The Stranger news squad, however, is not fooled by histrionics, and has identified a few folks for whom 2005 is nothing more than a looming second hand plunging down like a guillotine of reality. Vulnerable Seattle City Council Member Richard "Checked Out" McIver, who's foolishly running again, comes to mind. Here then is our annual and official list of people, ideas, and things that are on the way out in 2005. Tick… tick… tick.
Joel Horn
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Seattle Monorail Project Director Joel Horn, who emerged virtually unscathed from a bruising election battle over the future of his agency in November, might not look like a guy who's on the way out the door. But in recent months, the once-omnipresent Horn has started to fade from the foreground, making headlines only when the SMP's board voted to bump his salary to $188,000--unprecedented for a director of a local transit agency. (Deputy Director Anne Levinson, meanwhile, looms as a possible successor.)
Horn, a developer and former supporter of the controversial Seattle Commons, has long been a divisive figure among neighborhood activists and monorail opponents, and his stratospheric salary only bolstered his enduring reputation as a spoiled, meddlesome rich kid. We think Horn is unlikely to stay much past the end of the still-ongoing contract negotiations with Cascadia Monorail Company, expected to wrap up later this month.
Tim Eyman
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If there is ever a nuclear war, we know the cockroaches will survive. And in all likelihood, so will Tim Eyman. Eyman isn't going anywhere--this week he just rolled out his new performance audits of government initiative--but it's not clear anyone cares anymore. Seattle's favorite frat boy-turned-anti-tax-crusader has had his day in the sun, successfully taking on the political establishment (and rogue agencies like Sound Transit) with his past initiatives ($30 car tabs, anyone?). But last year he hit the wall: I-864, his 25 percent local property tax rollback effort didn't even make the ballot, and I-892, his gambling initiative (which would have rolled back state property taxes) went down to a crushing defeat. Thanks for all the memories.
Nickels' Opposition
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Mayor Nickels seems vulnerable (his approval ratings hover in the 50 percent range.) Popular opposition Council Members like Peter Steinbrueck and Nick Licata (who won their most recent elections by 82 and 77 percent respectively) had been thinking of challenging Nickels. And charges that Nickels runs roughshod over neighborhood interests and caters to big shot Paul Allen and downtown developers, dominated a recent anti-Nickels powwow of neighborhood activists.
But those issues are a bit too wonky, and apparently lack the traction to generate a bona fide challenger this year. Steinbrueck and Licata have dropped talk of running for mayor, and neighborhood icon--former (and ousted) Department of Neighborhood Director Jim Diers--seems to be backing down as well.
Barring a media star or a prominent woman (the only viable anti-Nickels profiles at this point), look for loopy, illegitimate, self-important candidates to fill a role that will be largely perfunctory in 2005.
Political Consultants GSM Mercury/Gogerty Stark Marriott
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Onetime PR giant Gogerty Stark Marriott was by far the largest single beneficiary of last year's unsuccessful "Monorail Recall" campaign, which aimed to ban the monorail from city streets. The initiative, which failed by a stunning 65 to 35 percent margin, was just one in a string of defeats for Gogerty Stark, which, along with its affiliate, GSM Mercury, was also behind a charter-school initiative that failed in 2000; an unsuccessful campaign against state legislator Helen Sommers last November; and a failed reelection bid by ex-Port Commissioner Clare Nordquist in 2003. Considering Gogerty Stark's astronomical fees--more than $300,000, or $3 per vote, in the I-83 election alone--it's no wonder some are starting to question whether Gogerty Stark's clients are getting their money's worth.
Defense of Marriage Act
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On March 8, the Washington State Supreme Court is slated to hear arguments on the state's 1998 anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act. Local plaintiffs in King County's Anderson v. Sims case--along with queers from around the state--are hoping for a quick, no-brainer ruling. The court is widely expected to toss DOMA for being unconstitutional, just like the only other state courts that have taken this issue up: Massachusetts and Vermont.
Even the anti-gay Christians acknowledge that the court "may be stacked against us," as Washington Evangelicals for Responsible Government leader Dr. Joseph B. Fuiten wrote in a recent note to his flock. His last-ditch-effort plea: "The power of prayer should not be underestimated."
