Seattle metropolitan mag: does susan hutchison have the temperament for public office?

Hot on the the line was Susan Hutchison,“From your questions, I believe you’re trying to hurt me!”

She's the Republican former teevee anchor and leading candidate for King County executive. It was a day after we interviewed her for a piece (Desperately Seeking Susan) in the new (August) Seattle Metropolitan magazine.

Hutchison, 55, looks good on paper and great in front of a mirror or a teevee camera, but substantively, and temperamentally, we found her, er, wanting. She couldn't answer policy questions, and wouldn't answer fundamental political questions, like "where do you stand on a woman's right to choose," or "who did you vote for president in 2008?"

She got visibly angry with some of our questions during the interview (the aforementioned on abortion being one) and called us at home later to clarify and reframe answers. She could be bat-her-big-eyes charming but also bristly, brittle, and defensive.

Because it was for a magazine, not a newspaper, she scolded us like an ex-girlfriend. “I thought you were going to be different!” she cried.

We talked to her in June, but space in the coffee table print magazine wouldn't allow for much of the interview. We'll be posting more, much more if she makes the November ballot (as widely expected) in the upcoming (Aug. 18) primary.

The Hutchison campaign has been able to control her media fairly well, to date. It's been a stream of press releases, and meet & greets- She's not been confronted with hard policy questions or real debate about the very knotty problems the County faces. She didn't return the questionnaire from the moving and shaking Downtown Seattle Association, certainly a potential ally for the conservative candidate.

She's made a mistake, though in alienating the local media: even the Seattle Times, a potential friend indeed, has had to fight tooth and nail for info and access.

Control slipped majorly Friday when court documents unsealed after action by the Times and others revealed that Hutchison lied to KIROTV bosses about being sick, then was spotted in Oregon on a canoe trip. She was fired a short time later after she had badmouthed the station's moral climate to the mother of  a prospective intern, and confronted the station's general manager about his allegedly inappropriate relationship with an intern. Here's the AP story.

Comments

[Mark C.]

I used to watch this woman try to cover election night. She obviously had no more knowledge of the subject of local or national politics or government than what was written on the prompter in front of her. To think she's now qualified to run this $billion budget and huge county government is laughable.

[Lon Cheney]

She's an info-babe gone bad.

[sms]

I think Michael shoold have asked her:

1. Who was Fred Hutchinson and dp you think his name gives you an unfaor advantage?

2. Will global warming increase the value of of my home on top of Capitol Hill if I build a waterfront doc now?

3. Is King County named after Rufus King, ML King, George III, or Elvis?

4. If we have county mandated prayer, will that bring snowfall to Stevens in time for next year's skiing?

5. Can you name 5 major musicians who began their carears in King County?

6. Should Bellevue be ranamed to something that sound less like a motel?"

7. Can you see Japan from the top of Mt. Rainier?

8. Do you think we should put a dome over Lake Washington so the bridges would no need to be replaced so often?

9. Should naming rights to Boeing filed (now that Boeing is gone) be sold to the highest bidder?

10. Is the name "Amazon" sexist?

11. Should the county encourage the term "Mery Christmas" as an official greeting?

12. Why do we need a county government?

[EvergreenRailfan]

sms, I think there are a few of the musicians that got their start here immortalized on a mural inside the lobby of the King County Courthouse. (It's been awhile since I have been in there, and it was not a happy occasion, dropping off some victim impact forms to the proper office of the King County Prosecutor, after I was mugged).

Now isn't not coming to work when your are scheduled, and lying about being sick to go out of town a firing offense in some places?

[AuthenticAndrew]

I'm noticing a trend - when Gray Davis was ousted all sorts of crazy porn stars and D list celebrities desperate for attention oozed up from the wood work to run for governor... And now Ron Simms is being whisked away to D.C. and theres this former anchor lady trying to claw her way into a vacated throne. I think she's trying to prove to everyone that she was more than a pretty face because yes her name is known around town but it's not on account of any community leadership.

It must be deeply troubling to say to one's self that I no longer earn $300k a year because I'm not attractive anymore, but, tough shit. Her griping about sexism tells me that she wasn't being realistic about the nature of the business and about what she contributed to the product. It should have occurred to her at some point that reading a teleprompter isn't a particularly special ability. It's all extremely sad but if she's that delusional about the world and where she fits in then I hope to God the good people see fit not to elect her. Don't put the county adminsitration through the drama.

P.S. I think Susan Hutchison was right to warn the intern's mother against interning at the station. I had a dealing with KIRO as a student in the late 90's and most of the people I met there strongly warned me against getting involved with TV news and they seemed genuinely unhappy with that lifestyle. I question the motivations of someone who recruits a skinny college student at a goddam sports game of all places.

[Puget Sound]

spot on with the PS, Andrew.

[Chasbo]

She was a "News Reader" for twenty years. Totally Qualified.

[sparky]

She was also named Harlequin Romance Books "Ideal Romance Woman" back in the 80s. I would like to know what the criteria was.

I thought the comments at the end article were interesting, Bla'm!

Friday night on the 11pm KIRO news, they did quite a long piece on this.

[Corporate Suit]

I like radio interns, but they're not as attractive as the ones in the TV business. But then again, neither am I. It's been a great career, getting-laid-wise.

