The many names of Mark Sidran

Mark Sidran's mayoral campaign has been a battle to break out of a caricature of his own making.

Sidran has been depicted as a Nazi on the Internet -- despite being Jewish -- and The Stranger has implied he is Satan. A city commission accused him of "draconian" labor practices in 1997, even though he is a democrat. Protestors at Sidran's campaign functions have called him an elitist, a racist and a sexist.

During his 12 years as city attorney, Sidran was perhaps best known for championing so-called "civility laws" that crack down on panhandling, public urination and sitting on sidewalks. Homeless advocates and civil-rights advocates have decried the law as insensitive.

His car-impound law has been decried by minority groups as nothing more than racial profiling made policy. City councilmembers have criticized Sidran as an agenda pusher who has jeopardized the reputation of the city attorney's office -- Peter Steinbrueck has said on the record, "I don't think we can get impartial legal counsel (from Sidran)."

He views himself in a different light than his detractors. Sidran claims to be someone who will take a principled position and defend it, even in the face of adversity. He has a unique explanation for this. His parents, Jerry and Sylvia, came from New York City, and Sidran considers himself genetically a Brooklynite.

But Sidran was raised a Seattlelite, growing up in Seward Park, a neighborhood with both hilltop mansions and lowland shacks. His father owned Upland Pharmacy on Wilson Avenue South. Sidran estimates the pharmacy was held up a half-dozen times, in addition to numerous nighttime burglaries. The pharmacy eventually went bankrupt during the Boeing bust of the 1970s.

Sidran attended Franklin High School and was elected president of the class of 1969 his senior year, one year after racial tension had resulted in a black student-union sit-in. While in school, he worked as a box boy at the now closed "House of Values" discount store in South Seattle.

Although Sidran's parents were unable to provide significant financial support for his college education, he was able to attend Harvard on a scholarship. After graduating, Sidran returned to Seattle and the UW law school, where he earned his law degree in 1976.

Sidran then went to work in the King County Prosecutors Office, where he stayed from 1975 to 1985. Upon his return, he became a partner in the law firm of McKay & Gaitan. In 1989, Sidran ran for Seattle City Attorney and has served in that position since.

Despite the negative images Sidran cultivated during his term, he has received endorsements from Gov. Gary Locke, The Seattle Times, the Seattle Police Guild and UW Regent Daniel Evans. A recent KING-TV poll has the mayoral race in a statistical dead-heat. Sidran summed up the task remaining as simply getting "outside of the caricature."