out there. He's a Harvard grad." --Anonymous woman, 60s, Madison Park.

Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, went to Harvard. Class of '62.

"I just like him over Nickels." --Steve, 40s, Madison Park.

Well, we can't argue with that.

Amy Baranski contributed to this story.