W hen 2009 began, Nick Licata's campaign for a fourth term on the Seattle City Council was a sure thing. He's popular. A former director of WashPIRG, Licata is a champion of the arts and a fierce advocate for the homeless and the poor. He has strong union support and has earned votes from across the political spectrum for his work as a watchdog for government spending and as a consistent leader in the campaigns to oppose public spending on professional sports stadiums. He's been the council's stalwart liberal for 12 years, and he won each of his two reelection bids (in 2001 and 2005) with more than 77 percent of the vote.

But something funny happened as June ticked away. A political newcomer named Jessie Israel, one of just two women running for city council in this year's crowded field, started gaining traction by piling up important endorsements (Washington Conservation Voters, Cascade Bicycle Club, Seattle Police Guild, King County Realtors) and going after Licata's record. All of a sudden, politicos started asking themselves: Does she actually have a shot at taking down Nick Licata?

It is a long shot for sure, but Israel has shown a propensity for the kind of hard-nosed politics that it takes to unseat a popular incumbent. At a recent endorsement meeting with the Seattle Times, Israel accused Licata (as she had previously) of being party to a lawsuit by a bipartisan watchdog group called Sane Transit that attempted to stop construction on the light-rail system because the final plans deviated from what the voters approved in 1996. Israel pointed to this as evidence that Licata is more interested in the traditional Seattle method of overanalyzing problems than actually getting things done. During that meeting, according to a Seattle Times account, Licata countered that it was a different group that filed the lawsuit.

This, it turned out, wasn't true. Sane Transit did sue Sound Transit in 2002, though Licata was not directly involved in the lawsuit despite the fact that Sane Transit only had a few members. Israel pounced, seeing an opportunity to link Licata (stick-in-the-mud lefty) to other enemies of light rail like Republican hardliner Rob McKenna (the kind of anti-transit, anti-density conservative whose politics you'd never associate with Licata's). To be clear, Licata wasn't part of the lawsuit. But to borrow a phrase from Lyndon Johnson, she made the sonuvabitch deny it.

"Frankly, to me, it is more important that he was clearly a member of an organization that was designed to bring down light rail during some of the most prosperous years of our history," Israel said in an interview with The Stranger about Licata's denial.

In a phone interview, Licata countered that Israel has been too vague on Sound Transit specifics and in her attacks on his positions. "I haven't heard her say anything about Sound Transit other than [that] I oppose it," Licata said.

Israel's tack on Licata and transit has gotten her some media traction and dovetailed with last weekend's light-rail opening, helping to frame the election on terms that Israel believes are her strengths—Seattle's long-term urban development and growth management. Israel has raised only $53,000, putting her closer to the bottom of all serious council candidates than to the top and well shy of Licata's $85,000, but it's nothing that couldn't be closed up with a good month's fundraising. A third candidate in the race, architect and Seattle Planning Commission member Martin Kaplan, has raised $63,000. In terms of cash on hand, the race is about even: Israel has $25,177, Licata has $30,746, and Kaplan has $34,714.

And then there's the generation gap. Licata, 61, is nearly twice the age of Israel, 35. "One of the things that does worry me is that the older generation knows him as peace activist and consumer advocate, but they are a generation older than me, and that is worrisome," said Gerry Pollet, 50, a prominent environmentalist and Democratic activist who supports Licata.

State representative Reuven Carlyle, an early Israel supporter who worked with her on the Seattle board of the service organization City Year, believes her timing—on the tails of Obama and his still-resonant message of a changing of the old political guard—could be perfect. "I think she is at the right place at the right time to be open to the kind of change we are undergoing," he said.

"If it means running hard and kicking out some elbows along the way," Israel boasted, "then that is what needs to be done."