Founder (and seller) of The Onion, publisher of The Stranger, and the head of on online empire that includes an iPhone app, a CMS, and a daily deal service, Tim Keck has earned himself a 2,300+ word profile — and a 17-image photo gallery — in The Seattle Times.

The piece describes how the college dropout from Wisconsin went on to become a force in influencing Seattle’s 2009 mayoral election. It includes tales of magic brownies brought to AAN conventions and plenty of other exploits from the man who “sets the tone for bad-boy irreverence” in Seattle:

Asked if he regrets anything The Stranger has written, Keck recently said, “This would be a time when I could apologize, right? Let me think about it.” Two weeks later, asked again, he said, “I haven’t thought about it.” He paused, and laughed. “I guess that’s a reflection of my personality.”

Perhaps that is why targets of The Stranger‘s vitriol — including a previous mayor and his chief of staff, several past City Council candidates and various editors and publishers of competing weeklies in Seattle and Portland — declined to talk about Keck on the record.

The Stranger‘s crusades for a more libertine, rowdy, dense, transit-heavy and stoned city reflect their readers’ — and Keck’s personal — views. Its most notable failed campaign was for the Monorail, but that yielded years of good copy.