The 46th District Democrats of North Seattle met last night at a sweltering Olympic View Elementary School to hash out primary endorsements.

It was a comical event, with confusion over rules, revotes, objections and checks of Robert's Rules of Order. "Five minutes on the issues, 55 minutes on the goddamn process," one member grumbled during one of the many tangles over procedure.

Candidates could only get an endorsement with a two-thirds majority, so several races wound up with none -- including the mayor's race. You can see the full results here.

Some highlights, from my notebook:

--Joe Mallahan made a strong showing in the mayor's race. He didn't get enough votes for an endorsement, but far outpaced every other candidate. In a runoff against Mayor Greg Nickels, he got 76 votes to Nickels' 39. (City Councilmember Jan Drago came in a distant fourth, behind Mike McGinn.) Mallahan was known by many of the 46th District activists for his work as an Obama campaign organizer.

--Nickels didn't show up (a campaign aide said he was being interviewed for a union endorsement). But state Sen. Ken Jacobsen was there to speak for Nickels -- or more accurately, to defend him. Nickels has been bashed by opponents who claim he's paid too much attention to his national reputation, heading up the U.S. Conference of Mayors and appearing in magazine photo spreads for his work on global warming. Jacobsen said Seattle should be proud of that: "We have a national leader here and I say we ought to re-endorse him."

--Mayoral candidate James Donaldson was also a no-show and didn't have anyone there to nominate him or speak on his behalf. Surprising for a struggling campaign that desperately needs free publicity and any kind of boost.

--Seattle City Councilmember Jean Godden urged the group to endorse Jessie Israel, a county parks employee who is challenging Godden's council colleague Nick Licata. Godden cited Israel's "positive upbeat attitude" and "can-do energy." Israel, too, talked about "energy" three or four times. In politics, that's code for "My opponent is old." Licata seemed fired up by the challenge, speaking forcefully about his accomplishments. Licata easily won the endorsement.

--In the county executive race, County Councilmembers Larry Phillips and Dow Constantine got a joint endorsement. (No other candidates showed up.) In his speech, Constantine continued his clever strategy of turning the race into a contest of him versus Susan Hutchison, the Republican-leaning former TV news anchor who has largely avoided debates and interviews so far. Constantine said he'd challenged Hutchison "to come out of your hiding place." You'd almost forget that Constantine's real struggle is to get through the primary against three other Democrats.

--A bit of a surprise in the crowded field for Council Position 6 Position 8 -- Bobby Forch, a latecomer to the race, eked out a joint endorsement with David Miller, the Maple Leaf neighborhood leader who was on his home turf last night. Forch is a longtime city employee who talks about how he started out "digging ditches" for the city and worked his way up to be a manager. He now works for the transportation department as a contracting manager.

--Weirdly, Rusty Williams, the son of former Councilmember Jeanette Williams, actually spoke for the relative unknown Forch -- "Bobby is a good guy. He's got a great heart." Forch went on to trounce Williams in the voting.

--Apparently, the 46th District Democrats can't be trusted to not mix up the number 6 with the number 9. They were using a series of numbered ballots but skipped ballot #6 for that reason. After watching last night's meeting, I think that was a wise decision.