Sandy Cioffi has sent two press releases: one on April 6 to announce she would be running for Seattle City Council and one this morning at 8:00 a.m. to say she won't be.

Mostly, she writes, "it came down to a reality of timing." Her film program at Seattle Central Community College, where she's an instructor, lost its funding in Olympia this year. Today she's trying to shepherd through the final project of a film class that won't resume in the fall. "It's really bad at school," she says.

But if you're like me—and you are identical to me in every way—then you may suspect it's not just about the timing. It's about politics and it's about money.

Sandy Cioffi brought a knife to a gunfight.

Or a musket to WWII.

Or $20,000 to run against Tom “I’ve Raised a Fucking Quarter-Million Dollars” Rasmussen.

"I know that I can beat him if I have even close to half his money,” Cioffi said last week. But how does someone from her background raise even that? Rasmussen is old-guard politics, a darling of moneyed downtown business, construction, and real estate. Where Rasmussen liked their tunnel, Cioffi was against it; where Rasmussen had roots with reliable older dough as the mayor's former director of Office for Senior Citizens, Cioffi had roots in community college students; where Rasmussen is meek, Cioffi was blunt. Even strident.

She also had zero ground game, apparently.

Rasmussen has swept Democratic district endorsements; Cioffi didn’t even have a member of the 34th or 37th District Dems in the audience to nominate her. Lacking a strategy to build institutional support, money to harness that support, and, again, money, her pursuit was quixotic. Even if she may have been the better candidate.

Cioffi dropping out is a huge gift to Rasmussen, who won't have a real challenger (unless Dale Pusey, who filed at the last minute, seriously ups his game in the next couple weeks). And if I'm correct, having only two candidates in the race means that Rasmussen won't have to appear on the primary ballot with the referendum on the controversial tunnel, which Rasmussen has backed as chair of the council's transportation committee. Most of all, Rasmussen doesn't have to fight. He doesn't have to prove himself. Rasmussen is the winner by virtue of having raised a quarter-million dollars.

Maybe it's time for city races to establish campaign spending limits and public financing?