Candidate Running As `Absolutely Nobody' Is In Hospital With Aids

The jokes don't come easily anymore.

Months ago, when he changed his name to "Absolutely Nobody" to run for lieutenant governor, Seattle resident David Powers relished the attention it generated.

He had expected to spend these last few days before the primary election in a part-serious, part-playful appeal to voters' discontent.

"I thought I'd be out glad-handing the voters with other politicians . . . saying, `Hi, I'm Absolutely Nobody. Vote for me.' "

But in an interview in his room at Providence Hospital Medical Center yesterday, the 35-year-old Capitol Hill resident told The Times why he has been unable to follow those plans.

Absolutely Nobody has AIDS.

For three weeks, he has been undergoing treatment for what hospital officials have described as a "respiratory infection." He has been listed in stable condition.

Yesterday, Powers confirmed he is suffering from pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, an ailment common among patients whose immune systems have been damaged by acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

"These days, I'm feeling pretty poorly most of the time, actually. . . . It's a feeling of exhaustion," he said, adding that despite his illness, he doesn't intend to drop out of the race.

Powers, who moved to Seattle from Portland seven years ago, learned he was carrying the AIDS-causing virus four years ago, and "I've had the diagnosis of full AIDS for 15 months."

Even so, he said his current respiratory ailment has been his first serious bout with an AIDS-related condition, his first hospitalization due to the virus.

Relaxing and catching his breath between comments, he said it isn't easy to discuss a condition so feared and misunderstood.

"There still is a stigma attached to it," he said, "but I think the public's attitude toward gays and AIDS is much better than it was a couple of years ago."

He credits efforts by the media and writers such as Robert O'Boyle with increasing the public's understanding of AIDS. O'Boyle, who died early this year, wrote a column called "Living with AIDS" for The Times for the last 18 months of his life.

"That series helped illuminate people's minds to see that these are people who are living with this disease," he said. "They're not stereotypes, not people we can dismiss as being outside the mainstream of our lives."

Powers, who is gay, believes he likely contracted the AIDS-causing virus through sexual contact.

It was almost nine months ago that the former party-supply salesman went to Seattle District Court to legally change his name to Absolutely Nobody, telling the judge he intended to run for office.

In a year of campaigns for president, governor, Congress and Senate, the race for lieutenant governor has drawn scant media attention, but Powers' new name triggered media curiosity.

The New York Times wrote about Absolutely Nobody; so did The Star, a grocery-store tabloid. Paul Harvey and Charles Osgood mentioned him; an Australian radio network interviewed him over the phone.

Lt. Gov. Joel Pritchard recently grumbled that a disc jockey from Altoona, Pa., woke him up at 5 a.m., asking him how it felt to run against Absolutely Nobody.

Even though he's not out campaigning, he said he still considers himself one of the six challengers to the Republican incumbent.

As an independent, Absolutely Nobody hopes he'll attract votes from people disappointed with the two major parties.

A former state chairman of the Oregon Young Republicans, he now feels "the Republicans and the Democrats have gotten so strong, politics is about keeping those parties' people in power, not about what those parties mean to their constituents."

Given his pneumonia and other complications, Powers admits he might have difficulty fulfilling the day-to-day tasks performed by the lieutenant governor, who presides over the state Senate and chairs its Rules Committee.

But he points out that the cornerstone of his campaign is an attempt to abolish the $62,700-a-year position.

His message to voters, he said, is broader than his own individual campaign. "What I tell people is fight the system," he said. "Change it to make it work."