King County Executive candidates Dow Constantine and Susan Hutchison squared off today at the Rainier Tower conference room in downtown Seattle for a King County Bar Association-sponsored debate about the court system, criminal justice, and the county's budget deficit.

The debate, which was moderated by KCBA president James Andrus, was a fairly high-level, sedate affair—although it did highlight a few similarities and differences between the candidates.

Hutchison, who stuck largely to her stump speech ("nonpartisan," "I solve problems and fix things," a stale story about a county employee who told Hutchison she wanted her to be her boss), charged the county and Constantine, who heads the King County Council, with "reckless spending" and failed leadership.

"What we are seeing is continual excess spending and a structural deficit that we will not close until we get to the bottom of county finances," Hutchison said. "It's too much spending chasing too little revenue."

Constantine countered that he had made real efforts to cut spending at the county, eliminating some positions and proposing that non-union, more highly paid workers pay for a portion of their health care.

Constantine and Hutchison also clashed on a few specific issues, most notably restrictions on land use in rural areas.

Asked about how they would protect access to legal justice for vulnerable King County residents, Constantine responded that he had fought for funds for legal defense for the poor and indigent since his days in the state legislature. "Most of us realize that folks do need professional legal help to access the civil legal system, and I'm committed to providing that," Constantine said.

Hutchison took a different tack, arguing that Constantine had failed to stand up for the legal rights of rural King County residents when he supported the Critical Areas Ordinance, which limits rural land owners from subdividing their property and for suburban-style development. (Critics say restricting land use constitutes a "taking" for which land owners should be compensated.) "I just question the fact that my opponent is an attorney and understads the law, and yet he was the champion of the Critical Areas Ordinance that so affects our rural population," Hutchison said. (The state supreme court overturned a portion of the CAO earlier this year).

In response to a follow-up about the CAO, Hutchison called it a "silly" law and a "bad policy" that unfairly impacts people who live in rural areas because "they love the land, they love the mountains and the forests and the clean air and the beautiful streams."

Constantine and Hutchison did agree on the need to keep fully funding alternatives to incarceration, such as the county's mental-health and drug courts.

Both candidates also opposed a proposal by current county executive Kurt Triplett to close down one of the county courthouse's two entrances to save money on security. "I’m someone who works in the courthouse every day. I stand in those lines. I don’t think [closing down one entrance is] a feasible plan," Constantine said. Hutchison echoed: "If even one juror is late [because of the lines for security], it slows down our ability to keep the court system moving."

And both candidates supported retaining full funding for prosecuting and defending people accused of crimes, although Hutchison framed the issue in terms of the "impact" people who commit "nuisance crimes" have on residents of neighborhoods like Belltown, whereas Constantine talked mostly about making sure people who can't pay for a lawyer have a good defense.