Mayor Greg Nickels just finished a subdued speech in which he told supporters the fight had just begun and that he expects to be in the general election -- despite the early returns showing him in third place.

The crowd including many current and former city employees (SDOT Director Grace Crunican among them) and old Nickels campaign hands. They cheered the mayor loudly when he came out to address the results.

The vote is "too close to call" at this point, Nickels said. "We may not know our opponent for several days," he added, "but I am very confident that once all the ballots are counted, we will move on to the general election."

Nickels offered a word of praise for his several challengers. "I want to thank each of them for their willingness to put themselves on the line for our democracy."

But the mayor then went on to slam his leading rivals (he meant Joe Mallahan and Mike McGinn, though he didn't name them) for "an endless diet of negative attacks." Listening to them, Nickels said, you'd think Seattle "is a place where nothing works, nothing ever happens..."

Nickels said he didn't think the city was so bad off. "We do face some problems, but they are mostly problems born of success," he said.

"Now more than ever we need more than potshots and false arguments that some of my opponents have offered," Nickels said. What the city needs is an experienced leader, he argued, going on to talk up his own long record of community involvement, including the fact that he has always voted (a dig at the spotty voting record of Joe Mallahan.)

"I haven't always gotten it right, but I have worked hard to know this city and its people," Nickels said.

He closed by insisting again that he'll have a chance to finish the debate when more votes are counted, starting tomorrow.