A meeting with a city council member kept me away from Republican King County Executive candidate Susan Hutchison's big press conference at Benaroya Hall this afternoon, but one of PubliCola's team of reporters was on the scene. What follows is from his notes.

All of the four Democratic county executive candidates either crashed the conference (Larry Phillips and Dow Constantine) or sent representatives (Fred Jarrett and Ross Hunter). Asked why he had come to a competing candidate's press conference, Phillips said, "This is the only chance I've had to speak with her!" Hutchison is famous for skipping campaign forums, especially Dem-friendly forums in Seattle.

Hutchison's announcement—billed prior to the event as the unveiling of her "King County Budget Reform Initiative"—was a bit of a letdown: The big "announcement" was that Hutchison was appalled by the state auditor's finding, released last month, that the county had failed to keep accurate records of county capital expenses, and that she would do better if elected. "These severe problems we face will not be solved by the same politicians who created them," Hutchison said.

Within three months, she said, she would require each department to report back to her on its progress on the auditor's recommendations. Additionally, she said, she would "develop protocols" to implement the recommendations, and "expand the resources available to the county auditor"—an interesting proposal from a candidate whose main campaign issue has been cutting the county budget.

Hutchison also proposed a countywide hiring freeze, said that if elected she would reduce the size of the county executive's staff, and said she would drive her own car most of the time instead of being chauffered around by a county sheriff's deputy.