Susan Hutchison -- Washington State's Sarah Palin?

Next week in King County, Washington, "nonpartisan" Susan Hutchison will be vying with Democrat Dow Constantine for the role of County Executive. The seat controls significant resources in a region that often plays a leadership role in future oriented public policy. If King County were a state, its budget size would be 13th in the country. Economically, the county lives on cutting edge science, engineering and technology: Microsoft, Boeing, Amgen, Nintendo and a host of tech/biotech startups.

What national precedents is King County likely to be setting in the next go around? That depends in part on who sits in the executive seat. Constantine has track records in brokering anti-sprawl, sustainable development and historic preservation. He's a proponent of strong, innovative carbon policies. But who is the elusive Hutchison? Seattle Times reporter Danny Westneat called Susan Hutchison a sort-of-Republican. Erica Barnett at the Stranger called her a Republican Religious Wingnut. A member of her own party called her "our Sarah Palin." Is Susan Hutchison a Palin in the making? You be the judge.

In this post, Bill Alford at Moral Politics Television, Seattle, interviewed Dr. Valerie Tarico, author, activist and former evangelical about what she perceives behind the nonpartisan veil.

Is Susan Hutchison a stealth right-winger and closet fundamentalist, as some folks are saying?
Let's start with her political leanings. Hutchison is a solid triple R: Religious Right Republican. Since 2003, her political giving supported Mike Huckabee (over John McCain), George W. Bush and Dino Rossi. She spent $3000 trying to get Rossi into office. All of her political/religious affiliations are with what I would call effective, conservative or evangelical organizations with good PR. Calling herself "nonpartisan" is a smart posture, because King County majorities probably wouldn't vote for Susan Hutchison if they were clear on her political identity. And it works. In an early interview with Seattlepi.com reporter Neil Modie, Hutchison herself said, "Our polls showed that 10 percent of the people responding thought I was extremely liberal." Her team is working to sustain that confusion.

Solidly Repubican. How about fundamentalist?
Well that depends on what you mean by fundamentalist? If you use fundamentalist to mean strident, cut-off-from- the-world and fringe, then no. Hutchison is gracious and charming and obviously right in the swirl of the Seattle's fine arts community. If you mean a fundamentalist from a theological standpoint: the Bible is literally the perfect word of god, Jesus was born to a literal virgin, Jesus was a human sacrifice, people who don't believe that are going to be tortured forever. Yes. It would appear from Susan Hutchison's own words that she's a born-again fundamentalist who thinks that politicians should use their status to promote their religious beliefs. Hutchison gave the keynote at a prayer breakfast this spring. Here is a reading she chose, which was followed by her own born again testimony and exhortation for politicians to use their bully pulpit to promote their (Christian) religion.

"It was through what his son did that God cleared a path for everything to come to him all things in heaven and in hearth . . . for Christ's death on the Cross has made peace with God for all by his blood . . . He has done this through the death on the cross of his own human body . . . The only condition is that you fully believe the truth, believe the truth, standing in it and never shifting from trusting him to save you. This is the wonderful news that came to each of you and is now spreading throughout the world. Prayer Breakfast 1:02:35 to 1:04:40

Note the emphasis on blood sacrifice, belief and spreading the good news. This is a very evangelical choice, and she follows it with stories that reinforce the message. You can hear Hutchison's message at WTV, linked above through Barnett's article. Hutchison begins around 47 minutes into the breakfast.

What exactly is the part you quoted?
Well, what she was actually reading from is something called the Living Bible. It's not a translation, so you won't find it even at Evangelical sites like www.biblegateway.com that allow you to compare Bible translations side by side. Back in the 1970's a fundamentalist preacher and writer named Kenneth Taylor decided he wanted the Bible to be more accessible, so he wrote his own version, an admitted "paraphrase." That means he put in his own words what he thought God was trying to say. I can't resist quoting George Bernard Shaw here: No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says; he is always convinced that it says what he means.

Actually, it's not unusual for Biblical literalists to pick and choose what translations or paraphrases they use to make a point, as Hutchison has done. In The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren uses over 15 different translations, if I remember correctly. He chooses whichever translation best suits his point for different verses he cites.

