L-R: Dow Constantine, Ross Hunter, Susan Hutchison, Fred Jarrett, Larry Phillips

I'm blogging from the bountifully air-conditioned Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue , where a couple hundred CityClub members—and an impressive number of press—are watching a debate between the five leading candidates for King County Executive. Lynne Varner of the Seattle Times' editorial board and the Seattle Channel's C.R. Douglas are moderating.

One reason for the sellout crowd is probably the presence of Susan Hutchison, a former news anchor at KIRO who decided to run for county executive—officially a nonpartisan office—after deciding not to run for the US Senate as a Republican in 2006. Hutchison, until recently a board member of the creationist Discovery Institute, has skipped several public forums , particularly in Seattle; in a recent interview with PubliCola's editorial board, the four Democrats in the race complained that Hutchison says very little when she does show up for debates.

That's more or less what's going on here in Bellevue. Asked why she's running for county executive, Hutchison said it's because "I solve problems and fix things, and King County needs fixing. Everywhere I go around the county, people complain about our county government. They feel as if it is arrogant and arbitrary and they are tired of being treated as if they don't matter."

Asked why she has made lowering the B&O tax on businesses a campaign issue when that tax is determined by the state, she said, "Some people have said that's a state function. Don't tell me that 1.8 million people don't have a voice at the state level and the federal level."

Asked what specific taxes she would raise or county programs she would cut to make up the county's ongoing deficit, she said that she would "cut waste and duplication in our bloated government."

Asked what she would do to heal the rift between King County and its 39 cities, Hutchison alluded to her "journalistic background" and said she would bring all the county's mayors together in a "Greater King County Leadership Forum."

And asked which party she would have chosen had voters not decided last year to make the county executive an elected position, she maintained that "the reason I'm running is because this is a nonpartisan office. ... The services King County provides are nonpartisan. Sewage doesn't have an 'R' or a 'D' next to it."

Some other highlights from the ongoing debate:

Asked why his proposal to make some higher-paid, non-union county employees pay for some of their health care, King County Council member Dow Constantine responded, "I promised [the unions] not to take back contractual benefits, which we can't do anyway."

Asked why he didn't support expanding the passenger-only ferry system, state Sen. Fred Jarrett (D-41), said, "What [I'm] asking is that we not expand the system while we're cutting buses. It doesn't make sense to me to have Metro service to the suburbs being cut at the same time as we're expanding [ferry] service in the city of Seattle."

On "yes" or "no" questions, all five candidates agreed that bus fares should be increased to maintain Metro service; that the county shouldn't spend $300 million renovating KeyArena for a basketball team; that now is not the time to raise taxes; and that the county should continue to be the jail provider for the region.

Where they disagreed: On whether the county should be in the passenger ferry business (Constantine and King County Council member Larry Phillips said "yes"; Hutchison and state Rep. Ross Hunter (D-48) said "no"; and Jarrett held up his "waffle" sign. And only Phillips and Constantine said they would support furloughs for county employees to save money again next year.



UPDATE :
In response to a question from P-I columnist Joel Connelly (unconventional in itself, since press don't typically ask questions at events like this) about the Critical Areas Ordinance (which limits suburban sprawl on rural land), Hutchison just delivered a rambling response about how "rural people love our environment. I don't know anyone who doesn't want clean air and mountains and oceans," before saying that she believes the CAO is a "taking" and would rip it up and renegotiate it so that it wouldn't be a "thorn in the side" of rural residents—a fairly standard Republican talking point when it comes to environmental regulations.

UPDATE : Constantine just answered a harshly worded question from an audience member about "why in the world" the county would "waste $20 million" on a passenger ferry system with an equally vociferous response: "There are a few places in this county because of the odd geography and being surrounded by water where boats are going to be the best transit option" and noted that the state legislature, by getting out of the passenger ferry business, had punted the responsibility of overseeing ferries to the county.

UPDATE : Hutchison just said that as county executive, she would "put a representative of Bellevue on the Sound Transit Board" to ensure that light rail gets through downtown Bellevue and all the way to Redmond. And Jarrett just raised the fact that light rail—opening this weekend, as Phillips has mentioned about a dozen times—will run at-grade on MLK Avenue in Southeast Seattle, reducing the speed from 35 mph to "only" 25 mph. "We cannot allow that to happen in Bellevue," Jarrett said.

UPDATE : Closing statements. Pretty standard stuff here, since it's hard to say much in 30 seconds. Jarrett and Hunter talked about how they're outsiders and won't preserve the status quo; Hutchison pointed to her executive experience at the Charles Simonyi Foundation; and Phillips and Constantine talked about how they plan to use their long experience at the county to change King County from within.

I'll post later today on my overall impressions about today's debate: Who won, who lost, and who was best received by the Eastside audience.