Constantine, Hutchison should be considered partisan

Editor, The Times:

Can we all stop pretending the King County executive race is nonpartisan in any interesting sense of the word?

True nonpartisanship is a quality of a civil servant not an electoral contest. It means that no political party can count on your loyalty when party interests conflict with what’s good for the public.

Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed is a rare, genuine nonpartisan. By contrast, Dow Constantine, a Democrat and darling of environmentalists, and Susan Hutchison, with her check-writing to Republicans and ties to the creationist Discovery Institute, should be considered partisan until shown otherwise.

— Valerie Tarico, Seattle

Advice from a Metro bus driver

Before Susan Hutchison says another word about gold-plated benefits, can she give the public an accurate statement comparing the compensation of the highest-paid full-time Metro driver to that of a news anchor?

And please, let’s hear about any part of her work history that was ever hard, dirty, smelly or dangerous.

Let’s hear about evening rush eastbound on I-90, with 70 lives under your hands on the steering wheel, when the windshield wipers on your 60-foot bus suddenly fails in a driving rain. Or the years working nights and holidays, when supporting your family meant missing precious time with them.

The pay and benefits of the King County executive are a lot more generous than executive compensation in a lot of counties nationwide right now.

If Hutchison wins, I highly doubt she would prefer the County Council cut her own pay and benefits into line with poorer counties.

Like the majority of King County’s work force, I would rather see other working people’s conditions brought up to hers.

— Mark Dublin, Seattle

Hutchison resembling Sarah Palin

It is impossible to read The Times’ coverage of the Constantine-Hutchison debate without sensing the uncanny resemblance of Hutchison to Sarah Palin.

The arrogance required to offer up her work on the symphony in contrast to Dow Constantine’s role as head of the King County budget committee, tells me she either has no idea how truly complex the county budget process is, or she thinks we are too ignorant to see how ludicrous that comparison is.

Like Palin, Hutchison is kind of cute and she has the rhetorical skills to start a bar fight every time she gets on the stump.

Unfortunately, inflammatory speeches don’t make Hutchinson any more qualified to be the King County executive.

The Republicans need to offer more substance and less heat on the campaign trail. The Rove style of flame-mouthed campaign politics is as dead as the jobs we all used to have.

We need serious experience on the job at King County.

— George Robertson, Seattle