When Al Runte is asked a question his demeanor is one of calm assurance that he knows the subject and exactly what he wants to say.

He appears exactly what he once was, a professor of history and environment at the University of Washington for much of the 1980s. Since then he has been an environmental consultant, historian and author of books.

Al Runte has never before been a politician nor has he been an executive, yet he wants to be both by unseating strongly entrenched, if not universally popular Mayor Greg Nickels this fall. He has to start by coming in strong enough to dislodge five virtually unknown opposing candidates, albeit the street word is that Runte is the strongest challenger.

He talks like he is already the lone opponent.

"I see myself elected mayor, yes," he said in an interview. "I want to be who I am because that is what Seattle needs."

Runte says he does not need to be a technocrat or a close manager.

"I think that a leader is a person who makes things happen and then delegates tasks to the appropriate people. People who have vision should be given the voice. This is what a mayor is suppose to do."

Being a grand leader takes vision, he said.

"I think Seattle traded their leaders for politicians and developers."

A professorial approach is appropriate, he said, because people listen to a professor and a professor listens to the people.

For example, Runte noted city estimates that there is a backlog of infrastructure work.

"We have a $500 million backlog of street repairs in this city."

He said people will willingly pay for projects if they see results.

"The city says (a project) will be addressed but it never is," he said. "Maintenance takes far too long - they don't lack money, they lack leadership."

The Lake Union trolley is an example, Runte said.

He would tell Paul Allen to connect the South Lake Union Trolley to the waterfront trolley and integrate it with other transit systems.

"It's nice to have toys under the Christmas tree, but we don't need any more toys in Seattle, we need something that is cohesive and compatible."

The monorail and viaduct are areas where Runte is particularly hard on Nickels.

"For the past four years, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has been nothing but a cheerleader for plans to build the Seattle monorail," Runte said in a campaign news release. "He campaigned for the original monorail initiative proposal and has supported it as it passed the voters on four different occasions. He applauded each monorail ballot victory and declared that as mayor he would see to it that the monorail is built.

"Now the mayor has abandoned the project by attempting to give the monorail a death sentence by Sept. 15. Where is the Nickels proposal for revamping the monorail?"

Runte says the mayor is "not willing to provide the leadership to prevent crisis with the monorail nor is he willing to show leadership now."

So, what would Mayor Al Runte have done?

He says he would have closely monitored the monorail board and used a "bully pulpit to keep it on track."

Runte said the mayor's lack of leadership means "we now have to sort out the mess the politicians have made of the monorail project."

"Stop having politicians plan these transportation issues" because politicians are not engineers.

In the interim, he would integrate Sound Transit and the monorail, in spite of the potential for the Alaskan Way Viaduct to be destroyed in an earthquake or down while being replaced. He says more buses are the answer.

"Our bus system must be more frequent," Runte says. "Half-hour intervals are not good enough."

He also attacks Nickels on the viaduct. The tunnel idea is too expensive and should be abandoned and rebuilt as an elevated structure. There is money for a $2 billion rebuild available from a gasoline tax increase approved by the last Legislature - if voters do not cancel that option by approving Initiative 912 in November.

Runte said he "does not have a lot of money" to campaign but he is working on getting more.

"I am running my campaign as a professor would, talking to people," he said. "The money is being used to gain visibility. The current mayor is invisible. I am going to meetings that he is not attending."

Runte says the Seattle media is paying more attention to political contribution figures than to his ideas - "give people a fair chance to hear the issues from all the candidates."