Susan Hutchison: No Answers, Lots of Questions

On March 6, Susan Hutchison stepped up to the podium at the Red Lion Hotel in Olympia to speak at the annual prayer breakfast convened by the governor. It was a rare public appearance for the former KIRO-TV news anchor, who announced her candidacy for King County Executive on April 8--and a memorable one. Much of her talk centered on Richard Dawkins, the renowned English biologist and author. And some of it, if Dawkins is to be believed, was made up.

"This is the age of the activist atheists," said Hutchison, wearing a cardinal suit, pearls, and an ever-so-gracious demeanor that nonetheless dripped with irony. She pointed to Dawkins' book, The God Delusion. "As fate would have it, as the Brits like to say, Dawkins and I have been brought together with one degree of separation. Until recently, Richard Dawkins held the Oxford University Chair for the Public Understanding of Science, which is funded by Charles Simonyi. Long before I came into the picture, Charles gave that donation to Oxford." (Hutchison has served as executive director of the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences since its inception in 2004. Simonyi, a Microsoft billionaire, has in recent years become a philanthropist and space tourist who has twice paid tens of millions of dollars to travel with Russian and American astronauts.)

"I said to myself, 'I need to meet this guy,'" Hutchison recounted at the breakfast, referring to Dawkins. "And indeed I did." She then described engineering an opportunity to sit next to Dawkins at a Windsor Castle dinner, whereupon Hutchison confronted him with her religious beliefs, such as her desire for a "personal faith" that listens to God through the words of Jesus.

"At which point, Dawkins becomes unglued," Hutchison told the Red Lion crowd. She then quoted the scientist in a faux-British accent: "'You started out so beautiful, so universal, so lovely. And then you became so tawdry, so parochial, so base, when you said the word Jesus.'"

According to Hutchison, she then took Dawkins' face in her hands as you would a child's, stressed their Simonyi connection, and told him they would get along. By the end of the evening, things took an amiable turn; on a subsequent encounter, he apologized for monopolizing her time, telling her how much he enjoyed her company. By drawing this famous atheist to a religious person like herself, Hutchison concluded: "God has done a work with Richard Dawkins and me."

Dawkins, however, remembers their encounter differently. "It is true we had an argument, which was actually, at least for a short time, more acrimonious than she says. But it was not about Jesus," he claims. "I do not believe she ever mentioned Jesus or her religious beliefs during the whole dinner. I am sure I would have remembered that, because I would have been so flabbergasted at the idea of Charles Simonyi appointing a religious nut to manage his foundation. What I remember with the utmost clarity was that our argument was about George W. Bush. She told me that she voted for Bush, and I was utterly shocked."

Nevertheless, he says they reconciled and had several warm meetings afterward, at none of which, says Dawkins, did Hutchison "give me even the tiniest indication that she was religious."

Hutchison did not make herself available for an interview with SW despite numerous requests over a period of two weeks. Asked about the discrepancy, Hutchison's campaign manager, Jordan McCarren, says only that the candidate and Dawkins are "friends"—but offers no explanation.

It all adds to the mystery about Hutchison, who since declaring her candidacy has disappeared from public view. She has not attended several candidate forums, including one put on by the Alki Foundation in May. (McCarren says Hutchison just agreed to attend a June 25 forum organized by the Snoqualmie Valley Chamber of Commerce). And she has not granted media interviews.

"I don't know why [her handlers] are keeping her under wraps," says public-affairs consultant Rollin Fatland, who has worked for both Republicans and Democrats. "My guess is that they just decided that with her name familiarity, she is going to make it through the primary. Why risk it? They don't want her to have her Katie Couric moment too early." (Couric famously interviewed another political novice, Sarah Palin, and the results caused endless mockery.) Hutchison isn't even revealing her party affiliation; she doesn't have to, since the race has newly become nonpartisan.

McCarren balks when asked if she is a Republican, saying instead that she is an "independent thinker." But all signs point to her being in line with the GOP. She openly flirted with running as a Republican against U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell in 2006, and has donated virtually exclusively to GOP politicians, including Bush, onetime presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, and gubernatorial hopeful Dino Rossi. And former KIRO colleagues say she was known as a conservative—something that stood out in the mostly liberal milieu of the newsroom.

She stood out in other ways as well.

KIRO executive Lloyd Cooney was on vacation in Hawaii when he spotted Hutchison working as a sportscaster at KITV in Honolulu. He told KIRO president Ken Hatch about her, and he looked for her when he vacationed there.