That didn’t take long, did it?
Less than two months after the dust settled from the primary in August, it’s time to vote again. October’s end is in sight and ballots are going out in the mail across King County.
One of the most important votes that we’ll cast is that for King County Executive. Not since before 1997 has there been an open contest for the job, with no incumbent seeking to be retained or re-elected.
We face a choice between two finalists: Republican Susan Hutchison, a former television anchor; and Democrat Dow Constantine, chair of the King County Council.
Although both agree on a surprising number of policy questions — Referendum 71, which they each favor, comes to mind — their approach to politics could not be more different.
For Constantine, open government begins with a transparent campaigning. Since launching his bid early this year, Constantine has shown up at countless forums to discuss his ideas for the future of King County. Without hesitation, he clearly identifies himself as a Democrat. And he hasn’t shied away from doing battle with powerful interests when something as important as the health of Puget Sound is at stake.
Susan Hutchison is a different story.
Rather than simply be up front with voters about her beliefs and her party preference, Hutchison has waged her campaign around a series of generic and oft-repeated platitudes that we end up hearing in every election. She refers to herself as a “nonpolitician” — which is rather amusing considering that she has become a politician by choosing to run for office — who is somehow capable of ably leading one of the nation’s largest counties from Day One, even though she has never served as a mayor, or a city councilmember, or on a school board or in the Legislature like Constantine.
This wouldn’t be so worrisome if Hutchison had a firm grasp of the issues of the day, but she doesn’t. That became apparent to me back at the end of June when NPI asked Hutchison for her position on Tim Eyman’s Initiative 1033. Her reply: “No opinion.”
Well, she has an opinion now: She says it would be “a disaster.” Glad to hear it, but Dow Constantine was unequivocally saying that back in the spring, well before she bothered to start showing up at candidate forums.
More disturbing is how Hutchison has chosen to respond when Constantine has prodded her to come clean about her ties to the Republican Party and its most powerful supporter, the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW). At a recent debate in the foyer of the Seattle Aquarium, Constantine asked Hutchison how she could reconcile a $1,000 contribution to BIAW with her claim to be a conservationist. (BIAW’s opposition to protecting the environment is so extreme that it actually sued to try to force orcas to be removed from the endangered species list.)
Hutchison’s response: “I have never given money to BIAW… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Either she doesn’t have a very good memory or she is being dishonest, for PDC records show that she did in fact donate a $1,000 to the BIAW’s ChangePAC on Nov. 14, 2005, following the example of her employer, Charles Simonyi.
In the same debate, Hutchison also took the opportunity to hurl baseless taunts at Constantine, calling him “a foreigner to the marketplace of ideas” who “represents 11 percent of this county” and has a “narrow and insular point of view”.
Considering the source, those comments are especially absurd.
Rounding down, Hutchison represents zero percent of King County. But she’s seeking to represent 100 percent of it in her first campaign for office.
If Hutchison’s approach to politics is in any way suggestive of how she would govern, then the choice between her and Constantine could not be clearer.
Dow is an effective legislator who fights for what he believes in. It’s telling that he is enthusiastically supported by all three of his former Democratic rivals — Fred Jarrett, Larry Phillips and Ross Hunter — as well as dozens of leaders from cities across the Eastside.
In these tough times, we need a leader who’s willing to not only listen to us, but level with us. That leader is Dow Constantine.
Andrew Villeneuve is the founder and executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute.
