McIver faces council challenge by close contender in 2003 race

Seattle City Councilman Richard McIver will face an election-year challenge from Robert Rosencrantz, a landlord and former housing official who narrowly lost a council primary two years ago.

Rosencrantz's challenge, announced yesterday, sets up a second competitive council race this year and goes against the trend of candidates piling on Councilman Richard Conlin, who already has attracted four opponents.

Rosencrantz, 49, said he will pit his "can-do spirit, optimism and ability to get things done" against an incumbent whom he portrayed as ineffective and, at times, altogether absent.

Rosencrantz said he scoured McIver's attendance record over the past three years and discovered the councilman had been late or had missed 32 of 143 council meetings, as well as nearly a third of Sound Transit board meetings, where McIver is one of Seattle's two representatives. When he was chairman of the Housing and Human Services Committee, McIver canceled about half the scheduled meetings, Rosencrantz said.

"For many people, that kind of attendance record would get them fired," Rosencrantz said.

Robert Rosencrantz

But McIver, 63, said he thinks he may have missed only three or four council meetings a year. He said he's a busy elected official and has appointments that sometimes overlap, forcing him to skip some meetings. For example, he noted that Sound Transit board meetings are scheduled at the same time as the Washington State Housing Finance Commission, of which he is also a member.

McIver defended his work ethic. "I think you can find me here earlier than most council members and later than most council members," he said.

Up to now it has been Conlin drawing the most serious opposition. He faces four declared challengers: Metropolitan King County Councilman Dwight Pelz; Casey Corr, a former journalist and aide to Mayor Greg Nickels; former nurse and public-health activist Darlene Madenwald; and Port of Seattle Commissioner Paige Miller. Candidates are permitted to switch races before the July 29 filing deadline.

The other two council members up for re-election, Nick Licata and Jan Drago, have drawn no opposition so far.

McIver said he wonders why Rosencrantz is targeting him at all when the two have so much in common.

Both grew up in Seattle's Central District. Both have worked for many years on housing issues. And both are generally supportive of Nickels' pro-development agenda.

"I'm trying to figure out what the differences are," McIver said.

McIver is the only black representative on the nine-member City Council. His council position has been held by an African American since 1967.

Though Rosencrantz, who is white, said the racial composition of the council shouldn't be an issue, he did take pains to point out in a written statement that he'd grown up in the Central District in the 1960s and participated in a civil-rights march "with childhood friends of every color."

McIver was first appointed to the council in 1997 to fill the position vacated by John Manning, who resigned after being arrested for breaking into his estranged wife's home. McIver was elected to a full four-year term later that year and re-elected in 2001. He chairs the council budget committee.

McIver had considered retiring, but said he decided to seek another term to continue his work in shaping the city budget and ensuring that minority-owned businesses get a fair share of government contracts.

Rosencrantz, who now lives in the Montlake neighborhood, also said he would work to change an "alphabet soup" of transportation agencies that are failing to fix traffic congestion. Rosencrantz owns and manages four apartment buildings, has previously owned an ice-cream shop and sold apartment buildings for many years. From 2000-03 he worked for the King County Housing Authority as acquisitions manager.

Rosencrantz was narrowly edged out in the 2003 council primary by Jean Godden.

Rosencrantz won't be alone in challenging McIver. Ángel Bolaños, an activist who ran unsuccessfully for the council two years ago, said last week he also has decided to run against him. Bolaños criticized McIver for siding with Nickels on many issues. Seattle City Light employee Mike Thompson also has filed to run against McIver.

Nickels, whose first term is up this year, also picked up a longshot challenger last week when Christal Wood announced she would run a "shoestring" campaign against him. Wood ran as a write-in candidate for mayor in 2001. She also ran in 2003 for the City Council, earning the endorsement of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and 12 percent of the primary vote.

Jim Brunner: 206-515-5628 or jbrunner@seattletimes.com