problems with the city's public transit system. Due to disapproval of Nickels' handling of illegal tent cities in Seattle, a tent city community in the Seattle area was known colloquially as "Nickelsville". A late 2008 poll of likely Seattle voters reflected dissatisfaction with the incumbent mayor, showing that 31% approved of Nickels's performance as mayor while 57% disapproved. Nickels' low popularity numbers did not recover by August 2009, when he was defeated in the primary election in his bid for a third term as Seattle's mayor. In Nickels' concession defeat, he thanked Seattle voters and noted, "Twice they gave me the honor of doing this. They want a new generation of leadership." Shortly before his defeat in his re-election campaign he had been appointed the 67th President of the United States Conference of Mayors earlier in 2009. With his defeat Elizabeth Kautz filled the remainder of his term until 2010. Nickels left Seattle to pursue a teaching position at Harvard University. In 2012, Nickels ran for Washington Secretary of State as a Democrat. He received 15.85% for third place in the August 7 top-two primary, behind Kathleen Drew (D) and Kim Wyman (R). Affiliations Nickels is a member of the Washington State Democratic Party and served as the President of the United States Conference of Mayors, but left that post on the day he left office as Seattle mayor. Nickels served on the board of directors of Sound Transit. Since 2003, he has also been the chair of the Transportation and Communications Committee of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and served on the Conference's Board of Trustees. Nickels is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, a bi-partisan group with a stated goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets." The Coalition is co-chaired by then-Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He was the key negotiator for the City of Seattle in accepting $45 million up front from the Bennett Group to move the Seattle SuperSonics of the NBA to Oklahoma City. Environmental record In 2005, Nickels announced an "Environmental Action Agenda" with the goal of protecting air quality and public health. The primary goal of the agenda is to reduce Seattle's greenhouse gas emissions "to meet or beat" the levels stipulated in the Kyoto protocols. Nickels spearheaded the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, an accord between over