Four years ago, in one of the dirtier campaigns in city history,
David Della won election to the city council by labeling incumbent
Heidi Wills “Rate Hike Heidi.” Della trashed Wills for her leadership
of the city council committee that oversaw Seattle City Light, which
was then $1.7 billion in debt and had raised electric rates 58 percent.
After his election, however, he declined to take over the City Light
committee, opting instead to lead the less controversial Parks and
Education committee. (Jean Godden took on City Light.) The move was a
catalyst for critics, who have spent the last four years accusing Della
of failing to take the initiative on many other issues.
In many cases, Della has taken positions with which The
Stranger disagrees. He supported (and continues to support) a
massive new rebuild of the Alaskan Way Viaduct despite its rejection by
57 percent of voters; he backed a controversial license for bars and
nightclubs; he opposed building the “missing link” of the Burke-Gilman
bike trail in Ballard because business owners in the area complained
that bikers would get in the way of their trucks; and he adamantly
supported subsidizing a huge new garage at Woodland Park Zoo because,
according to an endorsement questionnaire submitted to the King County
Democrats, it would “accommodate all the visitors who currently use and
will continue to use the zoo… I am not in favor of having visitors to
the zoo park in the adjacent neighborhoods.”
Della, who tends to see issues through a populist but often
reactionary lens, has racked up endorsements from establishment
politicians, business groups, and labor organizations, including
Governor Christine Gregoire, five members of the city council, the Alki
Foundation, and the King County Labor Council. His opponent, former cop
and Ethics and Elections Commission head Tim Burgess, tends to see
things from an environmental and good-government perspective; he’s
supported by several former council members, representatives of the bar
and nightlife industries, the Seattle Fire Fighters’ Union, and the
Sierra Club.
He’s lost some endorsements, too, including the Seattle Metropolitan
Elections Committee (SEAMEC), which rates candidates on issues of
concern to gays and lesbians, and NARAL Pro-Choice Washington.
Initially seen by many as a potential antidote to Della’s pro-business,
environmentally complacent posture on the council, Burgess fell out of
favor with some liberals when it came out that a company he’d owned had
done consulting work and
media buys for far-right-wing
organization Concerned Women for America, which opposes gay marriage
and equal rights for women. “Not only has he made significant
contributions to Republicans [state Attorney General Rob McKenna and
2000 presidential candidate John McCain]… he professionally
promulgated the antichoice, antigay, antiwoman agenda of Concerned
Women for America for many years during the Bush election and
reelection,” 36th District Democrats vice chair Janis Traven said at a
meeting earlier this month. The 36th did not endorse either
candidate.
Much of the discussion around this race has focused on Burgess’s
work for CWA instead of the issues facing the council. Here are a few
of the issues that could come up before the council in the months after
the election, and how the two candidates stack up. (Della was out of
the office and unable to return a call Tuesday, so we relied on his
statements at council meetings and to various endorsement groups.)
•Density. Della opposed a plan by the Port of Seattle
to turn 57 acres of industrial land in the Interbay neighborhood into
offices, signing a letter from the council to the port commission
saying that the plan could “seriously erod[e] the integrity and
viability of our key industrial lands.” Della talks frequently on the
campaign trail about the need to “preserve middle-class and family-wage
jobs,” and is likely to oppose any plan to reduce the amount of
industrial land in the city or convert industrial land to offices or
housing. Burgess seems more likely to vote to open up industrial land
to nonindustrial uses. “I definitely favor [residential density] close
in around the stadiums,” Burgess says. “A lot of these manufacturing
and light industrial companies are going to leave anyway… I’m
reluctant to use city power to force something that is already
changing.” Burgess does hate the “really horrific townhouses and
condos” he sees going up around the city, and would like to see a
design overlay that prevents ugly, out-of-neighborhood-character
developments.
•Nightlife. A closely related issue is how each
candidate will manage Seattle’s evolution into a big city in which
nightlife and condos can peacefully coexist. Della supported the
mayor’s proposed nightlife license, which would have placed onerous new
restrictions on bars and clubs. Thankfully the legislation was gutted
by other council members. Asked if he would support resurrecting the
license, Burgess replied bluntly, “No.
Absolutely not.”
•Transportation and the environment. Della has been an
emphatic supporter of rebuilding the Alaskan Way Viaduct. In an
endorsement interview with the 36th District Democrats, whose district
includes the viaduct, Della called rebuilding the “safest option” that
will “allow people and goods to get to their destination” and protect
the waterfront’s 37,000 jobs. Burgess supports the surface/transit
alternative endorsed by the majority of the council. Della opposed
completing the Burke-Gilman Trail through Ballard, losing support from
bicyclists and others who didn’t buy local businesses’ claims that
their trucks would hit bikers if the trail was completed behind their
businesses. “We’ve had significant disagreements with David,” says
David Hiller of the Cascade
Bicycle Club, which endorsed Burgess.
Burgess supports completing the trail. 