Stephanie Pure hurries up the steps two at a time, hitting the doorbell on a targeted voter's door. She's in luck—after a spitefully steep hill of empty houses, this door swings open and within a few moments, Pure draws a voter into an energetic conversation about teachers and school levies. In the crowded race for 43rd District Representative Ed Murray's soon-to-be vacated seat, simply doorbelling the most voters may be the key to victory. "Money by itself is not a decider," says Murray, who's jumping to the state Senate. "The person who wins this is going to have doorbelled a lot." (The 43rd District includes Capitol Hill, Wallingford, and the U-District.)
Pure got a major last-minute boost to her campaign when a newly formed Seattle political group called The Organization received a $250,000 grant to get young people involved in politics. Last week, the group made its first order of business mobilizing canvassers for Pure. They say they're targeting six youth-heavy precincts in the 43rd. While the unexpected assistance reflects Pure's appeal as a young candidate, it also reveals the major challenge. Building voter support among Seattle's young renters (and the city's renters are a politically active bunch—almost 79 percent of them voted recently) is a trick: They're a nearly impossible demographic to doorbell.
After six years of working as Seattle City Council Member Peter Steinbrueck's legislative aide, Pure, 32, is hitting her own campaign trail for the first time. "You look at her resumé and it doesn't say 'superior court judge' or 'working with the Clinton administration,' but what she has done is terribly important to work as a legislator," says Steinbrueck. "Stephanie is a quick study and can take command of complex issues and build support for them."
In his office, she worked through dense and wonky downtown development plans and successfully obtained millions of dollars for extended Seattle library hours. Her doorbell rap is a rundown of the top three issues she wants to conquer in Olympia: education, health care, civil rights. She's also the only candidate who's campaigning for renter's rights—in 2000, Pure organized a renter's summit with the city council and currently plans to frame the cheerful "leave now" letter she received as her Capitol Hill apartment underwent condo conversion.
Most of her committed supporters, though, know her from the music scene—at her final fundraiser Thursday, September 7, the mention of her work fighting the Teen Dance Ordinance and helping found the underage music organization the Vera Project brought cheers. Driving between mapped-out voting precincts, Pure listens to all-day dance-music station C89.5 FM and claims the only band she listened to in the 1980s was They Might Be Giants, but she dresses professionally when she's doorbelling so the voters won't mistake her for someone fresh out of college. "Many people think I'm 25, when I'm 32," Pure says, "and there is a major difference."
There's also a major difference between Pure and the other 43rd candidates: Heavyweights like Jim Street (the aforementioned superior court judge) have greater name recognition and all the candidates have tens of thousands more campaign dollars than Pure, who is last in the fundraising race with $39,749. (Preston Gates attorney Jamie Pedersen has raised four times as much). "I hear three names mentioned a lot and hers is not one of them," says Murray.
"I'm already resigned to the fact that everyone has more campaign signs than me," says Pure, as she drives past herds of Pedersen and Bill Sherman (the guy who worked in the Clinton administration) signs occupying traffic circles in the Wallingford neighborhood where she's heading to doorbell. Months ago when she canvassed this area, Pure didn't have professional handouts or signs, just photocopied fliers.
At a meeting in August where the 43rd District Democrats couldn't agree on which candidate to endorse, Pure received a dismal 4.9 percent of the endorsement vote. Democrats are fond of describing her as a "rising star," not a probable winner. "She's not yet a big gun, but she has a bright future," says Neal Traven, who is on the executive board of the 43rd District Democrats. "Compared to the other five candidates, she's a little behind because of her experience."
Pure's campaign started late and was sluggish throughout the spring as she tried to campaign full time while also holding down her job with Steinbrueck's office, phone calling during her lunch hour and doorbelling until sunset. "There are some people who can afford not to work for six months—I'm not one of those people," says Pure.
Early in the summer, two leaders of Washington women's political groups asked Pure to drop out of the race, hoping that having only one woman on the ballot (educator Lynne Dodson) would make it easier for a woman to get elected. Pure decided to stay in the race, and when she explains why she's still running, despite her lack of endorsements, trickling funds, and "bright future," Pure's voice becomes hard and determined. The question seems to piss her off, a little. "I want this job, I want it for this district. I love this district, I live here. This is the seat that I want."
And certainly Seattle needs young representatives: 31 percent of Seattleites are between the ages of 20 and 35, and as Pure says, "There's only one state legislator under 35, and she's a Republican." As demonstrated by the recent grant for canvassing, there's a desire for young candidates.
Although the 43rd race is dependent on going door to door, even massive doorbelling muscle might not make a big difference in Pure's numbers, considering how difficult it is to doorbell young, renting voters.
According to voter-information company Lists & Labels, 52 percent of 43rd residents are renters, but Pure has only been able to doorbell one apartment building. Renters are tough to organize politically or use as a base of electoral support candidates can count on. "Renters by and large are highly mobile, are typically without kids, and have active social and work lives—meaning they are never around," says Jason Bennett, Pure's campaign manager. Plus, apartments, like high-level politics, are usually locked to public access.
"I think it's important to make politics accessible," says Pure, "I want to represent the average person who just feels left out. It's difficult to target renters, but it's worth it." 
