Election 2007 | Godden faces 3 challengers

Seattle City Councilmember Jean Godden almost breezed to a second term without a challenge. But just before the filing deadline three candidates stepped up, saying Godden shouldn't get a free pass to another four years in City Hall.

All three challengers in the Aug. 21 primary say they want more leadership from the nine-member council than Godden has provided.

Lauren Briel, a transit-pass vendor, wants more bus service and bike paths. Robert Sondheim, a restaurant owner, wants a lot more police officers. Joe Szwaja, a high-school teacher, wants more attention to climate change and renters' rights and plights.

The top two finishers in the primary will advance to the Nov. 6 general election.

Szwaja (pronounced "S-why-a") is the best-financed challenger, although his $40,081 in contributions is less than one-quarter of what Godden has raised, according to the most recent campaign-finance reports.

He also is the only challenger to have held elected office, serving on the City Council in Madison, Wis., between 1986 and 1993.

The Municipal League of King County rated Szwaja "good," like Godden. The league rated Briel "adequate +" and Sondheim "adequate."

Szwaja, 50, teaches history, Spanish and weightlifting at Nova High School, a public alternative school in Seattle's Central Area. He ran as a Green Party candidate against Democratic Congressman Jim McDermott in 2000, winning 20 percent of the vote.

To combat global warming, Szwaja wants the city to establish "neighborhood climate councils" to tap community ingenuity to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. He also wants to create incentives for people to drive low-emission vehicles, such as neighborhood "plug-in" stations and stickers that would allow electric cars to use car-pool lanes.

On housing, Szwaja says the city should stop giving tax breaks for developers in South Lake Union, Capitol Hill and the University District, arguing that apartments for moderate-income renters would be built in those neighborhoods without a city incentive.

He also says the city should impose a moratorium on condo conversions and require apartment-building owners to give nonprofit developers early notice when they intend to sell a building for conversion.

During the campaign, Szwaja has been asked about a domestic-violence incident in his past. In 1990, he was charged with disorderly conduct after his then-girlfriend threw a beer bottle at him, and Szwaja smashed a plate that hit her in the face, requiring that she get 10 stitches.

The charge was later dismissed, according to Madison newspaper reports, after Szwaja completed a program for first-time offenders.

"I deeply regret what I did. I never did anything like it before or since and I've contributed a lot to the community," Szwaja said. "I hope voters treat me as a person who's made mistakes, learned from them and recovered quite well."

He also noted that Madison voters elected him twice after the incident, and the city's two daily newspapers endorsed him in 1992.

In his first run for office, Sondheim, owner of Rosebud restaurant on Capitol Hill, is focused mainly on public-safety issues and wants the city to hire 500 more officers.

He says increasing the police force by about 40 percent would solve a host of problems, from rowdy nightclubbers brawling on the streets to graffiti-taggers defacing private buildings and public spaces.

Sondheim, 56, has identified potential funding for almost 30 new officers and says he needs "to sit down with the budget" to come up with the $47 million needed to hire the rest.

Sondheim also says affordable housing is important. But he acknowledges he doesn't have a solution for rising prices except expanding the light-rail and bus systems so people who can't afford Seattle could get to their jobs in the city more easily. Sondheim has raised $3,518, according to the most recent campaign-finance report.

Briel, 28, who is also a first-time candidate, moved to Seattle four years ago. She works for the Urban Mobility Group, a nonprofit that sells transit passes to employers. She says she'd bring "energy and fresh ideas" to the council. Her chief interests are transportation and urban design.

Briel doesn't own a car and says Seattle needs more bus service, particularly neighborhood-to-neighborhood and east-to-west service.

She doesn't have a plan to finance adding buses, and she does not offer specific proposals on other issues she stresses, such as improved parks and soaring housing costs. She has raised $14,525, according to the latest report.

Godden was a longtime columnist for The Seattle Times before she quit in 2003, jumped into a crowded field of challengers just before filing deadline and went on to defeat one-term incumbent Judy Nicastro, vowing to bring "maturity" to City Hall

For four years, Godden, 75, has chaired the council's City Light oversight committee, a perch from which she pushed an 8 percent rate reduction through City Hall last year — a deeper cut than Mayor Greg Nickels and City Light wanted.

Godden has been a fairly consistent supporter of Nickels' initiatives, backing his waterfront-tunnel proposal, South Lake Union streetcar and tax breaks for apartment developers.

But she disagreed with Nickels on City Light rates and his plan to sell seven acres of green space in West Seattle to developers. Godden also stood against City Attorney Tom Carr in a 6-2 vote repealing the city's racially charged vehicle-impound law.

Godden says there's more she wants to accomplish on the council. She wants to chair the budget committee, create a one-stop city telephone help-line and possibly build broadband Internet service throughout the city.

Bob Young: 206-464-2174 or byoung@seattletimes.com

Information in this article, originally published August 13, 2007, was corrected August 13, 2007. Biographical information accompanying a story Monday about the primary election for Seattle City Council Position 1 incorrectly stated that Joe Szwaja received his master's degree from the University of Washington. His degree is from the University of Wisconsin.