Belated follow-up: Mike Goodspaceguy Nelson running for public office, again
Undeterred by his failure to win a Senate seat last year, Mike Goodspaceguy Nelson once again ran for King County Council. I can’t bring myself to listen to his appearance on the local public radio station (fortunately, he wasn’t running in my district). You can read his and opponent Dow Constantine’s candidate statements on the King County Elections Web site. I stumbled across a candidate questionnaire that the Historic Seattle Preservation Foundation submitted to all of the candidates for King County City Council, and comparing Michael Goodspaceguy Nelson’s response with the response from mainstream candidates Dow Constantine and Jane Hague, I have to say that Nelson comes off looking pretty good. He answers each question honestly, assigning medium or even low priority to the historic society’s hot-button issues, describing how they fit into his overall plan. By comparison, Constantine and Hague pander to the foundation by rating everything as high priority. The sole “medium priority” was their assessment of how the council as a whole prioritized an issue. “See? I pander to you better than the rest of the council!” (Note: This message was pre-recorded. The race was no contest; Constantine won easily.) In other local election news, the race for another seat on the King County council has been suffering a series of bizarre twists. The incumbent Jane Hague was arrested for drunk driving back in June, and the news was kept quiet until just days before the election, at which point local politics were thrown into a tizzy. But wait, there’s more. You’d think the opposition party would be ecstatic, but they were too busy dealing with their own problems to care, for the opposition candidate was perennial also-ran Richard Pope. (“Some people go to baseball games or go fishing. Richard files for office.”) How did a fringe candidate become the opposition candidate? State law permits candidates to claim whatever party affiliation they wish, without needing permission from the party itself, and Pope has taken advantage of this, changing parties three times during his career. (I’m simplifying; read the story for details.)
So now we have a choice in November between an accused drunk and a fringe candidate. It’s going to be a weird election.
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