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Friday, June 10, 2011

City No Challenger for Burgess?

Posted by Dominic Holden on Fri, Jun 10, 2011 at 1:54 PM

From left to right: Bruce Harrell, Brad Meacham, Sandy Cioffi, Tom Rasmussen, Tim Burgess, Sally Clark, and Dian Ferguson

From left to right: Bruce Harrell, Brad Meacham, Sandy Cioffi, Tom Rasmussen, Tim Burgess, Sally Clark, and Dian Ferguson

Seattle City Council member Tim Burgess, who's butted heads with the mayor and sponsored some controversial legislation in his first four years, was the only person at a candidate forum this afternoon for all five seats on the council up for reelection without a challenger at the table. "You must be feeling lonely right now," said moderator and former Seattle City Council member Peter Steinbrueck.

"I don’t have a declared opponent so far," Burgess replied. The deadline for all candidates to file their paperwork with King County is today at 4:30 p.m. Not all of the candidates who we know intend to run have filed their paperwork (including Sandy Cioffi, who sat next to incumbent Tom Rasmussen), but the two people who have indicated they may run against Burgess seem to be clear they aren't serious about winning. Who knows? Maybe Burgess may actually run unopposed.

One of the questions at the forum, sponsored by the Metropolitan Democratic Club of Seattle, was about the ongoing conflict between the mayor the council.

"I think the conflict is overblown by the media," Burgess said.

Comments (7) RSS

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Its more than ordinary people cant run against multi millionaires with six figure war chests.

Posted by meanie

on June 10, 2011 at 2:07 PM

"overblown by the media."

That's certainly a diplomatic response. In truth, it's been overblown by Mike "constitutional crisis!" McGinn.

Posted by seandr on June 10, 2011 at 2:09 PM

Schraerer has filed

Posted by michaelp on June 10, 2011 at 2:25 PM

@3 asked and answered.

@1 for the insightful Plutocrats Rule, We Are All Serfs win.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on June 10, 2011 at 2:43 PM

10 or 20 years ago, I used to love the idea of having a gay person on the city council. It made me feel properly represented and valued as an equal citizen.

But... now that we actually have 3 homos on the council, I really... just don't like any of them. Tom Rasumussen and Sally Clark are both nice folks, but I don't think either is doing a particularly good job. They seem pretty beholden to big business interests, and I disagree with them as often as not. Tim Burgess is by far my least favorite. He is a bit of an ass, and is way too law & order and far too willing to trample people's rights for me. I'm really disappointed to see him run unopposed.

Posted by Reverse Polarity on June 10, 2011 at 3:18 PM

@5 Burgess gay? when did that happen? I remember when The Stranger always reminded us that Burgess worked for Concerned Women for America(Phyllis Schafly's group), was anti-abortion, and wrote an anti-gay marriage op-ed; now the one who writes "War on Women" posts praises him as "mayoral".

Posted by SoSea Resident on June 10, 2011 at 3:42 PM

@5, that's a problem with the nature of the work the Council simply has to accomplish, grinding it out meeting after meeting, session after session.

Showboat candidates who think it'd be a fun gig or a powerful soapbox tend to flame out quick, while the ones who show up every day and do the (mostly incredibly dull) work tend to get reelected pretty easily, warts and all.

Posted by gloomy gus on June 10, 2011 at 3:47 PM