Pundit Country

[update 9/1]: Well, it looks as if I was wrong. Publicola published a story today (with a somewhat misleading headline) indicating that in July she was asked about R-71 in a Federal Way forum and she claims to support the measure, although they noted her response was predictably “nuanced” (their word). Her response is that while she thought the bill “had some exaggerations in it”, she generally believed in the cause of equality.

And if you find yourself asking what she meant by “exaggerations”, she didn’t specify (hint to Dow’s campaign: make her).

Also worth noting is that unlike Constantine, it was her campaign who responded to the question rather than the candidate herself. I’m guessing she doesn’t want to be on the record supporting a measure that her financial backers will be spending a great deal of money to try and defeat.

(original post from Aug. 31)

Now that Referendum 71, which calls for voters to affirm the “everything by marriage” law recently passed by the state legislature and signed into law by Gregiore, has made the November ballot, Publicola reporters asked around to all the relevant local candidates to see what their position was on the referendum. Constantine, who is touting his credentials as a progressive Democrat (although the race for KC Exec is officially non-partisan) said the following:

“While this is disappointing news, we must come together as a community and affirm an important law that speaks to our core values and is a long overdue step for equality.

“I remain confident that Washington State voters – and particularly the people of King County — will stand up for fairness by upholding the state’s domestic partnership bill. That bill recognizes the right of people in committed domestic partnerships to full legal protections—in effect, to the creation of full civil unions for gay and lesbian couples in Washington State.”

Front runner Susan Hutchison’s campaign has yet to respond to the request for a comment. Most likely because this puts her into a bit of a corner. Clearly a conservative Republican by her associations, affiliations, and previous statements, Hutchison needs to appeal to the largely Democratic voters of King County, most of whom, it is believed support the measure of granting full rights to same-sex couples. However, she also clearly doesn’t want to alienate her conservative donors, some of whom fought vigorously to get this on the ballot in the first place.

My prediction? If she responds at all (which I doubt, unless pressed by the media, bloggers or the Constantine campaign), it will be in the vaguest language possible in an attempt to keep people guessing about her position. Remember this is the whole strategy here; allow people to place their values upon her with her campaign revealing as little as possible about her views on any actual issues. The public cannot let let her get away with that.

Related articles

• Domestic partnerships: Will religious right rise? (seattlepi.com)
• Anti-gay rights ref. signature check tops 100k (seattlepi.com)

As he election results from earlier this week continue to turn in, an interesting pattern has begun to show. While those who voted in the KC Executive race early tended to vote for Hutchison over Constantine, later voters went the other direction siding more with the self-identified progressive Democrat over the crypto-Republican.

The initial election night gap, reported to be 37%-22% has been closing steadily since election day with Constantine gaining steadily on his now-sole opponent. The split now stands at 33%-26%. Publicoa writes that the support of the SEIU late in the race helped push those last minute numbers up.

While I’m sure Hutchison is the candidate the Constantine camp wanted to run against this November, I think it represents a bad move by those Dems who pushed her this far along. Now we have an anti-intellectual empty shirt elevated to the status of frontrunner who got that way by saying virtually nothing about the issues, letting voters pin their own concerns and hopes onto her, without any evidence she supports the issues they may want strongly advocated.

Add to the mix the possibility that R-71 will be on the ballot and you have good reason to start planning for a big conservative push to get the right-wingers to the polls. Goldy at HorsesAss made the same observation just yesterday, adding the conservatives are expected to raise money heavily for Hutchison, touting her as the Dino Rossi of the King County circuit (although to his credit, at least Rossi had actual experience in policy and governmental matters, so I don’t see how the comparison works out exactly). While I suspect R-71 will also pull the LGBT and allied community to the polls in droves, hoping for the same sort of passion the community felt after the passage of California’s Proposition 8 to drive passage of the referendum, essentially ratifying the state legislature’s decision to grant equal rights to same-sex couples in committed relationships, this doesn’t mean that Constantine’s camp should rely solely on Hutchison to make a fool of herself.

