"Mayor Paul Schell, conveying his intentions in an oddly low-key way, confirmed last night what most city hall watchers have assumed for months: He's running for a second term. The politically shaky, 63-year-old mayor enters what almost certainly will be the fall's most heated political campaign.... Schell made his announcement not at a news conference surrounded by supporters, but in a 'Schell Mail' newsletter--e-mailed to news media and others just as last night's 5:00 p.m. newscasts were ending."

--Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 15, 2001

SEATTLE--An unprecedented grassroots campaign has convinced a reluctant Paul Schell to seek a second term. Schell declared his intention to run at a gala fundraiser last night at the Westin Hotel in downtown Seattle. As hundreds of ecstatic supporters chanted his name, Schell took to the stage. Then the 63-year-old former developer told the cheering crowd what it wanted so badly to hear: Seattle's most popular mayor in living memory would seek a second term.

In the wake of Schell's announcement, King County Council Member Greg Nickels quickly withdrew from this fall's mayoral race. "No sense banging my head against a wall," Nickels told his supporters in an e-mail message circulated late last night. "With Schell's approval ratings, Jesus Christ couldn't beat this guy. So it looks like four more years of sewage treatment and growth management for me. Fucking hell."

Nickels originally declared his intention to run for mayor last fall, shortly after Schell told a stunned city that he would not seek a second term. "I feel I've done all I promised," Schell said at a press conference last October 8. "Traffic jams are a fading memory; light rail is on track; the Teen Dance Ordinance is history; and the monorail is under construction. Most important, Seattle's homeless are safe and dry in their beds."

Despite the "Run, Paul, Run!" campaign that began only hours after Schell's "October surprise," a half-dozen candidates tossed their hats into the ring in the weeks following Schell's announcement. In addition to Nickels, City Attorney Mark Sidran jumped into the race, as did City Council Members Jim Compton and Jan Drago, and former City Council Member Charlie Chong.

"None of us expected the 'Run, Paul, Run!' movement to be successful," said Sidran, who attended Schell's campaign kick-off party to declare his support for the mayor. "But when Paul jumped back in, I had no choice but to jump right out. Schell's our 'mayor for life.'"

It was the citywide outpouring of support orchestrated by the grassroots "Run, Paul, Run!" campaign that convinced Schell to run for a second term, the mayor told his cheering supporters last night. "Driving to work every day," the visibly moved Schell said, "and seeing 'Run, Paul, Run!' bumper stickers on every car convinced me I owed it to the people of Seattle to run again." The "Run, Paul, Run!" campaign was headed by Harriet Walden, who also heads Mothers for Police Accountability. "I've been a longtime supporter of community policing," said Walden, "and I was so pleased when Schell sent the police out of the downtown retail core and into Seattle's neighborhoods during the 1999 WTO protests."

Schell defeated Charlie Chong in 1997 after a hard-fought contest. A one-term city council member who ran on a pro-neighborhoods platform, Chong refused to concede defeat until three years into Schell's first term. Reached at his home in West Seattle this morning, the ever-quotable Chong said he will run and intends to win. "My strategy this year is to win," said Chong. "But even if I don't, it's important for the people of Sequim to have a choice. If we don't make a pro-choice, we don't floss."

Matt Fox, Chong's trusted aide, added that Chong's chances should be better after the successful removal of a six-inch metal spike from the base of Chong's skull two years ago. Doctors did not discover the spike during a physical before Chong's first run for mayor, and Fox believes the spike hampered Chong on the campaign trail in 1997.

"Charlie seemed a little distracted the first time out," said Fox. "Now we know it was the spike."

"I'm a realist," said Chong, carefully reading from a statement prepared for him by Fox. "I don't think I can beat Paul. He's far too popular. But I'd like to see what it feels like to run for mayor without a metal spike embedded in my skull."