1. Sunday's  front-page Seattle Times story on Mayor Greg Nickels' weird status (unpopular yet looking unbeatable)  suggested that while voters don't like the mayor in general, when pressed, they actually like his record. The Seattle Times wrote: 

But when focus-group participants were asked what they wanted done in the city, "they talked about things the mayor is already doing" — like promoting transit-oriented development. 

Things are even weirder than the Times suggests: Nickels office actually led the fight against the transit oriented development bill in Olympia this session.

2. Speaking of Mayor Nickels' reelection chances. The mayor certainly knows he's vulnerable. Word is: Team Nickels has turned to heavy-hitting national political consultant Paul Tewes  (famous for running Obama's pivotal Democratic primary campaign in Iowa) to do opposition research on Nickels' opponents this year.

3. Late on Friday afternoon, a sneaky group of progressive state legislators (Reps. Dave Upthegrove, Jamie Pedersen, Hans Dunshee, Zach Hudgins, Geoff Simpson, and Brendan Williams) voted for a poison pill Republican amendment to repeal I-937, the voter-approved renewable energy initiative. The (maybe brilliant, but high-stakes) strategy according to one member of the group (which gave the amendment the 50+1 it needed to pass)? The Senate will never concur with a bill that blatantly guts the initiative.

Now, the bill will be forced into conference where leadership can reestablish the compromise bill on I-937 (a compromise that environmentalists agreed to earlier this session ) without having to deal with pesky amendments that were anathema to progressives, but would be hard to beat on the floor.

4. The AP reported this weekend that the sales tax increase being contemplated by the legislature is not polling well. The numbers (a thorny 50/50 split)  scared off a coalition of healthcare groups that was thinking of running a sales tax referendum to fund healthcare programs.  

Lawmakers in Olympia told the AP they're still considering the idea themselves.