You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing in the race for Seattle City Council Position 8, which pits incumbent Richard McIver against two aggressive challengers, King County Councilman Dwight Pelz and former county housing official Robert Rosencrantz.

Considered the underdog in the Sept. 20 primary, Rosencrantz began airing a TV ad this week that attacks his opponents while trying to strike a playful nostalgic note with baby boomers. The 30-second spot spoofs what was arguably the first rock video, the promotional film for Bob Dylan's 1965 song "Subterranean Homesick Blues," whose lyrics inspired the name of the radical group, the Weathermen.

Mimicking the Dylan film down to its grainy black-and-white look, Rosencrantz holds up, then tosses aside placards featuring key words from a raplike ditty called "The Seattle Blues," while also echoing the 1987 INXS video tribute to Dylan, "Mediate." The lyrics, written by campaign consultant Michael Grossman, accuse Rosencrantz's rivals of absenteeism, excessive spending and ethics problems, using terms such as "vegetate," "expense inflate" and "Strippergate."

McIver and Pelz say the ad smacks of desperation by Rosencrantz, who narrowly lost a council primary election in 2003 to Jean Godden. They also say some of the charges are unfair, weak or warrant further explanation.

Here is an assessment of some of the claims made in the ad:

Claim: Pelz took off 66 Fridays.

Analysis: Pelz's calendar shows that over a five-year span he did not have any appointments listed for 66 Fridays. There is no way to verify if Pelz worked those days. Pelz maintains he did work many of those Fridays and took some three-day weekends during summers as vacation time. He also stresses that he sometimes works nights and weekends, which his calendar confirms.

Claim: Pelz billed the county $12,000 for gas.

Analysis: This is essentially accurate. Pelz was reimbursed $11,918 for travel in his car from 2002 through 2004. Pelz says he was traveling on county business and notes he's been more frugal than his County Council colleagues; only two (Dow Constantine and Bob Ferguson) of 12 council members charged taxpayers less for travel in their personal vehicles.

Claim: Pelz charged the county for expensive hotels.

Analysis: Over a four-year period, Pelz on 10 occasions stayed at hotels at which the nightly rate exceeded the amount the county would normally pay, based on federal guidelines for reimbursing employees. The total Pelz was reimbursed above the federal guidelines for those 10 trips was $286. For example, Pelz stayed at a Spokane hotel where the $72 rate was $9 above the federal standard, and on another trip he stayed at a Washington, D.C., hotel where the $154 rate was $35 higher. On most of the 10 trips Pelz stayed at hotels where Washington State Association of Counties meetings were held.

Claim: McIver paid a fine.

Analysis: McIver did pay a $200 fine to the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission related to the "Strippergate" controversy, which involved alleged illegal campaign contributions in 2003 and a city-approved zoning change for a Lake City strip club. McIver paid the fine because he appeared to violate ethics rules by accepting a $6 lunch purchased by former Gov. Al Rosellini, a proponent of the zoning change. But McIver — who voted for the zoning change — did not receive campaign contributions linked to the strip club, and his fine was much less than fines paid by two other council members, Jim Compton and Heidi Wills.

Claim: McIver missed half of Sound Transit's board meetings last year.

Analysis: A member of the agency's board of directors, McIver attended 11 of 20 board meetings in 2004. McIver notes he also sits on the Washington State Housing Finance Commission board, which often meets at the same time as the Sound Transit board, causing him to miss transit-agency meetings. "Frankly, I haven't seen where it's been a detriment to either organization," McIver says of the scheduling conflict. "If this is the worst he [Rosencrantz] has to say about me, I'll accept it."

Pelz called the ad "dirty campaigning," noting that Rosencrantz can demand the records of elected officials under state law, while he cannot do the same of Rosencrantz, who has been a landlord, a county housing manager and a nonprofit-housing-agency director in recent years.

Rosencrantz's campaign spent about $10,000 to air the ad about 450 times on cable stations such as CNN and TBS, according to Grossman.

Neither Pelz nor McIver plan TV ads.

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