Look toward Seattle City Hall this morning and see if you can spot Mayor Greg Nickels dancing a vigorous jig.

The mayor's most challenging potential opponent for the fall election, former Seattle City Council member Peter Steinbrueck, has other plans. He is not running for mayor.

PHOTOGRAPHER/SOURCE

Former Seattle City Council member Peter Steinbrueck

One by one, the biggest threats to Nickels' plans for a third term have come and gone. City Councilman Tim Burgess, who has a law-and-order profile from his years at the police department, bowed out of contention several weeks ago. But Steinbrueck, with his big name familiarity from his own work on the council and that of his father in saving the Pike Place Market, was the one potential challenger Nickels was worried about.

Nickels' stress levels should be dropping.

Steinbrueck will be spending the first of the next four years in Cambridge, Mass. He landed a prestigous urban design fellowship at Harvard University, as he says, "researching the politics, principles and plan for urban sustainability of U.S. cities.''

Now let's be honest. It's a bigger story if an individual with big street cred is running rather than not running. But in this case, Nickels has been facing the voter fatigue after two terms and that understandable desire for someone new.

The mayor still has a few challengers, including former Sierra Club official Mike McGinn and former Seattle SuperSonic James Donaldson, but neither has the money-raising potential or presence of Steinbrueck, so this is a bona fide big deal.

Steinbrueck says he gave a lot of thought to running but in the end the fellowship and a desire to be present for his family won him over.