The story so far: Two years ago, amid trumpets and fanfare, the City of Seattle sold the 15-story Alaska Building to developer Kent Angier, to be used for "affordable workforce housing." The selling price was $8.5 million dollars -- $500,000 to $1 million less than offers from developers interested in turning it into office space. The City says it had an unwritten understanding with Angier that the building would be used for housing. Recently, Angier......

Seattle will vote February 13th on whether to vote on whether to build a replacement Viaduct or a tunnel, the City Council announced today. "The special Viaduct election will cost the city $1 million," Council President Jan Drago said. "We should find out if Seattleites want this election before we spend the money." Drago announced future special elections on what brand of hand soap to use in the City Hall bathroom, whether to install a......

Gov. Gregoire told Mayor Nickels Wednesday afternoon that the tunnel option for replacing the Viaduct is dead. Mayor Nickels sees this as an Olympia vs. Seattle issue, and has released a defiant statement that, reflecting the overwhelming city support for the tunnel, is co-signed by the entire city council a majority of the city council several members of the city council Jan Drago.We are deeply disappointed with the announcement today by the Governor and legislative......

City results County results State results National results Democrats assume majority in House, need two more seats to take Senate and lead in bo th. Mike obliterated by Cantwell. 200,000 vote loss means he's stripped of exclamation point. Reichert leads Burner (who Nancy Pelosi called "Burnerman" on CNN last evening, securing the anti-Semitic vote for Reichert). Voters say no to tax breaks for the greedy, and property "rights" for the confused, but yes to......

Something needs to be said about Erica Barnett's article in La Strangeur concerning the possibility that the City Council will make the final decision on the Viaduct without the requisite and meaningless public referendum, and that something is: "Hell Yeah!" Do we have to vote on every damn decision that's made around here? The City Council exists to make decisions on transportation infrastructure. That's what they do. Seattlest's job is to spend a little time......

The man who brought the Space Needle to Seattle is resigning his position as City Councilman. Jim Compton, who was elected to the City Council in 1999 because he used to be on the TV, is stepping down to teach in Egypt and Romania. Or maybe after a heartwarming montage, it will be his students who teach him---how to love again. Although Councilwoman Jean Godden was "shocked" by Compton's decision, others on the council were......

Last year, while Dino Rossi and Christine Gregoire spelunked for votes among felons, troops on leave, and the deceased in their closely-contested gubernatorial race, some saw it as evidence that this state's electorate is divided right down the middle...irreconcilably broken between pinko commie lefty and fascist pig righty. Apparently, we've reunited. State-, county-, and city-wide, the electorate seemed pretty sure of itself about most issues on this year's ballot, including: Whether we want to, occasionally,......

In the days leading up to the election, we will amalgamate what the four newspapers had to say about the races into one combined blurb for each candidate or initiative because we do not purport to follow city politics closely enough to advise anyone, even ourselves, how to vote. That's why God invented local politics writers. Mayor of Seattle (non-partisan) Greg Nickels: The incumbent was “a doer in his first term” who “focused on basics”......

At Seattlest, we read the candidate endorsements so you don't have to flip that far into your paper. In our thorough research, certain themes emerged. At the P-I, they wrote endorsements as if they were late for a meeting. For Seattle City Council--return all the incumbents, they say. Statewide Initiatives? Say no to everything! Port Commission? It's time for change! The Stranger used the dorky gimmick of asserting that they were drunk as they wrote......

There's approximately 550,000 people in Seattle, and about 45,000 of them voted yesterday. What did this select few decide? --They gave the Monorail board a few new members. --They chose Ron Sims to be the Democratic candidate for King County Commissioner. --They picked a candidate to run against Greg Nickels in November's general election: Al Runte, a former UW professor. On his web site, the neophyte pol says he is "running for Mayor of Seattle......

The most important thing when running for political office is raising money. Campaign signs are pretty, shaking hands builds muscle, and everyone loves rides on your campaign pony. However if you can’t raise money to get your message across you’ll find yourself a loser on election night with a basement full of campaign stickers. Veteran incumbents know this, take Jan Drago for example. She doesn’t have anyone running against her and yet the Stranger reported,......

Maybe we’re taking our democracy for granted. I mean after all we live in a country where we can vote for whoever we want to, be it a Yale-educated male millionaire or a taller Yale-educated male millionaire. However, looking at this fall’s civic elections there are still three races where, as of now, we will have no choice in the matter. City Council Members Jan Drago, Nick Licata, and City Attorney Tom Carr are all......