Mayor's ally Jan Drago may become opponent

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels cruised to victory in 2005 with 65 percent of the vote.

Down the ballot, City Councilmember Jan Drago won by roughly the same margin, with the help of many of the same donors and a similar base of support in labor and the downtown business community.

If Drago announces Tuesday, as expected, that she will run against Nickels this year, perhaps her biggest challenge will be differentiating herself from the mayor.

The two differ occasionally — on a proposed 20-cent fee for grocery bags, for example — but Drago has supported Nickels' biggest initiatives. A recent photo op had them sharing a celebratory toast when the governor finalized plans to build a tunnel along Seattle's waterfront to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

Supporters say Drago would challenge Nickels more on style than substance. Drago more or less said so herself in a March interview:

"You can't win a race against this mayor based on delivery," Drago said. "It's hard for me to conceive of running a campaign based on process and personality if you have a good record. I think that's the dilemma."

Drago's name recognition would make her an automatic front-runner in the race, which includes environmentalist Michael McGinn, corporate headhunter Norman Sigler, activist Dorli Rainey, former Sonic James Donaldson and T-Mobile executive Joe Mallahan.

Drago, 69, is leaving the Seattle City Council after 16 years.

Before she ran for office, Drago taught preschool and owned several ice-cream shops. The Michigan native names among her political influences her lobbyist father and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Drago made a name for herself soon after her election in 1993 with her support of off-leash dog parks. Then her committee worked with then-Mayor Norm Rice on downtown revitalization.

She supported extending the monorail even as the financing plan imploded, and backed other big projects, too, including the mayor's plan to revitalize the South Lake Union neighborhood.

The Nickels campaign is painting Drago as a follower.

"Her record since 2001 demonstrates that the agenda she has followed more than any other has been the agenda of Mayor Nickels," said Nickels campaign spokesman Sandeep Kaushik.

Drago wouldn't talk this week about her upcoming campaign but said her style is more inclusive and empowering than the mayor's.

Drago and Nickels often share a pro-business stance, and she has supported tax exemptions, electricity-rate reductions and zoning changes the mayor has proposed.

"It's my experience that they track pretty closely," said City Councilmember Nick Licata. "Jan has been critical of the mayor in the execution of policies, but on many of the major issues ... sometimes I think of Jan as being the mayor's biggest ally on the council."

They have disagreed. Drago was the only council member to vote against the grocery-bag fee Nickels proposed. That issue goes before voters in the Aug. 18 primary.

In 2007, she opposed Nickels' plan to restrict office and retail development on industrial lands in Seattle. Over the years, she has taken issue with budget items the mayor wanted to cut, and has disagreed with Nickels about annexing the North Highline area.

But Drago has backed the Nickels' administration's biggest projects, including the South Lake Union neighborhood redevelopment and streetcar line and the deep-bore tunnel on the waterfront.

Those initiatives succeeded because they were good ideas, and Nickels doesn't deserve all the credit for them, said Joe Quintana, a consultant and longtime Nickels supporter.

Quintana was in Nickels' inner circle of advisers in his first run for election in 2001. He co-chaired the mayor's first Economic Opportunity Task Force and chairs an influential business political-action committee.

But this year, Quintana is backing Drago. The mayor's "top-down management style" cost the city its relationship with Olympia, he said, and Drago would carry forward the same ideals in a different way — with more success.

"She works with people and her style is to bring people together to get things done, rather than, frankly, running over people to get my way," he said. "It's not just a different style. It has different results."

Blair Butterworth, the political consultant who will likely go to work for Drago if she gets into the race, said voters want "safe change," and Drago represents that.

"I don't think they want to overturn everything Seattle's been working on these past years," he said. "It's a change in style."

To succeed, Drago may have to win over groups that haven't traditionally supported her.

She's not been a populist candidate in the past, but neighborhoods have felt neglected by Nickels, so that would be an obvious place for Drago to seek support.

Former City Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck could help with that if he decides to support Drago, but Steinbrueck — who considered a run for mayor himself this spring — said he won't endorse anyone until after the primary.

In an interview, though, Steinbrueck was unwilling to criticize Drago, saying she's a consensus builder. He praised her for opposing elimination of the police-department gang unit several years ago, and said she was a strong supporter of food assistance, public health and the library in budget negotiations.

"I think she listens first before she makes up her mind," Steinbrueck said. "She's not a grandstander or showy type of politician."

He and others also pointed out that while Nickels is often criticized for being bullheaded, Drago is not exactly a warm and fuzzy type. Steinbrueck said she sometimes comes off as "edgy."

In 2002, Drago lashed out at Nickels after he took her off the guest list for a welcome-home celebration for Olympic speedskater Apolo Ohno.

When snowstorms last December stranded many in the city because of icy, rutted roads, Nickels faced criticism for being out of touch. But during the storm, Drago also downplayed problems with the city's response. She told a local paper she was getting around fine in a four-wheel drive.

"Sometimes she could benefit from having a little more sense of humor," Steinbrueck said.

In a year when the two-term mayor's popularity is down, Drago may not need to show significant policy differences.

She may simply try to convince voters she would be a more appealing leader, said Christian Sinderman, a local political consultant who has done work for both Drago and Nickels.

"Most of Seattle and most of these candidates are aligned with Greg Nickels, so it really comes down to stylistic differences, and I think we're going to see an election where style becomes a big part of the dialogue," Sinderman said.

Emily Heffter: 206-464-8246 or eheffter@seattletimes.com

Material from The Seattle Times archives was included

in this report.

The information in this article, originally published at midnight on May 22, 2009, was corrected on the same day at 11:53 a.m. An earlier version of this story reported that Jan Drago was in her four-wheel-drive during the December snow storm. According to Drago, it was her son's vehicle.