Yes, once she is forced to talk about policy issues she clearly has no grasp of, ala Sarah Palin, it’ll be a nice field day for what little political media is left in the area, but they really need to bring the fight to her. It will be incumbent on Dow making the case that Hutchison simply lacks the qualifications for office and is she is simply an open opportunity for conservative interests to get one of their own in office so that they can run their own agenda right over the voters of King.

Related articles

• Referendum-71 Status and a few thoughts (washblog.com)
• Up next: ‘Knock down, drag out fight’ over domestic partner law (seattlepi.com)
• Susan Hutchison: No Answers, Lots of Questions (seattleweekly.com)
• Key labor union backs Constantine in King Co. exec race (seattlepi.com)
• Documents: GOP approached Hutchison to run for mayor (seattlepi.com)

Daniel Goldstein (aka “Goldy”) over at HorsesAss.org grabbed the story, but it appears that while going through Hutchison’s new Facebook page, either she or Taitz reached out to one another.

Taitz, as you may or may not know, has been the unofficial spokesperson for the folks who believe that Obama wasn’t born in the U.S., but rather in Kenya and can’t legitimately claim to be the President.

This isn’t exactly the move one would make in order to shore up their nonpartisan credentials, but you almost have to admire the way Hutchison lets her freak flag out loud and proud. Well done ma’am.

For the record, I really didn’t intend for today to be an almost -exclusive “Hutchison-is-a-crappy-candidate” day here at Pundit Country. Buy hey, when you hit a roll, ya just gotta go with it.

Now the (very) right-leaning Seattle Times offers their thoughts on her candidacy and while measured, it’s not good news. In short, the author, Joni Balter, also notes Hutchison’s lack of respect for the voters and the press in the which she evades too many substantive questions and issues that are facing the voters of King County.

This is quickly becoming the personal meme for Hutchison and her team would be careful not to ignore it. If my suspicions are correct and it becomes a race between her and Constantine, you can be sure his team is going to take every advantage of her unwillingness to appear in public outside of controlled public events.

Balter’s chief critique?

County government is a complicated, rough-and-tumble workplace. The council is full of seasoned, adroit politicians. Few executives succeed if they don’t know how to navigate in a straightforward manner.

Hutchison will surely make it through the primary, even though there are two more-experienced and qualified people for executive, Jarrett and state Rep. Ross Hunter.

In the weeks leading up to the general election, Hutchison should tell us much more about herself and why she would be a good executive. The cat-and-mouse routine makes her seem at best like she is hiding something, at worst, that she’s inauthentic.

Related articles

• Seattle Times endorses Jarrett, Hunter in exec’s race (seattlepi.com)
• Judge to rule Friday on Hutchison lawsuit records (seattlepi.com)
• Documents: GOP approached Hutchison to run for mayor (seattlepi.com)

Wow, just hours after I posted my little commentary on Hutchison’s rather unqualified attempt at the KC Exec position, The Seattle P-I posts a piece by Rand Kohler, a local attorney, that almost says the exact same thing. If I hadn’t just written on this topic, this would have made my Must Read list for the day. However, it’s still an important article to read. The paragraphs below (emphasis mine) are concerning her reluctance to state her views on national issues (her opponents have accused her of being a Bush Republican hiding behind a nonpartisan label):

However, if she is going to take the tactic that this is outside legitimate inquiry then it seems to me that she has a duty to be very clear and precise in her explanation of her views about local issues. Unfortunately she eschews this responsibility as well. Her campaign is running on name familiarity and not much else. It is sort of a local “rose garden strategy” in which she is sitting pat on her lead and not saying anything that might upset anyone, i.e. avoiding anything specific.

This process results in monumental platitudes, jaw dropping simplifications, numerous “Did she really say that?” responses. For example she actually said that negotiating with Boeing on environmental matters should not be a problem because she knows lots of people there and after all her husband works there. (The quote is in the link above.) This statement reveals both ignorance of local politics and a blithe disregard of environmental issues.

I hadn’t heard about the Boeing story, but it doesn’t surprise me in the least. Perhaps Ms. Hutchison would be better served running for a lower office in order to get familiar with the nature of how local government works before jumping to the head of the table.

Related articles

• Hutchison, Phillips spar on KUOW (seattlepi.com)