I’m at the press table here in the studio at the Dow Constantine vs. Susan Hutchison debate. (Live blogging. I apologize in advance for the typos.) They just cued the audience to clap—and Constantine and Hutchison simultaneously broke out their ultra brites. Hutchison won that round.
Onto opening statements. Constantine, by coin toss, goes first.
Constantine goes on the attack. He says Hutchison gave thousands of dollars to GOP candidates like George Bush and Mike Huckabee—a liability in blue King County where even John Kerry won … big.
He says Hutchison was against building light rail to the airport.
He says she’s anti choice.
Hutchison saw the attack coming. In her opening statement, she says Constantine is trying to change the subject from the “broken” county and the budget crisis. (Constantine, a longtime council member, is chair of the council.)
She says abortion is not an issue in the election. (She says health clinics that serve women are—and they’re getting cut because of the county’s limping budget. It’s a riff off a press release she did earlier this week, for which she earned an A in PubliCola’s press release roundup.) She says light rail was last year’s issue—and the voters passed it, and she’s glad about that.
No response on why she supported Bush and Huckabee.
Now, they’re talking about the flood control district in Tukwila and Renton and Kent. And this brings Hutchison’s first big challenge (candidates are allowed to hold up “challenge” cards when they want to dispute their opponents’ claims.)
Hutchison asks about emails that have surfaced that contradict Constantine’s statements about always supporting the flood district.
Constantine responds by saying he voted for the flood district.
Each candidate only has one challenge left. They get two. (Constantine used his first challenge earlier—to ask Hutchison why her answers to interest group questionnaires are not posted on her website.)
The jail. Yesterday, Hutchison proposed having the Sheriff’s office take over the jail from the county. Hutchison says she wants the jail to be “exactly where it should be” —under the control of law enforcement.
Budget next: Hutchison talks about empowering employees to point out inefficiencies. She says she will cut the county council budget. She points out that the while the council was cut from 13 to nine members, the staff budget has grown. Lots of GOP preening here. “We know that government is bloated.”
Constantine responds saying he already passed legislation empowering employees to speak out about inefficiencies. He also says he passed a hiring freeze to save $800,000.
They are now being asked about the dueling ethics complaints they’re facing. Constantine is under investigation by the Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) because his treasurer was also the treasurer for an independent expenditure group that did ads against Hutchison (in the primary). This could constitute illegal coordination between campaigns. (You’ll find links to all our coverage of the Constantine investigation in our most recent post on that story.)
Constantine defends himself by getting off the sternest line of the night so far: “I have been straight forward with the voters and my opponent has not.” He’s referring to the PDC investigation into Hutchison involving rent on her campaign office, which she hasn’t reported in her financial disclosure reports. (Our coverage of that one, here.)
Hutchison dismisses the investigation into her campaign as political “gamesmanship … meant to embarrass her.”
She ads that it’s not illegal to run a campaign out of a residence. (True. The problem, though, isn’t that she’s running a campaign out of a house, is that she hasn’t reported it. Who’s paying for it, for example? That’s what could be illegal.)
Hutchison is finally asked the question she should have been asked from the beginning of this campaign. Not: Are you a Republican (she has a long record of consistently donating to Republicans)? But more germane: Why did she support George Bush?
In her answer, she doesn’t say anything about George Bush.
In a weird (supposedly) parallel question, Constantine isn’t asked why he consistently supports Democrats like Obama, but rather, he’s asked about anomalies—why did he donate to Republican Luke Esser? Constantine says he went to law school with Esser, and they’re friends.
Constantine uses the moment to fire off his second “challenge” question … or statement really. Explaining that Hutchison supports the conservative think tank, the Washington Policy Center.
Hutchison hits back with her most aggressive attack of the night, saying Constantine is a “foreigner to the marketplace of ideas” … saying he’s wedded to his own narrow view.
More on the budget.
I was about to call Hutchison on her contradictory statement: She said you can’t raise taxes during a recession, but she would let voters vote on a human services levy. (In fact, she boasted about wanting to send that tax increase proposal to voters.)
Constantine seized on this: “I believe I just heard my opponent say we can’t raise taxes during a recession, but she would ask voters to raise taxes during a recession. That’s not leadership.”
Closing statements.
Constantine says it’s a “choice of values.” Hutchison says she righted the budget crisis at the Seattle symphony when she was board chair there.