[AuthenticAndrew]

From KIRO's story:

In a deposition, Hutchinson said proof of discrimination was that "The woman he hired to replace me is of a different race" and that "she doesn't have my experience."

I've also wondered why so many of the female anchorwoman are Asian-American with the emphasis on American, no trace of any sort of accent. At times KING 5 has had two Asian anchorwomen double teaming the desk.

I Googled it to see if I'm imagining things and apparently it's known in the business as the "Connie Chung phenomenon", and that they are even asked to look as much like Connie Chung as possible (so thaaaats what's going on). It speculates that white men like to have their news delivered by exotic women because it satiates some sort of sexual conquest fantasy http://books.google.com/books?id=Gqvl5KKiA04C&lpg=PA86&ots=B5zQToeTq1&dq=asian%20anchorwoman&pg=PA87#v=onepage&q=asian%20anchorwoman&f=false

I agree with Susan Hutchison's remark that Kristy Lee was "cold and detached", I also felt that as a viewer.

[Randy]

Hutchinson is a MILF. I always vote for good-looking women over most any man.

[Ron P.]

Is she married to that anti-gay preacher Ken Hutchison? She couldn't be called a bigot if that is the case. He is very black.

[Cyn]

If she supports a women's right to choose, she would says so since that is definitely the majority opinion in King County.
I could not help put someone, especially a woman, into a position of public responsibility who believes like that. County services help women make reproductive decisions every day. Knowing her stance on this is definitely relevant to the job.

[chucks]

She is married to a Para-Medic. I don't think that I have ever heard or seen anything that would lead me to believe that she is a bigot.

[AuthenticAndrew]

His name is Ken Hutcherson you fucking retard.

[KS]

I do not plan to vote for anyone who is running that is currently on the King County Council. Anyone else who is running with a chance is a possibility.

[KSR]

She can read a teleprompter, so can Obama

She can avoid direct answers, so can Sotomayor.

She's qualified for President or Supreme Court Justice, so this gig should be a breeze.

[AuthenticAndrew]

You're qualified to suck my balls.

[sparky]

I am so glad I don't live in King County.

[Tommy008]

Susan Hutchison is a bornagain Christian creep with a nasal midwestern accent. She's not a MILF by any means, except to those of the most plain vanilla boring taste. I've always vaguely disliked her from day one, and then finally knew the main reason why, when I found out that she was a fundamentalist Christian. She probably lets her hair down listening to Dr. James Dobson's radio program.

[Tigsnort]

She has that Stepford Wives look.

[oda231]

Tommy008 wrote:
I've always vaguely disliked her from day one, and then finally knew the main reason why, when I found out that she was a fundamentalist Christian

Your tolerance is commendable. A fundamentalist christian-what a disgusting, threatening person Susan must be.

Perhaps you & Coiler can get together and trade MILF websites like kids used to do with comics and baseball cards.

[Lukobe]

Huh. What do YOU think the answer to question #3 is?

[chucks]

Gee Tommy008, you do not like a woman that kept her personal religious preferences to herself for what, 20 years on the local TeeVee news because you found out she is a Christian.
How very Coilerish of you to let your bigotedness escape so freely.
Do you hate your grandparents for planting their butts in that pew every Sunday morning to.

[Coiler]

We know how she uses her sick days. And her snooping on co workers.

We don't know if she kept her religious preferences to herself since she said that KIRO was a Sodom and Gomorrah to a prospective employee.

[AuthenticAndrew]

I can appreciate some overlap in the stepford wife/christian cake baker stereotypes.

[where's waldo]

Charlie Royer and Norm Rice and Jim Compton used to be on TV too. I think she's much more competent than you guys allege. She has headed up local boards, and while those aren't government organizations, they involve lots of concensus and decision-making.

[sparky]

Solving the Riddle of Susan

[Tommy008]

Bornagain creep Hutchison called in sick in 2002 on 4th of July weekend after being told she could not have the days off. During her "sick day or days" time frame she was photographed rafting in Oregon. hmm Kind of liek the high bornagain Christian moral and ethical standards of the employer who hired a couple of us temp workers years ago and drove us around the South end to the job sites liberally exceeding the local speed limits while blasting bornagain Christian rock music to his captive audience through the car radio speakers. Or the jackass bornagain who formerly lived in our building. In June he moved to Everett and left us with his garbage- an ugly eyesore of a dillapidated camper truck, taking up precious Queen Anne parking space, that he refused to dispose of, despite repeated requests from us. Finally, after nearly two months, and faced with the city preparing to tow it away, he came down and removed it.

[AuthenticAndrew]

She has a pretty wide lead over the next candidate in line. Unless they can produce a fire storm of negative campaign material agaist her she will win on her celebrity.

If she does win however, you wonder if enough of her conservative politics or inexperience in action will make its way to surface to make voters realize what they've done and regret their mistake.

[Coiler]

Fred Thompson thought he was the shoe-in too, based on celebrity.

[AuthenticAndrew]

Fred Thomspson was known for playing stodgy bureaucrats, exempli gratia Jesse Ventura or Schwarzenegger were know for ripping the throats out of opponents and they fared well.

[sparky]

I am soooo glad I don't live in King County.