Hutchison chose not only her Bible but her text fragments carefully. She left out some parts that might have been a bit jarring. For example, early in her message she emphasized that Jesus made: "the earthly world with its rulers and authorities, its Washington State government . . . " The words "Washington State government" replaced the words, "all were made by Christ for his own use and glory". His own use? His own glory? It sounds kind of ugly. So she put in something benign that doesn't jar listeners out of the narrative flow and in fact brings it closer to home. She is a wonderful evangelical speaker. Her message quality is on par with that of Joel Olsteen or Rick Warren. In a denomination that allowed women in the pulpit, she could draw a large congregation.

But wouldn't any real Christian be comfortable with those words she wrote? Wouldn't they agree with them?
Not necessarily. Many, many Christians would chose other words to represent their faith. Remember that for Susan Hutchison to read these words -- there are layers of filtering here. As more is known about the Bible through linguistic analysis and archeological discoveries, more and more Christian theologians don't think of the Bible as the literally perfect word of God. We know that some parts were copied from Akkadian and Sumerian texts, some parts were handed down through oral traditions. The Catholic councils that decided what got into the Bible and what didn't -- they didn't have access to the same quality of information we have now, and they were responding to a specific political context. Hutchison's reading is her edited selection of a paraphrase by Ken Taylor of The Book of Colossians. But who wrote Colossians? Scholars aren't so sure any more. You can get a glimpse of the dispute even on Wikipedia.

Hutchison chose this fragment of writing by a contested author paraphrased by a fundamentalist to fit her own beliefs about blood atonement and salvation -- and her evangelistic message to electeds. This is a fundamentalist evangelical choice. People hear that Hutchison attends a Presbyterian church and they assume that she is mainstream in her community and beliefs. What they don't know is that fundamentalism as a movement actually emerged out of the Presbyterian seminaries in the early Twentieth Century, and Presbyterian churches vary widely in terms of where they fall on the continuum. Hutchison's church is not middle of the road for Presbyterians in this region. It is fairly middle of the road for evangelical churches. During the prayer breakfast message, Hutchison made another move that reflects both fundamentalist theology and her personality: She very graciously but clearly used evangelical language to dismiss other forms of Christianity.

What do you mean?
Well, part of the talk is a classic evangelical "testimony." This is a stock form of proselytizing in which the speaker shares their own born again experience. She talks about how she was raised in Christianity, knew the Bible but she wasn't a real Christian until she realized she needed a "more personal faith" and had this "thing happen to her." The word personal -- personal relationship with Jesus, personal salvation and so on -- it's a big word in Evangelical circles. She emphasizes salvation by belief in blood atonement. She repeats it several times. This is a way that Protestants, particularly Evangelicals differentiate themselves from Catholics, who believe that salvation comes through both faith and works. The message is that you are not really a Christian until you have this personal relationship, and salvation is about belief.

The real question here is: What are the implications for her likely priorities in public office?
What is the old saying? We are known by the company we keep. That is actually reasonable folk wisdom. James Wellman, University of Washington sociologist likes to say that, "Our sense of reality is socially constructed." It makes sense to assume that Hutchison's priorities are shaped by her expressed values and her associations, just like the rest of us. So, independent of her work for the Simonyi Foundation, who does Hutchison hang out with?

Her prayer breakfast talk was hosted by an organization called Washington Leadership. Their tag line is: A place where state and community leaders can come together with emerging leaders around the person of Jesus. I might expect Hutchison to be a bit fuzzy on church/state separation issues, because the evangelical mandate as I know it, and as she manifested it in her prayer breakfast talk, trumps separation. Hutchison appears to place a strong value on leveraging public exposure to spread her version of Christianity. Hutchison is on the board of Young Life international, which fits perfectly. It is a fun, smart evangelical organization that seeks to convert teenagers and get teenagers to convert each other to this fundamentalist theology we heard her reading.

