[caption id="attachment_11264" align="alignleft" width="353" caption="James Donaldson"] [/caption]

There are dueling press releases this morning from mayoral challengers Jan Drago and James Donaldson. Drago's press release hypes an endorsement from Brian Robinson, the co-founder of Save Our Sonics, which wants another pro basketball team in town. "I am the best person to beat Nickels and bring basketball back to Seattle," Drago said in her statement.

At the same time, Donaldson sent out his own statement hyping the fact that he's been endorsed by the Save Our Sonics organization, not just its cofounder. "When we lost the Sonics, we lost millions of dollars in revenue, but we also lost a tenant that supports not only KeyArena, but the entire Seattle Center," Donaldson said.

Given that 70 percent of Seattle voted against subsidizing the Sonics, the question is: Does anyone still care about the Sonics?

Drago, obviously,  is hoping they do. The loss of the Sonics—along with the bag fee, to which she's also hitched her star—is a populist issue that could appeal to the same nostalgic Seattle voters who oppose density, paying for parking, and shifting transportation resources to bikes.

Drago's spokesman Mark Matassa says the campaign hasn't done any polling that shows the Sonics are a major issue with voters, adding, "It seems worth letting people know when a prominent guy like that endorses your candidate."

Drago has stirred the Sonics pot with Donaldson before, bragging about a $700 contribution from former Sonics executive Wally Walker, who also maxed out to Donaldson.

Nickels himself addressed the Sonics issue in a recent interview with PubliCola , saying, "once the Sonics were sold to a group of guys from Oklahoma, it was not possible to get them to stay" in Seattle.

Full disclsoure: Former PI editor Mark Matassa is a member of PubliCola's advisory board. He did not play a role in our mayoral endorsement process. (PubliCola endorsed Mike McGinn for mayor.)