Oh, and the fun part of yesterday’s meeting with the Mayor was our surprise guest. Typically, we have all the candidates in any given race come in and meet with our editorial board all at the same time. It’s a lively format for endorsement interviews because it gives the candidates the opportunity to call bullshit on one another. However, this year’s crop of offbeat Nickels challengers seemed like a distraction. So, rather than having Richard Lee et al come in, we invited the person the Nickels opposition wishes was in the race: Nickels’s real nemesis, low-income housing advocate John Fox. Nickels’s campaign manager was pissed about the arrangement (I guess we should have told him about it in advance), and he huffed out after the meeting calling me a “jackass.” Nickels, however, took it in stride and fielded Fox’s questions. Fox, for example, wanted to know just how the mayor planned to fund the $500 million backlog in neighborhood transportation projects while he’s so busy funding South Lake Union projects. Fox also wanted to know if the mayor would commitas Vancouver doesto 1 to 1 replacement of low-income housing lost to yuppie redevelopment. You’ll have to read our endorsement issue to find out the answers to these and other pressing questions, like: What’s the mayor’s beef with strip clubs?; how does his Center City plan make room for middle-income families?; is he planning to pitch another $200 million tax subsidy for the Sonics (since his first gambit flopped)?; and what happens if he can’t get the money for his $4 billion waterfront tunnel dream?

Luv You Live.