Money Machine
The cool thing is, the field of candidates running for city council this year seems qualified, talented, and earnestly civic-minded.
The annoying thing is, few challengers have the courage to oppose incumbent Heidi Wills. This is troubling.
It's not that I have it in for Wills. She's done some good work at city hall. The reason I'm bummed that challengers are shying away from Wills is this: It highlights a dispiriting fact about local politics. Wills, you see, has already raised a startling $151,000-- or 310 percent more cash than the average amount raised by any of the other candidates! That money has scared off the competition. That's a bad sign for deomocracy.
Over the years, I've referred to Wills as a "Prozac Democrat," "Heidi Whitey Wills," and most fitting, "Tracy Flick" (Reese Witherspoon's character in Election). You get the idea. Wills is an eager-beaver goody two-shoes, who plays it way too safe. Lately, Wills' penchant for coloring within the lines has earned her "Teacher's Pet" status from Mayor Nickels--which is helping consolidate the boring New Democrat machine politics (read: the clique of consultants, labor unions, mainstream environmentalists, Sound Transit diehards, and Clinton liberals) that are starting to deprive this town of any original thinking. Tellingly, the only incumbent council member who's earned a donation from Nickels' own Karl Rove, Tim Ceis, is Wills.
Again, I don't have it in for Wills. It's just that she represents the local Democratic machine, which translates into $151,000, which translates into the fact that she has few real challengers, which translates into the fact that she represents the local Democratic machine. Which means her first thought when she gets to work in the morning probably isn't "What can I do for my constituents?" but "What can I do for all those nice consultants, labor unions, mainstream environmentalists, Sound Transit diehards, and Clinton liberals who wrote me all those nice checks?"
Wills' stature has already iced the competition. This is bad for a city like Seattle, which prides itself on door-to-door politics. Is this the type of city where machine politicians should be scaring people out of a run at city hall?
Monorail activist Dick Falkenbury, with his knack for aiming populist laser beams at entrenched establishment gorillas, indicated he might run against Wills. His reasoning for going after Wills? Here's what he told me: "She'll raise half a million before the campaign is over. The way to raise that type of money is to not upset the apple cart. She's the epitome of what's wrong with city council."
All the folks busy piling on against incumbent Judy Nicastro should take note that Falkenbury is (as usual) onto something.
August 1 is the deadline for deciding which incumbent to challenge. I hope this year's best challengers, most notably the underrated Columbia City activist Darryl Smith, start to recognize that Wills' financial and establishment support should be an enticement to challenge her, rather than a deterrent.
