Sharp-eyed Slog tipper Joseph Brick writes:

So, after seeing that cartoony Hutchison anti-Constantine ad a few times on TV, I noticed something that doesn't sound like good politics on her part.

It refers to Dow's support for "ferries going nowhere" while showing what is clearly the Sightseer, the ship used for the King County Water Taxi, which goes to West Seattle. I wonder what all of West Seattle would think about being referred to as "nowhere." I mean—it's not like we haven't heard it before—but usually it's not coming from someone running for office.

A quote from the campaign about it would be nice, if only for the backpedaling. Plus, maybe they'd have to pull the ad while they "fixed" it.

From the ad:

And from the county's site, an image of the Water Taxi:

I forwarded Brick's question on to Stan Shore, the conservative operative behind the ad, and he quickly replied via e-mail:

First, let me emphasize that we are an independent expenditure campaign and that Susan Hutchinson and her campaign have never seen this ad—unless they’ve now seen it on YouTube.

But, in direct answer to the question, Constantine envisioned a series of water taxis that went from Kirkland to the U District, and Shilshoe to downtown, with other routes as well, as an alternative to our reliance on cars and fossil fuels.

The biggest problem is that the “water taxis” he planned were fabulously expensive and relied on carbon-belching fuels just as much as cars do.

In order to illustrate Constantine’s plans for his ferry district we used a photo of the one existing water taxi, which does service West Seattle.

By the way, we have a website that has a lot of background information on the ad.

I'm sending e-mails to the Constantine and Hutchison campaigns to see what they make of Shore's explanation.