King County executive candidate Susan Hutchison's campaign released an e-mail today from County Councilmember Reagan Dunn to a council attorney that suggests Dunn was worried he would lose funding for projects in his district if he didn't vote for a ferry-district tax promoted by executive candidate Dow Constantine.

In his Nov. 5, 2007 e-mail to County Council attorney Jim Brewer, Dunn asks if "vote-trading" is legal in Washington, and asks whether council members can legally "remove projects located in one Councilmember's district when that Councilmember refuses to vote in favor of tax increases."

Dunn said today he was worried that senior centers and other programs in his district would lose funding if he voted against the tax to fund passenger-only ferries. He said he also had been told by a council member on the budget leadership team and by council staffers that a flood-control tax would be rejected if the ferry tax didn't pass.

After determining retribution could be illegal, he said he went into Constantine's office and told him he was going to vote against the ferry district. Dunn said he told Constantine "I was free to vote my conscience and the Maple Valley senior center and the Black Diamond senior center and all the other projects were going to be saved."

Constantine said he didn't recall such a conversation, but said he didn't pressure Dunn either by threatening to take away district projects or to scuttle the flood district, which for the past two years has strengthened levees on the Green River and other rivers.

"It's completely inconsistent with how I've worked in my time in politics in the Legislature and around here, and everybody who's worked with me knows that. It's just not how I am," Constantine said.

Last week Hutchison released a November 2007 e-mail from Constantine, saying he was "fully prepared" to vote against the flood tax and a mental-health-services tax, after an aide told him two councilmembers were backing away from supporting a prompt vote on the ferry tax.

Constantine said last week he intended to vote for all three taxes -- and did vote for them -- despite the frustration he expressed to his aide.