Seattle Press on Line - Three Races: the Seattle Way, the Homecoming King, a Folk Hero

Guest Editorial

Three Races: the Seattle Way, the Homecoming King, a Folk Hero

By Wallis Bolz

Nov 21, 2001 -- Voting in Seattle is a lot like taking the SATs: read the Voter's Pamphlet the night before the election, mark the right circle, get the results two weeks later. I'd like to think I'm an informed voter, I read the paper. (Note to the Seattle Times: there were four City Council races this year.) Here's what three campaigns for city office told me about the candidates.

Gagging on the Seattle Way

As I toiled over my ballot on November 6, marking circles with a ballpoint pen, I came to the Mayor's race. I skipped it. I had intended to vote for Christal Wood--don't blame me, I voted for Christal--but on election day I was overcome with doubt. My pragmatic self said I had to cast a vote that mattered: buck up, hold your nose and choose one. I finished marking the rest of my ballot. I asked my husband for a coin.

Heads Nickels, tails Sidran.

Much as I might like Greg Nickels, his disingenuousness regarding his role in Sound Transit gave me pause; last year he was Mr. Sound Transit. This year he was just another dumb politician, hoodwinked by a desperate staff covering up disaster.

When I asked Nickels' supporters to tell me why I should vote for Greg, they talked about Mark Sidran. No one was voting for Greg, they were voting against Mark.

But if I were to vote for Sidran, I'm giving my approval to his twelve years as City Attorney. His use of the City Attorney's office to wage class warfare on behalf of Greater Seattle dissuades me. What is the auto impound ordinance but a boot in the face of the poor? Sidran is as exemplary of the Seattle Way as Greg Nickels, and the closeness of the final vote reflects that Seattle's Democrats are, as Grant Cogswell put it, "...staunch middle-of-the-roaders who will no more push a progressive agenda than register Republican. They ARE the conservative establishment in this town...."

Heads it was.

Enough about you, already, let's talk about me: the Grant Cogswell campaign

You tell me: Was Grant Cogswell running for City Council or Homecoming King of Capitol Hill?

Cogswell says his campaign changed the face of politics in this city. Okay. He championed monorail as an alternative to Sound Transit light rail; it became an election issue. He prevailed in his lawsuit against the city and won candidates the right to trash their opponents in the voter's pamphlet.

But I'm indifferent to monorail and don't make my voting decision based on candidate statements in the voter's pamphlet.

I lost interest in the campaign when its media ally, The Stranger, began to create Grant, the Life/Style product. Witness Grant the movie star (Grant looks just like Matt Damon! Squeal! -Emily Hall, The Stranger), Grant the poet (ditto), Grant the Tattooed Guy (Josh Feit, The Stranger), Grant the Champion of Civil Liberties (a reference to the lawsuit), and Grant the folk hero (Josh Feit, The Stranger). The Seattle Weekly chipped in Grant the Sandwich when it reviewed Victrola, a Capitol Hill coffee-and-sandwich joint owned by friends of Cogswell. So I add it all up, and I see the point: casting my vote for this young, balding Capitol Hill party boy means I'm cool.

Cool crosses my mind when I'm buying $8 sunglasses at a Capitol Hill rag shop.

Here's my advice to the next Cogswell campaign: include me. I'm nine years away from my Capitol Hill party girl self. But I live in this city, and I want to see myself in your campaign. Paste my picture in a big red heart and tack it to the wall of your campaign headquarters. Show me you care.

Our Man Licata

If a campaign shows the voter your vision for the city, I want to live in Nick Licata's neighborhood.

City Councilmember Licata enjoyed the luxury of no serious opponent, yet he waged a campaign worth looking at.

Licata hosted three forums, giving voters a look at his agenda for the next four years: create a downtown day center for the homeless; establish effective citizen oversight of police; elect City Councilmembers by district rather than at-large.

And to remind you that these ideas are not dreams from the land of lemon drops, Licata invited Ray Stenrud of Vancouver, B.C., and Tom Ammiano, president of San Francisco's City Council, for show and tell. Vancouver's Evelyne Saller Centre, a full-service downtown community center for homeless people, is twenty-five years old; San Francisco has instituted an effective civilian review board and moved from at-large to district elections.

Councilmember Licata enfranchises; it is his service to an expanding and diverse constituency that has changed the face of politics in Seattle. Look at Licata's donor list, and you'll find an odd juxtaposition of folks--the city's elite keeping company with the crankiest neighborhood activist.

There's a folk hero.

Wallis Bolz lives in Madison Valley with her son Carl and husband Larry. She'd like to thank Nicole Brodeur of the Seattle Times for her investigation of hygiene habits of candidates' wives. Brodeur's revelation that the skin care regimen of Sidran spouse Anais Winant is a handful of Orange Palmolive dish detergent and a squirt of Lubriderm gave her a lot to think about in the voting booth.

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