Frustration leads to overhaul on City Council, School Board
Wednesday, November 5, 2003
By NEIL MODIE AND MATT CRAFT
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERS
It was a tough night to be an incumbent.
Seattle City Council and School Board members were being swept from office by voters who apparently had had enough of the same old thing.
"It's definitely that the voters are in a foul mood, to say the least," said veteran Seattle political consultant Cathy Allen, who had candidates on both sides of the angry-voter divide. "They are not easily persuaded to continue on the path we're on; that's what this election is telling me."
The political landscape was being significantly changed, especially on the nine-member City Council.
As of late last night, council incumbents Judy Nicastro, Heidi Wills and Margaret Pageler were being ousted. Joining them in the losers' circle were School Board President Nancy Waldman and members Steve Brown and Barbara Peterson.
The incumbent carnage wasn't just limited to Seattle races. In Marysville, members of a School Board beset by the state's longest strike were on their way out, and some incumbents on the King County Council and Port of Seattle Commission were in tight races.
Allen's clients included former newspaper columnist Jean Godden, who was ahead of Nicastro in early returns; Pageler, who was trailing her opponent and Councilman Jim Compton, one of only two out of five council incumbents who were comfortably leading their foes.
Considering those races, the Seattle School Board incumbents who appeared likely to lose, and the Seattle City Charter amendment requiring district elections of council members running close, "there's a message there," Allen said.
"It's more a message that 'we dislike all of you' as opposed to just one (incumbent's) indiscretions," she said.
Queen Anne resident Steve Bauer voted to oust several incumbents.
"The council has been a mess," he said last night as he walked his beagle, Zoe.
"I've lived here my entire life. It's traditional that the mayor and council don't get along," Bauer added, but he said the current squabbles are particularly bad.
Rick Giombetti said he voted for City Council candidate Tom Rasmussen over incumbent Pageler because "he wanted to get rid of the stodgy old incumbent." Giombetti was sorry to see that Nicastro was losing, though. "I'm a renter. She did more than just pay lip service to renters."
Pollster Stuart Elway polled city voters after the primary elections and found, "most people thought the council was focused on the wrong things."
Even though the monorail and light rail projects are proceeding, he said people felt, by an overwhelming margin, that the City Council was not focused on transportation.
"It looks right now with three incumbents losing ... voters are pretty dissatisfied with the way the council's been running," Elway said.
Allen said the depressing tone of the issues didn't help people already in office.
"With the economy still in the dumps, and the national (economic) numbers not getting better, the backdrop is a negative one," Allen said.
Giombetti said he thought too many City Council members ignored the concerns of neighborhoods.
"One thing they all lack is the ability to pay attention to neighborhoods outside downtown," Giombetti said.
P-I reporter Kery Murakami contributed to this report.