The studio audience has assembled...

...and we're two minutes away if you want to tune in and watch with me on KCTS 9. (Or listen to the simulcast on either KUOW 94.9 FM or KPLU 88.5 FM.)

Here we go...

7:10 Constantine is challenging Hutchison right from the beginning, continuing his refrain that she's against a woman's right to choose, bad on the environment, and not ready to lead. He's already used one of his two "challenge" cards to repeat this line of attack—while also talking a lot about "values" and how his are more in line with those of King County than hers. Hutchison, who spent quite a bit of time before the show chatting with a producer about camera alignments, is moving through a wide repertoire of facial expressions—serenely confident, smilingly exasperated, sternly in command. As always, she's winning on visuals and he's winning on substance.

7:15 "Call in the marines." Hutchison says it again—talking about the rickety Howard Hansen dam, and repeating a line that Constantine's campaign recently mocked as naive about disaster planning and military chain of command—but Constantine lets it slide.

7:20 Everything that Hutchison says comes back to cutting waste, trimming inefficiencies, slimming down a "bloated" county government. She even wants to cut the size of the executive's office—the office she wants to inhabit. It's all part of her populist, northwest Grover Norquist schtick, and as the polls show, it's working.

7:30 When was the last time Hutchison rode a Metro bus? She dodges, but relates a tale about how she recently met some Metro bus drivers who—guess what?—had ideas about how she can make Metro more efficient. Just like in the last segment, when she talked about meeting a King County transportation worker at a Husky game who—guess what?—had some ideas for her about how to trim waste in the country transportation department.

7:35 Scandal lightning round! And now we see the genius of the Democrats' very recent complaints about Hutchison's financial disclosures. Merits aside—and there may well be a lot of merit to the complaints—the existence of the new complaints against Hutchison allowed this scandal exchange to turn into a wash. Republicans long ago filed complaints against Constantine. Those came up, but so did the complaints Democrats have now filed against her. So complicated! Who to believe? Most voters just tuning into the race probably said: Whatever. Next.

7:40 Hutchison claims that her donation to Mike Huckabee was just payment for a lunch that she never attended. And a sign of her openness to new ideas!

7:42 Hutchison says of the two candidates for mayor: "Neither has very much civic experience." Hmmm... who else does that description apply to?

7:43 Constantine, smartly, pounces. Yes, he says, people are concerned that both mayoral candidates lack experience. And, he continues, they know that whoever wins, it will be wise to have someone with a lot of political experience in the county exec's seat. That's him. Not Hutchison.

7:45 Oh gawd, the animals and the county animal shelters... Can you guess who's in favor of great animal care and smart animal shelter stewardship?

7:50 Good catch from Constantine on a question about public health funding: "I think I just heard my opponent say she supports raising taxes during a recession, and that she would oppose raising taxes during a recession. That's not leadership."

7:52 Hutchison uses her final "challenge" card to wiggle out of that one by proclaiming that she won't raise taxes and asking Constantine about his past decisions to raise taxes.

7:53 Closing statements. Constantine: "This is a race of clear choices... You have a choice of candidates with very different values. I am pro choice. My candidate is anti choice... I have been a defender of the environment, from Puget Sound to our rivers and forests and farms..." The choice, Constantine concludes, could not be clearer: him.

Hutchison, shades of Reagan: "There you go, changing the subject again. We have got a budget crisis and I am the only person at this table who has turnaround experience." She talks about her success at working to "save" the Seattle Symphony and concludes: "I'm just very grateful to place myself before voters as you make your decision in the next few weeks."

Applause. And we're out.