When Dow Constantine held a press conference at the Seattle Labor Temple on June 10, he didn't spend any time talking about his policies or ideology. Neither did he offer the sort of feel-good sound bites typical of other candidates in the race for King County executive. Instead, he rolled out an electoral gamble.

He slammed his opponent.

Constantine, currently a King County Council member and running third in the executive race, used the occasion to push the right-wing record of frontrunner Susan Hutchison into the mainstream press. "She is... an extremely conservative Republican whose views are out of step with King County voters," he told a room full of reporters. "I think she is desperately trying to hide her partisan identity."

It's a gutsy move that could backfire—or catapult him through the primary and into victory in the general election.

Under new, voter-approved rules that she campaigned for, Hutchison, a former local newscaster, isn't required to disclose her party affiliation. She's taking full advantage of the situation, offering King County's overwhelmingly Democratic electorate little chance to learn about her positions and apparently trying to coast to victory on a combination of name recognition and the gauzy good feelings that people tend to have about evening newscasters.

The Seattle Times reported on June 10 that ever since she announced her candidacy, Hutchison had refused to schedule an interview with the newspaper (she granted an interview after Constantine's press conference). Until June 11, she'd also skipped every available candidate forum.

Hutchison has good reason to cloak her true politics. She served as a board member for the creationist-theory-backing Discovery Institute, and in 2005, she considered running for U.S. Senate as a Republican. Since 2003, she's donated over $10,000 to Republican candidates, including Dave Reichert, Dino Rossi, and George W. Bush. And her own campaign manager, Jordan McCarren, worked on Republican Mike Huckabee's presidential bid.

Despite credentials that should be unpopular in overwhelmingly Democratic King County, Hutchison is the breakaway favorite for county executive. She led a KING 5 TV poll released on June 5 with 34 percent support from voters in the eight-way race. Larry Phillips, another county council member running for executive, had 9 percent support—which put him in second place. (Constantine was in third place with only 8 percent support.)

"In any low-turnout primary [election], name recognition is everything," says Andrew Thibault, a principal of EMC Research, a polling firm working for Constantine's campaign. It seems Constantine's plan is to increase his own name recognition by generating media coverage, which could move him ahead of Phillips and past the primary election, while also chiseling away at Hutchison's support from the outset of her campaign.

It's a brilliant and ballsy maneuver, but the strategy—while good generally for Democrats and bad for Hutchison—has a potential downside. "In making personal attacks, there is a risk it could backfire," says Thibault.

Christian Sinderman, a consultant for Constantine, cites an example in 2007, when former city council member David Della sent mailers arguing that challenger Tim Burgess "supports the right's agenda." Voters elected Burgess by a 30-point margin.

"If you are attacking on issues and positions, that is fair game," says Thibault. "And I think voters see it that way." However, Hutchison is doing all she can to cast Constantine's attacks as personal smears.

She issued a response to Constantine saying: "It's disappointing my opponent has decided to attack me with outright lies." McCarren, her campaign manager, explains: "The lie is that Susan Hutchison is a partisan candidate. She is not a Republican."

Asked to explain how her conservative associations don't make clear that she is a Republican, he said: "She is independent. It really depends on the issues." But he couldn't name any of her issues—even when pressed for examples of how Hutchison would overhaul the county budget (as per the platform stated on her website) or when offered opportunities to state her position on women's reproductive health, needle exchange, LGBT rights, or anything at all. Instead, McCarren said the public would find out in the coming weeks. "Y'all will just have to stay tuned."