Republican Susan Hutchison has been trying to hide her far-right ideology since she began campaigning for King County Executive, even denying giving large contributions to Republicans (such as the $2,075 to Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi). She repeatedly tells the story that she's nonpartisan—because she's technically running for a nonpartisan office—but Neil Modie shoots down that canard in today's PI.

In late 2005 and early 2006, the former KIRO TV news anchor traveled the state, ardently wooing state and local GOP leaders to seek their backing for what she hoped would be her campaign for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate.

In the end, she chose not to run, perhaps for multiple reasons. For one thing, many party officials felt she wasn't qualified to seek the office. For another, most GOP leaders and money had already lined up behind the far better-credentialed Mike McGavick, who became the nominee but lost to Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell.

That aborted non-candidacy was one of numerous occasions on which Hutchison, now running for the now nonpartisan office of King County executive, demonstrated her partisan Republican ties.

Yet in a TV interview over the weekend, Hutchison insisted once again, as she has on other occasions, that she has never been affiliated with a political party. This time it was on KING-5's "Up Front" program, which aired Sunday.

When asked whether she is a Republican, Hutchison replied, "You know, it's interesting how this issue keeps raising its head because this is a nonpartisan race, and I'm running because I'm a nonpartisan. I've never affiliated with a party; you know we don't register (to vote by party) in this state."

That brought a guffaw Monday from an influential Republican Party leader, who attended GOP meetings at which Hutchison sought party endorsements for her hoped-for Senate campaign in 2006. The official requested anonymity.

"She wanted to run and she was very partisan, and for her to say she is a nonpartisan is just ridiculous," the party leader said.

The full story is here.