There appeared to be only a few dozen voters in the audience at the candidate forum tonight at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, in Seattle's Central Area. (And they all deserve good citizenship medals for braving the heat.) But candidates for City Council, School Board and Mayor were there in droves. The Central Area church has long been politically engaged and boasts the largest black congregation in the state. Maybe that's why even Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, who sometimes skips other events, showed up.

Some highlights from the event:

--Mayoral candidate Mike McGinn continued to work his opposition to the deep-bore tunnel to replace Alaskan Way Viaduct into as many questions as possible. A sample: asked about how the mayor could fix public schools, McGinn (who has proposed a possible city takeover of schools) ripped Nickels for lobbying for for Viaduct money in Olympia while failing to get money to prevent teacher layoffs.

--Granted, it wasn't a question about a major city issue, but I found it quite telling when Joe Mallahan -- alone out of all the mayoral candidates -- could not name any community council or neighborhood organization in the Central Area or Capitol Hill. (The candidates had been asked to list some of the organizations, such as the Central Area Youth Association, as a pop quiz of sorts to show they are in touch with the neighborhood.) This is perhaps Mallahan's biggest hurdle as a candidate. He is clearly smart, and has a decent resume, (and, of course, he has committed $200,000 to his campaign) but he simply has not been engaged in Seattle politics or issues the way that other candidates have. When asked at another moment to list his involvement in his own neighborhood's issues, Mallahan was forced to fall back on his involvement in the Great Wallingford Wurst Festival.

--Nickels remained calm throughout, and didn't attack any of his opponents. But he did once get a chance to flash his annoyance at what seems to be the central issue of the mayor's race -- his allegedly bullying management style. When all the mayoral candidates were asked to write down the issue that has been talked about too much in the race, Nickels wrote: "style over substance."

--Pretty much everyone running for office in Seattle this year seems to be opposed to building a new jail. Several City Council candidates brought up their opposition to the new lockup, favoring diversion and other alternatives to incarceration. And when the Seattle mayoral candidates were asked to write a "lightning round" response about the jail on paper and hold it up to show the audience, every one of them opposed it, except for Nickels, who wrote that he wants any new jail to be "as small as possible."

--Thomas Tobin, a latecomer candidate for Seattle City Council Position 4 (whose minimalist web site describes him as a small businessman) seemed comically unprepared for even basic queries. One example: when candidates were asked a softball question about how they'd solve city problems, others, like Sally Bagshaw and Dorsol Plants, talked about "listening" and "communication." Tobin responded: "Listening is huge. It's on my campaign card," and then trailed off and said "I'm gonna pass on this one." He was later asked if he wanted a second shot, but said, "Nah, I'm good, I'm just drawing a blank here."

--Of the other candidates running for Position 4, David Bloom once again had the most specific opening statement about what he'd actually do as a councilman. The longtime liberal social-justice advocate said he'll pursue 5,000 new units of low-income housing and push for a local living-wage ordinance (such laws typically require city contractors and subcontractors to pay a high minimum wage.) He also vowed to try to block city spending on development projects that benefit "Paul Allen and his cronies."