Just received from Dow Constantine‘s campaign:

Rivals Jarrett and Constantine Jointly Call for Greater Openness and Transparency in King County Executive’s Race;

Phillips and Hutchison continue to refuse to make public candidate questionnaires

Today, two of the major candidates for the office of King County Executive, King County Council Chair Dow Constantine and State Sen. Fred Jarrett, issued an unusual joint statement pointing out that they are the only two candidates to have been fully open and transparent in making public the detailed candidate questionnaires they have submitted to a wide range of constituency groups and organizations.

State Rep. Ross Hunter has posted some, but not all, of his questionnaires on his web site. King County Councilmember Larry Phillips and former television anchor Susan Hutchison have refused to make any of these important documents available to the public.

In response to this noteworthy lack of transparency, Jarrett today said: “The selection of the next King County Executive is one of the most important decisions that voters will face this year, and will have a major impact on the future of this region. One of the significant challenges the next Executive will face is changing the county culture to one of openness and transparency. If candidates are not willing to be open and transparent with the voters now their willingness to meet that challenge is doubtful. That is why it is so important that all of the King County Executive candidates give voters a clear and detailed understanding on where they stand on a wide range of issues, and why I issued my challenge to all candidates to post their completed questionnaires. Unfortunately, Dow Constantine and I are the only candidates to have done so.”

Dow Constantine added, “As rivals for the office, we disagree on issues. But on the need for full openness and transparency Fred and I are in agreement. That is why we have both posted all of our candidate questionnaires on our respective web sites. The other major candidates owe it to the voters to make public the full range questionnaires that they have privately submitted to the various interest groups with a stake in the outcome of the race.

“The voters have a right to make an informed choice about the next King County Executive. How can they expect to believe the promises of change and reform coming from some of the major candidates when those same candidates continue to hide their views on major issues from the light of public scrutiny?”