In anticipation of our endorsements in the Seattle mayoral races (as well as city council, King County Executive and Council, Seattle Port Commission, and Seattle school board races) which we will publish on Monday, we're running a special series of Q&As this weekend with the four major candidates for Seattle mayor.

Questions are excerpted from our endorsement interviews with the candidates.



Yesterday we heard from Jan Drago and Joe Mallahan . And earlier today, Mike McGinn .

Up last: Mayor Greg Nickels, who's being opposed by five candidates, four of them serious contenders.

PubliCola : This is a time of historic change. And yet you're an incredibly unpopular mayor seeking a nearly unprecedented third four-year term. Why should we support you instead of one of the candidates who are pushing for change?

Greg Nickels : If campaigns were all about popularity, you would elect different people than if you were looking for leadership. We've seen people at the state level, the county level, and the city level who have come in [exclusively] trying to keep their numbers up.

My concern for my administration—whether it's four years, eight years, 12 years or 16 years—is that we got some things done. At the end of the day people will know that I have changed the city. We will have removed the viaduct from our waterfront. We passed the housing levy. We passed the Families and Education Levy. We replaced the fire stations. We built light rail on time and under budget.

Right now, people are scared. They're scared of change, but they're more scared about the economy. In that environment, the mayor is going to be a big target.

PubliCola : How do you respond to charges that you should have fired [Seattle Department of Transportation director] Grace Crunican because of management problems at the agency and her poor response during last winter's snowstorm?

Nickels : There are two weeks in December I'd like to have back.

[But] Grace is the best transportation director in America. She's an Oregon girl. She doesn't deal with snow much.

She passed Bridging the Gap [which funds street maintenance, bridge repairs, and other transportation improvements]. That's the largest transportation levy in our city's history. And we're doing it in a way that isn't just roads. It's bicycle lanes, changing out street signs, sidewalks ... She took it from a concept to something we could take to voters. We built the [South Lake Union] streetcar. We're fixing Spokane Street. She got [Bridging the Gap] to the point that it's funded and we're doing it.

She has been tackling the management issues [at SDOT]. She has taken action to move people out who need to be moved out.

I'm the first mayor in 20 years to increase spending on sidewalks. We are focusing on basics.

PubliCola : A big criticism of you as mayor is that you don't work well with constituent groups, the city council, or the state legislature—that you're a bully. How do you respond to that?

Nickels : I am who I am. I'm going to continue to push hard. If it's Olympia and Olympia is trying to do us evil, then i'm going to push back.

The city council and I meet on a regular basis, individually and in groups. I don't try and poach their ideas. A couple of examples—Richard [Conlin] had the idea for a farmers market at City Hall. I gave him all the credit for that.

I certainly understand the need or collaboration and working with folks, but in politics, you're supposed to push for your ideas.

PubliCola : One criticism of your Mayors' Climate Initiative [a voluntary program that encourages mayors to commit to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in their cities] is that it's purely symbolic—that there's no accountability or anything to require mayors to do anything beyond saying they're committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. How do you respond to that criticism?

Nickels : We changed the conversation in this country. We made cities that have never thought about this issue [of global warming] start talking about it. We made it not symbolic. We made it real.

PubliCola : Your opponents, particularly Joe Mallahan and Jan Drago, say you disbanded the city's gang unit just as gang violence was on the rise. How do you respond to that criticism?

Nickels : That's not true. It was not disbanded. We were at a point [in 2002] when we were cutting $120 million out of the city budget and the gang unit was shrunk. Meanwhile, violent crime has stayed about the same while other crimes have been going down. We've cut auto thefts in half. I believe if we put the same emphasis on youth violence we will have the same effect.