Sheila Kuehl
When Kuehl was elected as a Democrat to the California Assembly in 1994 a Republican majority was seated for the first time in 20 years. This was due largely as an out-flowing of the enthusiasm stoked up by Newt Gingrich's strategy supporting Republicans for the Federal Legislature. Kuehl recalled "The Republican majority was quite a different kind of Republican, not a moderate, not a Rockefeller Republican. They were primarily Bible-thumpers and very right-wing. So it was not the most welcoming Republican group, though they loved Zelda Gilroy, and it was very difficult for them because they already liked me so much…. And to their surprise, we all got along very well. ...The Republicans were pretty horrible about LGBT stuff. They all virtually said stuff like, 'Well, they're all spawn of the devil, oh, but not you, Sheila….'"
Paul Schell
He also engaged in civic activism. He joined other urban activists with Allied Arts of Seattle in the 1971 campaign to save the Pike Place Market from a proposed redevelopment. He left legal practice for civic affairs in 1973, when Mayor Wes Uhlman appointed him as director of the Seattle Department of Community Development. During his term with DCD, Schell oversaw the Market's preservation and rebuilding. As President of Allied Arts of Seattle, he led the successful effort to establish "One Percent for Art" in 1973 — with Seattle becoming one of the first cities to adopt a program to fund public art, which has since become the national standard. A member of the Democratic Party, Schell first ran for mayor in 1977, but lost to Charles Royer.