In the Hall

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.