It's noteworthy then that this year's other incumbent, black city council member Richard McIver, 60, has actually drawn four--count 'em, four--challengers.
The fact that McIver is drawing a pack usually reserved for an open-seat showdown highlights the fact that McIver is one of the most vulnerable elected officials in Seattle.
"He's the least well known of all the council members up for reelection this year," says local campaign guru and citizen activist Matt Fox. "And that creates a perception of vulnerability." Fox goes on to pinpoint McIver's real weakness: The council member is chair of the Transportation Committee. "Transportation is the big issue, and people feel like the city isn't doing enough."
McIver has been in office since January 1997, when he was appointed to replace the scandal-ridden John Manning. McIver was formally elected by voters later that year. Before his appointment, McIver was executive director of the Washington Association for Community Economic Development, a statewide association of nonprofit organizations trying to spark investment in disenfranchised neighborhoods.
McIver is certainly a dependable vote on police accountability issues. He was a lead advocate for a citizen review board. He's also a strong civil rights advocate. For example, he voted against all the so-called civility ordinances that City Attorney Mark Sidran has pushed on the council since 1997, like the parks exclusion ordinance.
However, McIver often impedes the work of the council's socially conscious members like Licata, Judy Nicastro, Heidi Wills, and Peter Steinbrueck.
For example, McIver was on the wrong side of Nicastro's titanic renters' rights overhaul earlier this year; he wouldn't back Licata and Steinbrueck's efforts to save low-income housing in Rainier Vista; he voted against a Wills' plan to direct extra tax revenue into low-income energy assistance; and he withheld his support from the council's effort to override Mayor Paul Schell's veto of the Teen Dance Ordinance repeal.
McIver's reluctance to do the right thing has cost him points in black neighborhoods. For example, outspoken black leader Rev. Robert Jeffrey of the Central District's New Hope Baptist Church says, "I don't know who [McIver] represents, but he doesn't represent me. Whoever he's representing isn't giving him the best advice as far as the economic development of the African American community is concerned."
However, the real weak link on McIver's record, according to his four challengers, is transportation. First off, McIver is on the Sound Transit board, where he's been a consistent advocate and apologist for the wayward project, which is an estimated $1.1 billion over budget.
McIver's albatross, though, is his staunch opposition to the monorail--the popular transportation plan that has been approved two times by Seattle voters. Certainly, other politicians (like Drago and Schell) have run interference on the monorail, but McIver, as chair of the city council Transportation Committee, is the worst offender. Never mind that McIver has consistently belittled the monorail ("I still think the monorail is financially infeasible... I guess it should die," he told The Seattle Times in 2000, before voters were forced to approve it a second time). And never mind that as a Sound Transit board member, he orchestrated an effort to discontinue funding for the monorail. McIver is so anti-monorail that, ironically, he almost didn't support Council Member Wills' July 2000 resolution to gut the monorail board. McIver was evidently thrown off by Wills' rouse to disguise her resolution as "pro-monorail." Before McIver caught on and followed the nod-and-wink resolution, he grilled Wills about "supporting" the monorail at all!
Two of the candidates going after McIver's seat held their campaign kickoffs last week. Longtime monorail advocate Grant Cogswell (a Stranger writer) launched his effort on July 24 at Capitol Hill's Victrola coffee shop, while AIDS activist E. Heath Merriwether launched his quest for McIver's seat at South Lake Union's Maritime Heritage Foundation on July 18. McIver's two other challengers are Jerome Wilson--who bills himself as the executive director of the mired African American Heritage Museum & Cultural Center--and incessant candidate Stan Lippmann.
The reason they're all drawn to McIver's seat? McIver is vulnerable. Cogswell says, "I'm running against McIver because he's on the Sound Transit board, and the mistakes that Sound Transit is making are the biggest issues in this city right now."
"I think he's vulnerable," adds Merriwether. "I looked at [Drago's] seat, but it's not a seat I can win. She has support."
Indeed, of the two incumbents facing challengers--McIver and Drago--Drago has raised a whopping 20 percent more in campaign funds than McIver. (Admittedly, judging from Merriwether's thinly attended "kickoff," it's not clear if he has much support, either.)
McIver wouldn't speculate on his own vulnerability, but stood up for his transportation record. "I can't imagine I can work any harder on transportation." McIver boasts about serving on every possible regional transportation committee and tripling the city's General Fund commitment to transportation. (Close. The General Fund contribution to transportation, currently $38.8 million, has slightly more than doubled since McIver took office in '97.) Meanwhile, McIver says he didn't support the monorail board in its first incarnation because he didn't think its financial house was in order. Politically convenient as it may be, McIver says he supports the new board. He recently supported a Licata resolution giving the green light to the monorail.
As to lack of support in the black community, McIver says he has helped Rev. Jeffrey on economic development work in the past. McIver chalks up Jeffrey's current anger to the pair's divergent opinions on the recent Aaron Roberts shooting. (McIver says he wants more facts to come in before passing judgment on Officer Craig Price).
