The political arm of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, the Alki Foundation, has recommended Joe Mallahan for Seattle mayor.

The group endorsed Dow Constantine for King County executive, choosing the King County Council member over former KIRO-TV anchor Susan Hutchison.

From reporter Bob Young, who is covering the county executive's race: Alki's key issues are advancing the regional business climate, sustaining basic government services, and supporting a strategy for economic recovery. The group said its decisions were based on written questionnaire responses and candidate interviews. Consideration was also given to candidates' professional and community-service records.

Alki Chairman Michael Luis said the county exec's race was a difficult one for the group. But Luis said it boiled down to this: "Susan Hutchison remains sort of a political unknown and just never made people totally comfortable that she was ready to take the reins of a complicated government."

As a result, Constantine, a liberal Democrat, got the nod over Hutchison, a self-described "moderate nonpartisan" who says Constantine is responsible for the county's financial problems and beholden to special interests.

Constantine is not perceived as a "business-type candidate," Luis acknowledged. But he is "well known" and could walk into the exec's job "knowing how the place works." The general sense among the Alki group was that Hutchison "hadn't made the case she could do the job," Luis said.

Alki endorsed Fred Jarrett and Larry Phillips in the primary and interviewed Constantine and Hutchison a second time for the general election recommendation.

Back to the mayor's race: Neither of the candidates the chamber endorsed in the primary, Mayor Greg Nickels or Seattle City Councilmember Jan Drago, made it through to the general election. So, the Alki Foundation was forced to choose between two relative outsiders.

Former local Sierra Club chairman Mike McGinn opposes replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel. The downtown business community supports the project, as does Mallahan.

Mallahan, a T-Mobile vice president, didn't attend the Alki Foundation's pre-primary candidate forum in May.