Until she began her run for office, she also was on the board of the Discovery Institute, which gets evangelical funding to undermine secular "materialist" science education and replace it with a sophisticated version of creationism called Intelligent Design. They claim ID is science, but even the Templeton Foundation, an organization that funds the intersection between faith and science disagrees and won't give them money. I find it dismaying that Hutchison has been around the caliber of scientists she claims to have encountered through her work at Simonyi without developing a deeper understanding of the scientific method and why it works so well.

Hutchison spoke this month at a conservative think tank, the Washington Policy Institute that espouses free market fundamentalism and right now is promoting a film trying to deny climate science and dissuade climate action. So again you see this inclination toward undermining the scientific enterprise -- in the WPI case with an eye toward economic policy. In my mind the connection between free market fundamentalism and Christian fundamentalism is an orientation toward ideology (ie. strong narrative filters that screen out contradictory information) and perhaps consequently a weakened ability to run a recalculation on early assumptions and decisions.

Any final thoughts?
I look at Susan Hutchison, and as a former evangelical I see a woman on a mission, in that sense much like Sarah Palin, but without the weird exorcism of witches stuff. Hutchison's evangelical associations have steered her in a very specific political direction: She gave money to evangelical Republican Mike Huckabee over John McCain. She refuses to answer questions about reproductive rights. Heck, she even refuses to tell people that she's a Republican. While working for Charles Simonyi and giving away his money, she has had plenty of opportunity to become more sophisticated about the scientific method and data based decisions -- but instead I worry that she has become better at clinging to an ideology in the face of evidence to the contrary. I personally prefer having someone in the King County Exec office who bases their policy decisions on data and who is on a mission to serve the people of King County.

 

 

Follow Valerie Tarico on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ValerieTarico

Comments

[CWSusan]

Sorry Valerie, I must disagree with your take on Susan Hutchison. I've known her for many years. I've worked with her, served on boards with her and interacted with her countless times. I am a card-carrying democrat . . . and have had many political discussions with Susan. The TRUTH is she is nonpartisan which is evidenced by the many Republicans and Democrats who support her in this race. She is a woman of great integrity, talent and skills. She has supported the Greater Seattle Area and King County throughout her years as a resident.

I consider your "opinions" a disservice to everyone who reads your article as it paints an untrue picture of Susan Hutchison. I am not involved in this race as I no longer live in King County. However, I couldn't stand by and let this article go unchallenged. For anyone who really knows Susan Hutchison, they would never portray her as you have, whether they describe her political or religious beliefs.

[mudkitten]

Great headline and good info about the religious right connections, but there are many other similarities between Hutchinson and Palin. She completely lacks experience or preparation for the job. She has a BA in journalism and nothing further for education. She has zip, zero, nada for business experience, and no, I don't count a few years or months of fund raising for the local symphony as business experience or certainly not what is needed for this position. Like Palin, she apparently has coasted through life on her looks and seems not to 'play well' with others given the ugly way she left her TV station. She has been really snarky and aggresive in the few debates and forums she has deigned to show up for. She is trouble, mark my words, on the scale of Palin, and if she wins, we will be sorry.

[blisster]

Valerie, why is the local media, not all over this, exposing her for the social and intellectual threat she obviously would be if elected?

[littlepuffycloud]

Until last Dec, Hutchison was an anchor since 1981 for KIRO, a local CBS affiliate tv station. She has sued them for age discrimination; saying they fired her. They say she quit because she didn't like the changes they made in which her face time was reduced. Everyone in Seattle area knows she is a repube and on the evangelical side of things. I don't think she has a chance of winning this election. Her ads have been attack ads and just look at her. Perfectly coifed hair and she always wears red and does not identify herself with dems or repubes.

[Bademus]

She sued them for age and race discrimination. From the Seattle Times:

"Hutchison's lawsuit alleged race and age discrimination because she was replaced as an evening-news anchor by a younger, Asian-American woman. Hutchison and KIRO settled the suit in 2005, agreeing to keep details confidential."

Race discrimination? She's a scary one.

[sarrab]

bring back john edwards

[Mriana]

It would seem no state is without their snakes. Too bad they are the harmless garden variety.

[Mriana]

That was suppose to be "Too bad they aren't the harmless garden variety". I can't type tonight.

