Tuesday morning, King County Executive Dow Constantine watched Bertha’s breakthrough with other VIPs at the north end of the future Highway 99 tunnel. Tuesday night in West Seattle, he launched his second re-election campaign. Here’s what he told the crowd:
(WSB photos and video by Leda Costa)
As you can hear about 11 and a half minutes in, the event at The Hall at Fauntleroy drew protesters as well as supporters. Some held signs outside.
For months, there’s been a campaign to try to convince Constantine to cancel a county project that includes a new youth-detention center. He issued a statement two months ago saying “zero youth detention” is a goal to work toward, but the project, approved by voters five years ago, is proceeding. (As you can hear in the video, his speech also addressed the issue before the interruption, saying his administration had been reducing “disproportionality” in the system.)
Meantime, his second re-election campaign since moving from the County Council to the Executive position in 2009 is starting without anyone actively campaigning against him so far – the main opponents he cited last night were the Republicans in the White House and Congress. “The last seven years have seen some challenges and some successes,” he said. “But the next four years … are going to be a fight.” Even without an opponent, the state Public Disclosure Commission website shows he’s raised $1.1 million in campaign contributions.
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