The triumphant campaign to elect Dow Constantine the next King County Executive has listed its full transition team. I've posted their names after the jump. One theme of note: four of them represent labor unions. Among the team members are Dave Freiboth, head of the King County Labor Council, which is the umbrella group for 175 labor unions, and three heads of SEIU chapters. Considering that union allegiance was a big issue on the campaign trail—Susan Hutchison vowed to strip county employee unions of their "gold-plated benefits" to save the county budget—Constantine will be doing a delicate dance. He's got to keep the unions in his tent, while figuring out where to cut corners in the next budget cycle. No doubt, conservatives will be watching, ready to pounce. Also on the roster: Seattle Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis, State Representative Ross Hunter (D-48), and Seattle City Council Member Sally Clark.

Constantine takes office on November 24—rather than most newly elected officials who begin next year—because he's replacing an interim county executive.

As I reported in the Morning News, there was another flagrant teabagging in Washington DC today.

Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri today led a crowd of Teabaggers in front of the Capitol in a rousing recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. He said it "drives liberals crazy" when people say the Pledge. Well, our skin doesn't burn or anything when you say it aloud, Rep. Akin, but it does drive us crazy when somebody gets all smug about owning the Pledge of Allegiance and then he can't fucking say it without screwing it up:

Dow Constantine's cell phone rang about 10 minutes after King County Elections posted the most recent batch of election results, which showed his lead growing in the race for King County Executive. Susan Hutchison conceded that she lost. "They had a short cordial conversation," says Constantine's campaign spokesman Sandeep Kaushik. "She congratulated him for winning. And he thanked her for running a strong campaign and offering a strong challenge."

Joe Mallahan or Mike McGinn will get the top-floor office at City Hall, but, at least at first, someone else will hold more power:

• Mark Kaufman

Read why City Council President Richard Conlin is more powerful than ever, and what he plans to do once Nickels out of the way HERE.

Well? When was it?

The latest complaint from domestic partnership opponent Larry Stickney, via CBS News:

"You have to swear allegiance to the gay lobby if you want to do business in Seattle at this point," he said.

As leaked to Slog earlier, and now reported on the teevee:

The race for Seattle Mayor is a virtual tie the day before the election, according to the final KING 5 News poll before votes are counted.

The poll, conducted over the weekend by SurveyUSA, has Joe Mallahan ahead of Mike McGinn, 45 percent to 43 percent, with 12 percent still undecided. With a margin of error of ± 4.1 percent, it’s anybody's race.

And:

Dow Constantine has surged ahead of Susan Hutchison in the race for King County Executive.

The poll... gives Constantine 53 percent of the vote over Hutchison's 43 percent. Five percent of voters remain undecided.

Oh for the sweet love of Christ: Think Progress says that Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate who shoved the moderate Republican out of the race in upstate New York with the help of Sarah Palin, calls Glenn Beck his "mentor."

Conservative blogger Charles Johnson of the site Little Green Footballs reported yesterday that Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate in the NY-23 special election, signed a pledge to uphold Glenn Beck’s 9/12 Project principles in Congress. The signed pledge is available online, and Hoffman touts his endorsement from the 9/12 organization on his website. Like the lobbyist-planned tea parties, the 9/12 Project is a creation of Beck, used to go after Beck’s liberal enemies and to organize hateful anti-Obama rallies.

You can find Johnson's 9/12 pledge here. Think Progress notes that very few politicians have signed this pledge, making Hoffman the vanguard of a new Beck-y era in American politics unless he is stopped.

The Dow Constantine campaign writes, "King 5 briefly posted the results on their web site, but now the link seems to be broken." Indeed, it was there...

But now it ain't. Says the Constantine campaign:

Dow leads Susan by 10 points, 53 - 43 in the King 5 SurveyUSA poll. He leads by 12 among those who had already voted. He leads among women, 3-2, and overwhelmingly among Democrats and liberals. Susan leads overwhelmingly among Republicans and conservatives.

The previous SurveyUSA poll had Susan up, 47 - 42.

But don't count your cocks before they crow... or something. Vote.

UPDATE: KING 5 posted the poll results, and they confirm the Constantine campaign's numbers. A couple interesting tidbits:

It's the first time that Constantine, the King County Council president, has led the former TV news anchor in a KING 5 poll. The last survey, taken three weeks ago, had Hutchison with a five point lead — a 15 point swing.

Sixty percent of respondents say they have already mailed in their ballots. Of those who have already voted, Constantine leads by 12 percent. Based on that, Hutchison would need to carry procrastinators by 14 points or more to win.

Photos, interviews, speeches, and hot fudge buffets—all night tomorrow on Slog:

According to a source at King 5 television who's seen a new election-eve SurveyUSA poll the station paid for, Mike McGinn is now running just two points behind Joe Mallahan in the Seattle mayor's race.

The poll, which has a roughly four-point margin of error, will be released at 5 p.m. today.

“It’s a toss-up now," the King 5 source said. "It’s a statistical dead heat."

Remember: just before the Aug. 18 primary, SurveyUSA significantly underestimated McGinn's strength, placing him last among the top three candidates (he ended up coming in first). Remember, too, that SurveyUSA only reaches voters with land-lines, and that some of McGinn's strongest support is among younger voters—who frequently only have cell phones.

My source at King 5 says the number of undecideds in the mayor's race remains "pretty high," so keep that in mind too. But if this poll is correct—or, just as importantly, if it's incorrect in the same way it was on Aug. 18—then McGinn could win this thing.

The poll will also have new data on the race for King County Executive—data that, the source said, "is pretty consistent with what everyone else is talking about. It seems to have opened up with Dow in the lead.”

Here's a question for the McGinn campaign to ponder this afternoon while we await the official poll results:

After trashing a University of Washington poll that put McGinn eight points behind last week (citing, among other things, the Washington Poll's erroneous primary predictions), will McGinn's people now do a victory dance while holding the results from the new SurveyUSA poll (which, as mentioned above, also made erroneous primary predictions)?

This just in...

A new group called SWISSH (Seattle Women In Support of Susan Hutchison) will be holding a rally today, Monday, November 2nd at 12:00 pm in front of Westlake Center. Susan will be joining them as they work to elect the first female Executive in King County history.

So... anti-choice closet Republican Susan Hutchison is playing the gender card. Because there's nothing Seattle women want more than to launch the political career of a brain-dead, hairspray-huffing dumbfuck who wants to take away their reproductive freedom. And this "new group"—which sprung up spontaneously the day before the election—is calling itself SWISSH. Swish, Susan? As pro-choice gay man, I'm offended.