Associated Press
SEATTLE — King County Council member Greg Nickels, who has spent years trying to improve the region’s public transportation, has been elected mayor.
City attorney Mark Sidran called Nickels to concede Thursday after elections officials released a tally of absentee ballots that showed Nickels’ lead increasing, said Sidran’s campaign manager, Karen Besserman.
"It is true. They had a very nice conversation," Besserman said.
She declined to comment further.
Neither Nickels nor his campaign returned messages Thursday night.
Earlier in the day, King County elections officials released a count of nearly 6,500 absentee ballots. It showed Nickels’ lead jumping from 2,287 votes to 2,726. In all, Nickels has pulled 79,464, or 50.9 percent, to Sidran’s 76,738, or 49.1 percent.
Only about 10,000 absentee votes remained to be counted, and Sidran would have needed 64 percent to win.
The candidates, both Democrats in the nonpartisan race, focused on regional transportation problems and distinguished themselves by their styles. Nickels took an optimistic tone, and Sidran said Seattle needs tough leadership for tough economic times.
Nickels, a King County Council member since 1988, touted his long-running efforts to improve public transportation. He has supported the transit bus system, Elliott Bay water taxi and monorail. Since 1996, he has been finance chairman of Sound Transit, a three-county agency charged with creating a light-rail system, among other transportation improvements.
That involvement earned harsh criticism from Sidran. Sound Transit’s light rail project is running three years behind schedule and more than $1 billion over budget.
Sidran, completing his third four-year term as city attorney, is best known for pushing through "civility laws" that increased penalties for public urination and aggressive panhandling and banned people from sitting on sidewalks in business districts.
While some have said the laws are unfair to the poor, they earned Sidran a reputation for toughness, which he hoped would resonate with voters after World Trade Organization and Mardi Gras riots, Boeing headquarters’ departure for Chicago and Boeing layoffs following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
Those events were among the reasons the voters dumped Mayor Paul Schell in September after one term. Schell placed third in the primary and became the first Seattle mayor voted out of office since 1956.
Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.