consider yourself lucky to live in a part of the country where Republicans have to hide their affiliation.

That said, out every last one of the bastids.

S.H. figures to survive the top-two primary, and then it's anybody's game - and she carries a decided advantage into the fund-raising contest.

She'll play on accumulated resentments over taxes and budgets and this and that (including the Old Kinda Politics), and she'll run on hope and change.

Yeah this sucks but what are we worried about? That we can't find a viable "nonpartisan Democrat" to run against her?

Why is nonpartisan in quotes? Is there a general public understanding of her as nonpartisan? Or, did the Seattle Times and PI, which ECB referenced yesterday, actually claim she was nonpartisan? Has anyone actually talked about her as nonpartisan in her political life?

Gay liberals are the only "nonpartisans" in Slog's world.

She's going down.

She can think we're descended from aliens for all I care, as long as she stops raising my property taxes to waste money teaching gang bangers how to play the lute.

Hound her until she leaves the county.

This is King county, not Bush county.

Erica,
Thanks for your remarks regarding Ms. Hutchinson. Fine that she is a Republican. I highly doubt any public office is "non-partisan". The King County Executive renders decisions and actions that affect our everyday lives. Some of those decisions we're not gonna like. I expect the office to be political. Two former King County Executives now serve in the Democratic Obama Administration. Let her run and see if she wins or loses. I have no problem with it. We'll find out more about her as the campaign rolls along.

@9,

Republicans pushed changing King County offices to "nonpartisan" precisely because they can't win countywide if they're honest about who they are.

So, yeah, identifying Republicans as such is indeed of great value to ensure that voters are fully informed about Republican candidates. Hutchinson is obviously aware of this, as she's trying to burnish her "bipartisan" credentials - but the donation numbers don't lie.

Or did you miss Dino Rossi's failed attempt to rebrand himself as "GOP" because he knew that identifying himself as a Republican was bad electoral news - even in a statewide race?

We need a new name for people who show such cowardice. Republicoward! Someone needs to ask this brain infection of a woman if she thinks dinosaurs roamed the earth with people.

Huckabee? Discovery Institute? Someone needs to ask her about the dinosaurs.

@11

But can someone please point to where Hutchison herself is burnishing her "nonpartisan" credentials? ECB hasn't. We are left to assume that Hutchison is keeping her Republican affiliations in the closet. Is she?

Also, as a technical question, as much as I disagree with leaving party affiliations off of the ballot, does that make the election nonpartisan or just tragically uniformed?

Some of the commenters here seem to be missing the point that, although she is a Republican, she is running as "non-partisan" because that's how the ballots will read. it belongs in quotes, because it's a lie.

I agree, people need to ask her about the dinosaurs. She's trying to represent a district whose economy is science-based to an unusually high degree, but she's an enemy of science.

So are you saying Phillips and Dow are not really running as Democrats and with that their traditional support base?

She is a republican -- who cares...

@9: The point of this post is good reporting. Now Erica's readers have a far better idea of who Susan H. is and where she stands. Which doesn't help Susan, I guess, but that's not Erica's job.

Damn. I had the biggest crush on her in high school too...

Well, at least she's consistent. My guess is that Seattle will realize it is the minority in King County come November. Sloggers might not like her associations but she has the most recognizable name and little political baggage.
Larry and Dow should play a round of Hold'em to decide who gets to carry the banner. If they let the primary decide it, it will be too late.
Bellevue was going to have a Sarah Palin fundraiser sooner or later anyway.

Anyone who contributed to the slimy GOPster Dingo Rossi should be forced to undergo a sanity check.

I like partisan Republicans; I also like partisan Democrats who make up the majority of my friends and family. I am a partisan Republican. I'm also gay. I like partisan folks because they have a backbone and tell it like it is - even if you don't agree with them.

Anybody who thinks she's getting through the primary is on crack -- yeah, YOU, RonK. She has handed us a golden opportunity -- the chance to expose the farce of these "nonpartisan" elections.

Both Dow and Larry are running as out and proud Democrats, and Fred Jarrett has been touting his new-found Democratic Party status the times I have seen him on the trail.

Hutchison will have to do the same for her rapidly dwindling Republican base -- they'll demand it of her -- or at least she'll have to tell the world that she is a "conservative," and we will kick her ass from one corner of the county to the next when she does.

It should be obvious to anyone with two brain cells to rub together that she is just flat unqualified to be County Executive -- far and away less so than David Irons was -- he had served on the County Council at least -- and we kicked his ass good and proper, didn't we?

She can raise all the money in the world. She's still nothing more than a bimbo who used to read the news on TV. People want competence, and she lacks it. EOD.

Dang I miss the print edition of the PI ...

Raindrop, I just have never understood how someone could be gay and a republican at the same time. Maybe 25 years ago - but now, with all of the partisan hatred that the gop and their cronies spout, not so much.

@16: are you stupid? Yes, the other candidates are Democrats. WE LIKE DEMOCRATS. Hutchinson is trying to trick people who support Democrats into supporting her even though she's a Republican. That's the whole reason they pushed this law.

now i wish i'd put cooties in her fur coat at an elton john concert in 1998. she was sitting in front of me.

Good reporting.

Ivan-

You need to cross the lake once in a while. Your prediction reads an aweful lot like the "Darcy is a shoe in this year because..."

Most voters don't analyze things to pieces and the tend gravitate to names they know. Also Hutchison has the most media experience. Lastly, I think the conservative are a lot more eager to regroup and their opponents are less likely to turn out without Obama at the top of the ballot.

I wouldn't vote for Susan's politics but, she does get points for making the election interesting/competitive.

I don't care if she's a Martian, she will get a lot of support if she comes out in favor of lowering property taxes.

@23: Your hatred of certain newspaper publishers is well-known, but what's with the glorification of what for much of its life was a pretty mediocre newspaper that Hearst treated as the poor stepchild? It's like going to a funeral for someone everyone knew was an asshole: suddenly people start talking him up like a hero.

Gotta beg to differ w/Ivan a bit on whether she'll make it through the primary. It's true that there are still a lot more D's than R's countywide, but with two prominent D's splitting the D primary vote Hutchinson's name recognition could well get her through the primary.

I think she'd still get clobbered in the general, though.