Archives West Finding Aid

CHECC—Choose an Effective City Council—was formed on Apr. 24, 1967, by a bi-partisan group of young professionals seeking to reform Seattle city government. Members of CHECC's core group were young lawyers, many of whom had worked together on an earlier effort to reform Washington's "blue" laws. Lem Howell, Thomas Alberg, Christopher Bayley, Bruce Chapman, and Peter LeSourd were among CHECC's founding members who would go on to become leading figures in Seattle's civic and political establishment.

Characterized by one political observer as a "movement," CHECC took advantage of a growing sentiment that Seattle's City Council, comprised of old-guard politicians whose average age was 68, was not up to the task of solving the problems facing a modern, rapidly-growing urban area. It sought out and endorsed young, progressive activists to run for city council seats. CHECC-endorsed candidates benefited its members' campaign organizational talents, financial resources, and youthful energy. The two CHECC-endorsed candidates, Tim Hill and Phyllis Lamphere, won seats to the city council that fall.

After its success in the 1967 municipal elections, CHECC's members voted to remain in business and formalize their association. It held political seminars and testified on council-related matters. The organization, however, nearly died after the 1969 municipal elections, in which two of three CHECC-endorsed city council candidates were defeated. Many young Republican members pulled out of the organization and membership dropped to about ten.

In 1970, CHECC was reborn under the leadership of another young lawyer, John Hempelmann. CHECC sought to play a greater role in political and government reform matters beyond the campaign season. In the wake of questionable campaign contributions to two city council members, it called for the establishment of an ethics committee. It also supported reform of the city's licensing procedures. CHECC continued to endorse candidates, including a slate of candidates for the Freeholder Board elections in 1974. Increasingly, CHECC members themselves began to seek public office.

By 1977, there was growing sentiment that CHECC on Seattle City Government, as the group was now called, had outlived its original purposes. They had succeeded in changing the face of the Seattle City Council. Moreover, its membership had changed. The young lawyers with their focus on downtown politics were gone. In their place were neighborhood activists with little money to pump into campaign activities. A motion to disband, however, failed to pass, leading to the resignation of the chairman, vice-chairman, and treasurer. The new leadership recast CHECC's role as a "relay center of documented research on vital issues." CHECC continued to exist into the 1980s, although it never regained the prestige or influence of its early days.