"The SECB supports Dwight "Drinky Crow" Pelz, a brawling Democratic county council member who's been active in progressive Seattle politics since the 1970s. He can also drink every member of the SECB under the table.
Incumbent Richard McIver had two good terms, standing up for minorities and the disadvantaged, and he worked hard to secure fair compensation for businesses displaced by light rail in the Rainier Valley. But the SECB believes the council needs a fighter during four more years of Nickels.
Think of Pelz as Nick Licata in boxing gloves with whiskey on his breath—a left-leaning pol who packs a punch. A Deaniac, Pelz has a fiercely partisan resumé. As head of the county council's transportation committee, he successfully restored Metro bus service after Initiative 695 led to massive transportation-budget cuts; fought to get Sound Transit included in the Regional Transportation Investment District; and stood up to Democratic County Executive Ron Sims on Southwest Airlines' plan to move from Sea-Tac Airport to Boeing Field. He also led the council's fight for the controversial East Lake Sammamish Trail, which will extend the Burke-Gilman Trail to Issaquah.
As liberals' most loudmouthed representative on the county council, Pelz spoke up loudly for the county's controversial Critical Areas Ordinance, which seeks to curb sprawl by limiting development in rural King County; torpedoed Republican efforts to ax the county's domestic-partner benefits; drafted a council ordinance opposing parts of the PATRIOT Act; and was a strong supporter of proposals to elect the Seattle City Council by district.
McIver's other opponent, landlord Robert Rosencrantz, has some smart things to say about the proposed Alaskan Way tunnel ("We can't always go for the most expensive option"). But his support for Mark Sidran–style civility laws and his tortured justification for running against the council's only African-American incumbent at the SECB's candidate forum last week cost him. Vote Pelz."-from "The Strangers Election Control Board."
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