While everybody was busy watching the mayor's race, some potentially great news for King County Executive candidate Dow Constantine from yesterday's ballot drop got overlooked: Despite the fact that Susan Hutchison has 36 percent of the vote so far (to Constantine's 23 percent), the latest results actually show Constantine coming in ahead of Hutchison—with 28.74 percent to Hutchison's 28.20 percent, about 180 votes.

That could be a sign that late voters are becoming aware of Hutchison's shortcomings as a candidate—bad news for her in the general, when all the attention will be on two candidates, rather than divided between eight.

UPDATE:

Asked about Constantine's good showing on yesterday's count (24,000 votes), Hutchison spokesman Jordan McCarren said: "The special interests backing him [Constantine] spent a lot of money in the last few days before the election on mail."

McCarren namechecked SEIU (the Service Employess International Union), which helped fund a $50,000 indedpendent expenditure on Constantine's behalf that included a mass mailing. McCarren was also quick to put the Constantine numbers in context: "The bottom line is Susan won by a landslide."

McCarren's explanation makes sense, but it also raises a serious question for Hutchison: If the same "special interests" who put Constantine over the top in crunch time (the SEIU's contribution was $41,000) plan to back Constantine in the general election, doesn't McCarran's explanation spell bad news for his candidate.

"I think the special interests are going to continue to spend money on him in the general election," he said.

Update by Josh Feit.