Susan Hutchison - conservative or chameleon?

June 4, 12:22 PMSnohomish County Progressive ExaminerChad Shue

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Former Seattle PI columnist, Neil Modie, has an interesting piece on Republican, Conservative, Former TV News Anchor-turned King County Executive candidate, Susan Hutchison. Modie was the beneficiary of a rare Hutchison interview in which the former Discovery Institute board member expresses her curiosity at being labeled a conservative Republican. His piece appears as a "Special to SeattlePI.com"

"As she faces off against four Democratic officeholders in her campaign for executive of Democrat-leaning King County, Susan Hutchison professes to have no idea why people assume she's a conservative Republican.

"I don't know what to do about all these labels for people that people like to use," the former KIRO TV news anchor said in a lengthy telephone interview Tuesday. "Our polls showed that 10 percent of the people responding thought I was extremely liberal."...

..."You know, people have their perceptions of us (candidates), and whatever that may be, I don't think labels are helpful," Hutchison said. "I think people look at what we plan to do and the character we have shown to our fellow citizens while we have lived and served in this region, and they can make their own decision."

Susan Hutchison - Conservative?

Modie offers one reason for the confusion over Hutchison's political leanings is her lack of voting record as someone who has never held elective office. He also cites her lack of media or citizen availability thus far in this run  for the most powerful position in King County. He points out that Hutchison has yet to appear at any of the candidate forums or media venues that the other candidates have been attending. When he asks her to discuss her positions on the issues in the race she tells him that she will make her positions known "very soon," apparently before the end of the week.

So when faced with an essentially empty slate when it comes to personal accomplishment on which to base a political opinion, one is left to look at associations - personal, professional, and financial.

KEY PLAYERS:

To manage her campaign, Hutchison has chosen Jordan McCarren. McCarren worked on the 2008 GOP presidential campaign of staunch conservative, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback until Brownback dropped out of the race. At that point McCarren left to become a campaign aide for former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. Doug Parris, president of the ultraconservative "Reagan Wing" is a vocal supporter as is former King County Republican Party Chairman, Reed Davis. Both men speak highly of Hutchison's "rock solid" conservative bonifides. And we should not forget her time on the board of the Discovery Institute; promoters of so-called Intelligent Design as part of our science curriculum.

FOLLOW THE MONEY:

Public records show that the former TV News Anchor has contributed to the campaigns of Mike Huckabee, Dino Rossi, and George W. Bush. In addition to direct candidate contributions, Hutchison has also contributed to ChangePAC, the BIAW's campaign fund raising arm which funds primarily Republican candidates.

Bush, Huckabee, and Rossi - recipients of Hutchison political contributions

Modie talks about the conventional wisdom that, due solely to her face/name recognition (and a small but solid Republican voting block), Hutchison should not have much problem coming out of the August "Top Two" primary. But then he details some of the hurdles she will face moving on to the general election as a (shhh) Republican.

"The scenario for the Aug. 18 primary, in the view of many analysts, is that Hutchison grabs most of the county's Republican-base vote, her four rivals split the larger -- but not vastly larger -- Democrat-base vote, the independent voters go in several directions, and Hutchison comes out on top, or at least makes it into the general election.

Hers is a daunting challenge as a presumably conservative Republican running in King County, which has trended steadily more Democratic in recent decades.

No Republican has been elected county executive since 1989. And voters in the 17 state legislative districts entirely or partly within King County have chosen 42 Democrats and just nine Republicans to represent them in Olympia..."

It might be worth mentioning here that Hutchison played a major role in pushing the initiative that, last November, moved the position of King County Executive into the "non-partisan" camp on the ballot. Modie ends with some words of caution from former state GOP Chair, Chris Vance:

""Of course, the Democrat s will say, 'Susan Hutchison doesn't share our values. Susan Hutchison is scary. Do we want a George Bush Republican running our county?'" Vance predicted.

"Why should they do anything else? It always works."

Well, before the Democrats will have the chance to bring out their big Republican paint brush, they will have to finish tarring and feathering each other to see who will have the task of fulfilling Vance's prophecy.

Peace,
Chad Shue

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