A: Olympia lobbyist Nate Miles.
Miles, a lobbyist for drug company Eli Lilly (Prozac manufacturers), was the keynote speaker at Nickels' campaign kickoff breakfast at the Westin hotel on Wednesday, April 18--doing the money pitch and his amateur standup routine. Miles was also the featured speaker at Wills' campaign kickoff in July 1999, where he did the exact same routine, complete with his Muhammad Ali impression.
The significance of Miles is not his standup routine--which is decidedly bad--it's his star status among Seattle Democrats. If Miles is on your team, it's likely that behind-the-scenes Democratic Party activists are on your side as well. (Party activists are those annoying, pesky, and important people who knock on doors, hold seats as precinct officers, and raise money.) You'll recall that Heidi Wills raised more money than any other city council candidate in 1999 (nearly $200,000) and surprised a lot of folks by soundly trouncing Charlie Chong, a popular former city council member with better name recognition.
After attending this week's pair of mayoral campaign kickoff events (Mayor Paul Schell held his own kickoff on the afternoon of Nickels' breakfast), it's clear that Nickels possesses the same secret weapon Wills did in '99: Democrat worker bees who get the job done. At his event Nickels lassoed in 1,000 people to the Westin, packing over 90 tables at 7:30 a.m. on a Wednesday morning. Schell, whose keynote speaker was former presidential candidate Bill Bradley, only had 400 guests--most of them city hall employees.
Meanwhile, Nickels cleared $54,000, and his guest list included a lot of people you've never heard of but who nonetheless carry weight with the Democratic shock troops: Sen. Dow Constantine (D-34), Sen. Lisa Brown (D-3), Sen. Julia Patterson (D-33), Rep. Velma Veloria (D-11), Rep. Joe McDermott (D-34), Rep. Erik Poulsen (D-34), and King County Assessor Scott Noble (D). Meanwhile, five of the six King County Council Democrats were on hand.
While Nickels may not be the talk of the town (everyone seems to think City Attorney Mark Sidran is the one to watch), Nickels appears to have the behind-the-scenes machinery in place to surprise everybody in September's mayoral primary.
