Susan Hutchison: Washington State's Sarah Palin

Last night, I caught the King County Executive debate on KOMO TV between candidates Dow Constantine and Susan Hutchison. Prior to the debate, I was very opposed to Hutchison, and there was nothing that occurred during last night's debate that would change my mind.

Previously, I wrote a bit about some of my objections to Susan Hutchison, and things haven't gotten any better.

In spite of her claims to be non-partisan, Susan Hutchison is a staunch Republican:

• She not only donated to George W. Bush and Dino Rossi, she donated to ultra-right wing presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. Last night, she tried brushing aside questions about her donation by claiming it was early in the campaign when "no one had really heard much about him." But her donation doesn't seem to be a spontaneous decision at the urging of a friend, as she claimed. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer linked to this video today showing her singing Huckabee's praises and talking about how insightful he was at the previous dinner:

• The campaign consultant firm she has hired bills itself as "the go–to political consulting firm for Republican candidates, ballot initiatives, and major trade organizations."
• She served on the board of the conservative anti-science Discovery Institute that advocates Intelligent Design being taught in schools.
• Since 2003, she has donated $13,525 to Republican causes. $0 to Democratic candidates.

Conveniently, Hutchison herself played a key role in passing Initiative 26, which made the office of the King County Executive a non-partisan office. By donating heavily to the Citizens for Accountable Elections in 2007 and being one of the most vocal proponents of the switch, she paved the way for hiding her Republican affiliation in a clearly Democratic county. She's capitalizing off the lack of a party label, as she herself proudly boasts that "Our polls showed that 10 percent of the people responding thought I was extremely liberal." If she wins the election, it's going to be because she's done an excellent job of keeping the public uninformed about her stances.

Even The Huffington Post has chimed in on the absurdity of Susan Hutchison calling herself a non-partisan, and dubs her "Washington State's Sarah Palin."

For those interested, last night's entire hour long debate can be viewed here: