“I’m Dow Constantine, I’m a Democrat”
By Andrew at June 26th, 2009.
When voters decided that they wanted the county executive to be a non-partisan office, most candidates understood what that meant. It meant that voters across the county represent a vast array of lifestyles, careers, and interests.
King County is a large and diverse area, containing many urban, suburban, and rural areas. Residents in North Bend have different expectations from government than those county residents in Belltown. Backers of making the King County Executive’s office non-partisan trumpeted the need for the job to be one that can represent residents in all of these areas.
Last night, at a King County Executive’s forum, Dow Constantine began his closing remarks by displaying his partisanship as if it were a badge of honor. He said, “I’m Dow Constantine, I’m a Democrat [...] if those things make your hair stand on end, then I’m probably not your guy. There are others here to choose from [...] I’m supported by a lot of labor unions and the Sierra Club.”
But is a partisan what voters want for their county executive? After voting to make the county council and the county executive’s office non-partisan, probably not. This seems to be an unforced error on Constantine’s part. He is trying to shore up the liberal/progressive vote in King County against the other Democrats running to make it past the primary into the top two, but he risks alienating the parts of the county that don’t subscribe to his partisan views for the general election.
Take a look at the video here:
Photo licensed under GNU Free Documentation License, WikiMedia.org.
Tags: Democrat, Dow Constantine, featured
Andrew
Andrew is a UW alum, Seattle native and dedicated hometown football fan.
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When did it become partisan to want to build a strong economy with good paying jobs? When did it become partisan to want a healthy natural world for our children to show to their children? When did it become partisan to want cheaper alternative methods of transportation that get us from place to place faster? When did it become partisan to want an efficient government that is responsive, responsible and representative? When did it become partisan to want to protect Human Rights, or Animal rights? These are just the issues on Dow’s issue page.
Non-partisanship does not mean that candidates have to hide their values. By saying that he is a Democrat, Dow is simply identifying which set of values he tries to live by. A strong community, fair markets, fair taxation, better government and traditional american values of peace, opportunity and justice for all.
If that drives people away, maybe they’re listening to conservative talk radio too much.
How is self-identifying with a party or set of values an error, unforced or otherwise? The position may be non-partisan but does that mean the candidates are blank slates?
So?
Not really a big surprise or a secret that Dow Constantine is a liberal Democrat and by the general election most people will recognize that Susan Hutchison is a socially conservative Republican. I agree that the public does want less partisanship from elected leaders, but the candidates’ political party affiliation does provide useful information to voters.
When your party affiliation hurts your chances for election success, you try to downplay or keep it a secret. Constantine must think his party & ideology identity will help him with voters – Hutchinson knows that her party & ideology identity will hurt her chances.
It would seem that all of the partisan outrage over Susan Hutchison is manufactured. It’s a smokescreen to keep attention off of the current backwardsness of King County government. Dow and some of the others have been at the helm, and thus don’t want to talk about the systemic problems that exist. Why? They may be culpable for some of the problems. Much better instead to campaign for the title of most liberal, and attack the only woman in the race, by trying to turn her into some caricature of a conservative idealogue. That’s sooo progressive guys!
That’s OK, Yael. Hutchison already has stamped herself as a conservative ideologue, and from the transcript of the forum that I read, she’s certainly not addressing any of the “systemic problems” that you claim exist.
She’s talking around the issues, using the blandest generalities that she can find, because she’s short on the specifics, her public sector experience is nil — and she is manifestly unqualified for the job. If it is somehow “partisan” to point out what should be glaringly obvious to all, then I guess I’m partisan.
Nobody has to “manufacture” any “outrage” over Hutchison. It’s already an embarrassment that someone so unqualified is on the ballot at all.
If you like the many messes of King County, vote for Dow. He has been around a number of years and helped Ron Sims create those messes with his voting record on the King County Council.
For one, he misrepresented the State Growth Management Act and voted to take 65% of all rural property owners’ land. Four years later, the Washington Supreme Court declared that taking to be illegal and gave the land back to the owners.
You will hear more about the messes his voting record created as this election proceeds.