1. Okay. Completely Krazy item: I was chasing down a tip last week that Brett Phillips—King County Council Member Larry Phillips' son—had been tossed out of last Thursday night's 41st District Democrats meeting (Bellevue, Mercer Island, Newcastle, Factoria) after getting into a tiff with District Chair Jeff Smith. The story turned out to be untrue.

Brett had asked to speak in support of his dad, who's running for K.C. Executive, but the agenda was too packed.  

Larry Phillips himself had already spoken to the District about his campaign anyway. And last Thursday's meeting was dedicated to two other candidates in the race: State Rep. Ross Hunter and State Senator Fred Jarrett.  

Brett put up some Larry Phillips posters and left of his own accord. No big brawl.

Okay, but here's where the story gets krazy. I asked Chair Jeff Smith about the other Democratic candidate in the race, King County Council Member Dow Constantine. Had Constantine spoken to the District? Or was he scheduled to?

At that, on the other end of the phone, Smith—who'd been cordially filling me in on Thursday night's successful Hunter/Jarrett debate—underwent some sort of  Hugh-Jackman-into-Wolverine changeover.  

He told me Constantine was "a prick," and that he wouldn't allow Constantine to speak at a 41st District meeting. 

WTF? 

Smith explained  that when he (Smith) was a precinct officer in the 34th District back in the early 1990s and Constantine was the District Chair, Constantine had "attacked" Smith in the press.  It seems Smith is still angry about the treatment and so, he isn't allowing Constantine to take the floor at any 41st District meetings. 

Constantine spokesperson Sandeep Kaushik (full disclosure: Kaushik co-founded PubliCola) says: 

"This is the first we have heard of this. Dow is a well respected Democrat, a former 34th LD chair, state committee member and PCO. As chair of the King County Council and one of the leading contenders to be the next King County Executive. we certainly believe that the membership of the 41st deserves a chance to hear what Dow has to say."

2. Our SIFF coverage got some coverage of its own this weekend (in the SeattlePI.com). 

As well it should have. It was brilliant: We hit the SIFF lines on opening night, handing out cards asking SIFFgoers to write up reviews on their Twitter accounts ("Review this movie in 140 characters of less.")

We promised to publish the reviews. And we did.  (Tons more to come as the festival  continues.)

3. Morning Fizz hears that Green City Council candidate Mike O'Brien—currently in the overcrowded race for Richard McIver's open seat—is planning to switch to the race for Jan Drago's open seat.

It may make sense for O'Brien to change races. While the candidates in the McIver scrum don't seem as high-caliber as the main contenders in the race for Drago's seat (former K.C. Prosecutor's Office Civil Division Chief Sally Bagshaw and low-income housing advocate and neighborhood populist David Bloom), two of the candidates in the McIver contest have raised more money than O'Brien: Jordan Royer has raised $47,000, and Robert Rosencrantz has raised $57,000.

O'Brien has raised $40,000, which would immediately vault him into second place in a race against Bagshaw ($67,000) and Bloom ($35,000). 

4. While she has already announced it on the Facebooks, City Council Member Jan Drago will declare her candidacy for mayor in person at 12:30 today at the Hammering Man sculpture outside the Seattle Art Museum. 

Re: The Facebooks announcement. It's been up for over 24 hours now (I'm writing this at Midnight), and there are only eight supporters there.



Drago provided a draft copy of today's speech to the Seattle Times. 

5. PubliCola is adding a new staffer this week: Cynara Lilly will be cracking the administrative whip and doing promotions and ad sales. We're psyched. 

(P.S. to Cristina from Seattle Education Access. Sounds great. Cynara will be giving you a call.)