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News & ArtsWednesday, July 1, 2009
Politics Democrats Crash Hutchison's Press Conference
Posted by Dominic Holden on Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 4:50 PM
I know everyone else on earth has already written about Republican Susan Hutchison’s press conference this afternoon—a rare sighting of the King County Executive candidate—but I’ve been drinking Manhattans until just a few minutes ago.
Hutchison summoned cameras and reporters to the unlikeliest of locations for an unamplified speech: the corner of 3rd Avenue and University Street, AKA, the loudest bus corridor in all of Seattle. Every time she would begin a sentence, a bus—or two or three or more buses—would roar past, drowning her out. Here’s an example of my notes: When asked to clarify her plans to trim staff in the executive’s office, she said, “There are about 30 in the executive office, but I can’t tell you how many of those [BUS!!!].” One assumes she was explaining that she didn’t know how many staffers she would cut. But who knows? The location was an ideal metaphor for Hutchison’s campaign, which has attempted to obfuscate her right-wing leanings, hide from the public, and, when she does show up at public forums, avoid speaking as much as possible. Today, she finally announced her grand plans for fixing King County’s budget problems—and she picked the one place in Seattle where you couldn’t hear her.
Hutchison led her manifesto by talking about a state audit released last week that found the county lacked adequate mechanisms for accountability, tracking construction projects, and managing revenue. The news is so old, in campaign timelines, that it may as well have been etched into tablets. She wants the county to increase reporting and beef up the county auditor’s role. By repairing inefficiencies in government, Hutchison posits, we would reconcile the county’s massive shortfall of the general fund—over $50 million next year. When asked if that was enough—if this would require cutting human services or raising the sales tax—she took a defensive tone and suggested a public vote on a human services tax levy. This is the same sort of pennywise-pound-foolish, right-wing thinking that the county has long dismissed. Voters probably don’t want to pay extra on health care and other services for the poor, if you ask them. But providing preventative care and housing up front avoids exorbitant payouts for emergency services down the road.
Democratic candidates for King County Executive Larry Phillips and Dow Constantine showed up at the press conference, too. “I’m not in the habit of attending other candidate’s press conferences,” said Phillips. “But Susan won’t come out and debate the issues.” She has skipped the previous nights environmental forum, which she explained by saying she had “personal commitments.” She also denied that giving thousands of dollars to Republican candidates (such as the $2,075 to Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi) in years past indicated she is a Republican. “I’ve never given huge sums to candidates,” she insisted.
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Face it Susan, your extremist America-hating Republican ways just don't fit with King County.
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Check out her association with Charles Simonyi and her work for children's charities.
http://www.simonyifund.org/susanhutchiso…
Clearly, out of the mainstream...
Larry Phillips has a clear record of fighting for what is important for King County voters, and has proven that over the last 17 years. He knows what problems we face and how to tackle them. Whether it be the budget, our transit system, the environment, or disaster preparedness, Larry has what it takes to get the job done.
Make the right choice this election. Be responsible. Vote for Larry Phillips for King County Executive
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Furthermore, she can now make the claim that she DID in fact present her platform, and if any reporter says she didn't address a particular issue, or refused to answer a specific question, she can respond, "they're misquoting what I said!" or "I DID answer the question" and then blame the misquote or lack of quote entirely on those horrible, noisy buses she had absolutely NO IDEA would be charging down Third Avenue at rush hour.
I think you should hire a professional lip reader to review any available video footage of her press conference, just to make certain she didn't go, "And on the topic of health care for the poor, I am firmly committed to - blah, blah, blah, blah..." everytime one of those buses drowned her out.
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That would make this all very interesting.
i want to have a little hope that stories like this are getting out there, but am i just being naive?
Bad, bad idea. males do not treat males that way.
Erica, where are you?
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She has a "commanding lead" in the polls right now with 34% (according to the latest SurveyUSA numbers) because she's a lone conservative running against four known liberals who are all splitting that vote, along with the roughly 39% of voters who haven't made up their minds yet, but who will, in all likelihood, vote for whichever of those four makes it to the general election this fall.
In other words, it's very UNlikely any but a small number of those undecideds are going to swing her way, so you can figure she's going to lose by about 20 points come November.
Name recognition will only get you so far in this race, especially when you can't articulate a platform beyond vague, generic platitudes.
For Christmas in July, I hope my present is that all of the Stranger's writers will either take their craft seriously or go back to writing for their school paper and/or hipster blog.
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What other important job would be better done by someone without any training for that job? Doctor, lawyer, teacher, carpenter, bus driver? Just because any failed fashion model can become a TV news anchor doesn't mean that all professions are like that.
Spouting the same tired lines of "we can meet the budget if we just cut waste" may appeal to the unthinking minority, but if you take more than a passing glance, you'll probably find that budget gaps happen largely because of underpaid taxes & fees. Nickels killed the city with the December snow debacle, and with it a huge amount of tax & fee revenue. A LOT of KC's money comes from Seattle, and its economy froze to death last winter. Cutting services to the point of turning the city into a thoroughly unsafe & unwelcome place will not turn things around.
Dom failed to mention her stance that she won't take money from unions, but will take it from corporations. Do we need any more clues about this clueless & retired barbie doll?
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