[Valerie Tarico - Huffpost Blogger]

it happens to the bost of us ;)

[Hammerofthor]

Although there can be only one unique, incomparable Sarah Palin, Susan Hutchison does sound like a remarkable woman, and a great candidate.

[JohnFromCensornati]

Hmm. I'm not buying. Is that you GodIs?

[DannyNoonan]

In a County that supported President Obama with 70% of the vote, there is no reason a stealth far right wing republican should be even close in this race. This is huge for the GOP with the possibility to get a (staunch) Republican into second highest office in one of the liberal-est states in the Union. I know I will be cutting a check to the Constantine campaign to ensure that this disaster of Palin proportions isn't any where near a position of power.

http://www.dowconstantine.com/index.php

[Valerie Tarico - Huffpost Blogger]

Latest polls have her up by 5. http://www.king5.com/news/specials/politics/stories/NW_101309POB-king-county-executive-poll-TP.212ae01d6.html. Hopefully the most uninformed 5% won't bother voting?

[mudkitten]

If I recall correctly, that would mean that Constintine has gained on her quite a bit. Good.

[islanddreamer]

Thanks Valerie for this illuminating article. I would hope King County voters are sophisticated enough to avoid being taken by this pit bull in sheep's clothing. You might think about submitting this to the Seattle PI.

[Valerie Tarico - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you! I don't think the PI will take an article that isn't an exclusive. We'll have to rely on it getting to Seattle voters via the viral internet. So please tweet and link and post on facebook and forward to your apolitical friends in the Emerald City.

[Bruce Wilson - Huffpost Blogger]

Valerie - I have strong suspicions about this church, based on a moderately detailed assessment. My call would be that UPC is concealing its real ideological core. UPC's current pastor hails from Bel Air Presbyterian Church, which in its "Daily Christian Living" resources website section links to Focus on The Family, Chuck Colson's BreakPoint, and the Alpha Course. This indicates affinity with the hard Christian right.

The edges of UPC are far smoother than those of Sarah Palin's key church, the Wasilla Assembly of God. But, my guess is this is in part a question of style vs. substance. I don't ever recall seeing a link, on a church website, to AD2000 and Beyond. UPC's site has such a link. AD2000 and Beyond is the creation of C. Peter Wagner and his cohorts (it's a continuation of the Lausanne process) and, yes, they hunt witches and cast out demons. Or, at least, they say they do.

By the way, if you don't know what I'm talking about, here's a link to a great deal of the Palin / New Apostolic Reformation writing I did, with a co-researcher, in late 2008 (I haven't updated the section with my latest pieces, but it might help) :

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/9/5/114652/6239

Best, Bruce Wilson

[JohnFromCensornati]

The Republican brand has been so completely damaged that many are now identifying as "independent" because they're ashamed. As always, the GOP is good at false impressions.

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!

[Valerie Tarico - Huffpost Blogger]

Here in King County, bastion of liberalism, it's just smart tactics. Even the calvinist mega churches have a liberal veneer: tight jeans, piercings and tattoos in the audience; rock bands on stage; environmental activism . . .

[JohnFromCensornati]

It's all so creepy.
Your comment did make me think about my parents (and many in their generation). They were always uptight about appearances. They would have been scandalized by people coming to church and "carrying on" like that. Disrespecting God by wearing jeans to church? I don't think so. After my father died, my mother moved from church to church as they "liberalized". Not that she was especially conservative, but she wanted church to be boring & routine. lol.

[demofem]

Valerie--Do we know who is funding all of this? Who would be pulling the strings and setting the agenda if she got elected?

[suz1941]

Whatever happened to separation of church and state? It's clear that this woman has her own agenda and all decisions are based on a religious leaning. Please Washington don't make the same mistake that Alaska did with Palin, Minnesota with Bachmann. Being from Arkansas, I could write pages about our former evangelical governor, Mike Huckabee. Campaign hard again Susan Hutchison. We need elected officials who want to advance all the people of their state and their country.

[Valerie Tarico - Huffpost Blogger]

Hutchison apparently spent $500 on the Huckabee race and is currently being assisted by his former campaign staff.