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Rice wins election as Seattle's first African American mayor on November 7, 1989.

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On November 7, 1989, Norman B. Rice (b. 1943), a 10-year member of the Seattle City Council, defeats Seattle City Attorney Doug Jewett in a hotly contested campaign for mayor. Norm Rice becomes the city's first African American mayor. He is re-elected in 1993.

The vote counts were as follows:

• Norman B. Rice - 99,699
• Douglas Jewett - 75,446

After a brief appointment to a vacated City Council seat, Rice won election in 1979. A former television news reporter, Rice had previously served as a member of the staff of the Puget Sound Council of Governments and as a community relations executive for Rainier Bank. In 1988, Rice ran for the Democratic Party nomination for the 7th District seat in Congress but lost to Jim McDermott (b. 1936), who had returned from a brief retirement as a popular State Senator to claim the seat.

Rice was reluctant to enter the 1989 race to succeed three-term mayor Charles Royer. His bid was provoked in part by the silence of other candidates regarding an anti-desegregation school busing initiative actively supported by City Attorney Jewett. Rice and Jewett emerged from a crowded primary field in September 1989, and Rice ultimately won by a significant margin. Ironically, the anti-busing initiative also squeaked through, but its impact was moot.

Norm Rice devoted much of his first term to strengthening city support for Seattle Public Schools, promoting human rights, and to revitalizing the downtown economy. He won easy re-election in 1993, but his second term became entangled in controversies over comprehensive planning, the Seattle Commons, budget cuts, and other issues. Rice was defeated by then-King County Executive Gary Locke (b. 1950) for the Democratic nomination for Governor in September 1996.

Before the end of his term, Rice was considered a likely nominee for Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), but declined to pursue the appointment. In 1998, he was named president of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle. His wife, Constance Rice, is a respected educator and former vice-chancellor of the Seattle Community College system.

Sources:
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, November 8, 1989; Seattle City Clerk, "Mayors of the City of Seattle," (www.ci.seattle.wa.us/seattle/leg/clerk/mayors.htm).

By Walt Crowley, January 01, 2000

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