Constantine declared winner in King County executive race

King County Council Chairman Dow Constantine has defeated former TV news anchor Susan Hutchison in the race for King County Executive.

The race was called about an hour after Constantine declared victory over Hutchison after gaining a wide lead in early results.

With 39 percent of the expected vote counted in Tuesday's election, Constantine led Hutchison with roughly 57 percent to her 43 percent - a gap of more than 34,000 votes. More than 244,000 votes have been tallied by county election workers.

"That was over quick, wasn't it?" Constantine said to his supporters. "Nine months of working every day and just 15 minutes of waiting for those results ... It's been a tough campaign."

Hutchison has not conceded, noting only 40 percent of the votes had been counted when King County announced the results of its first count on Thursday night.

"Whatever Dow wants to do, Dow will do," she told KOMO News. "We're going to watch those votes come in. And I can understand why Dow is declaring victory, but we're not conceding. We are going to wait and go through the process."

Hutchison blamed attack TV ads for the wide margin reflected in poll numbers.

"I got an e-mail today from someone I highly respect, and he said, 'You ran a good and honorable campaign.' And I feel that that is true," she said. "We really focused on the issues and in the end it was the attack ads against me that were untrue - distorting me and who I am, and painting me in a false way - that flipped the momentum. What can you do about that?"

Despite Hutchison's stance, Gov. Chris Gregoire offered her congratulations to Constantine on Tuesday night.

"I look forward to working with him on issues of common importance to the state and the county, such as the potential for flooding in the Green River valley and the economic recovery of our region," she said in a statement.

Although voters in the largely Democratic county made the position nonpartisan last year, Constantine is a veteran Democratic politician, while Hutchison has strong ties to Republican politicians and some conservative causes.

Former U.S. Senators Slade Gorton and Dino Rossi were present at the Hutchison camp on Tuesday night to support the Republican candidate.