Former TV anchor Susan Hutchison wants Sims' job

Former KIRO-TV news anchor Susan Hutchison shook up the race for King County executive Wednesday, announcing her first run for public office with an anti-tax message.

With three Democrats already in the race, Hutchison brings to the campaign a history of supporting Republican candidates — and the name recognition that comes with more than 20 years at the anchor desk.

"I don't like new taxes, and I think it's a very good idea to examine all other creative ways to balance our budget. People in this region pay a lot of tax, and they don't want more taxes," Hutchison said.

She said taxes "should not be the first line of defense" when trying to close a $50 million gap in the general fund, but declined to say whether she would oppose new taxes if they were needed to keep sheriff's deputies on the street.

Hutchison, 55, joins a field of candidates that so far includes Metropolitan King County Councilmembers Dow Constantine and Larry Phillips and state Sen. Fred Jarrett, D-Mercer Island.

Voters last year made the county executive post a nonpartisan office, but that hasn't eliminated party politics.

"This is why the Republicans ran the initiative to make it a nonpartisan office — to sneak a right-winger like Susan Hutchison past the voters of King County," said state Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz.

Republican political consultant Todd Myers said Hutchison will benefit from being the only woman in the race.

" ... the only way that the three Democrats have distinguished themselves is by working in bureaucracy in government. If you think that we need more bureaucracy in government, one of those three is your best bet."

Jockeying for the executive post was touched off when President Obama announced in February that he would nominate King County Executive Ron Sims for deputy secretary of housing and urban development.

Sims plans to resign as executive after his appointment is confirmed by the Senate — something his office doesn't expect to happen before late April or early May.

Hutchison was fired as KIRO anchor in 2002, after which she sued the station, claiming age and race discrimination.

The case was settled in 2005. She declined to discuss the terms of the settlement.

Since 2003, she has been executive director of the $100 million Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences, which has supported schools, libraries, museums and other institutions.

She chairs the Seattle Symphony board of directors and sits on the boards of several other nonprofit organizations.

Hutchison also has served on the board of the Discovery Institute, a Seattle think tank best known for promoting intelligent design, which challenges the Darwinian theory of evolution.

Opponents of intelligent design have branded it creationism in disguise — a description advocates reject.

Discovery Institute President Bruce Chapman said Hutchison left the board several years ago.

Hutchison said the debate over intelligent design "has absolutely nothing to do with the King County executive race. ... What I believe in is good science. I will stand by good science any day," she said. "I can't run an institution that funds arts and science without standing behind good science."

Hutchison said the Simonyi Fund supported the Burke Museum's 2005 exhibit "The Burgess Shale: Evolution's Big Bang" and that Simonyi personally endowed an Oxford university chair that at one time was occupied by Darwinian evolutionist Richard Dawkins.

She said she has become a friend of Dawkins'.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com

Information in this article, originally published April 9, 2009, was corrected April 9, 2009. A previous version of this story incorrectly identified state Sen. Fred Jarrett as Rep. Fred Jarrett.