Susan Hutchison’s absurd bashing of Maria Cantwell shows how Trumplike she’s become

Nine years ago, when Susan Hutchi­son was run­ning for King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive, she did her best to por­tray her­self as a rea­son­able Repub­li­can capa­ble of gov­ern­ing Wash­ing­ton’s largest juris­dic­tion. Notably, the for­mer KIRO 7 anchor took posi­tions oppos­ing Tim Eyman’s job-killing I‑1033 and sup­port­ing an “Approve” vote on the state’s every­thing-but-mar­riage law, which expand­ed civ­il unions.

She did­n’t win, but she cer­tain­ly made an effort to pitch her­self to Demo­c­ra­t­ic-lean­ing and bicon­cep­tu­al vot­ers dur­ing that cam­paign, even secur­ing the endorse­ments of Demo­c­ra­t­ic office­hold­ers Brad Owen and Bri­an Sonntag.

Since being rout­ed by cur­rent King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Dow Con­stan­tine (who won a third term last autumn with token oppo­si­tion), Hutchi­son has dropped any pre­tense of being a rea­son­able, respectable, lik­able Repub­li­can in the mold of Dan Evans or John Spell­man. As the Chair of the Wash­ing­ton State Repub­li­can Par­ty, she ful­ly embraced Don­ald Trump’s racist, xeno­pho­bic can­di­da­cy, even lash­ing out at Ted Cruz when he balked at falling in line dur­ing the RNC in 2016.

Now, three months after turn­ing over the chair­man­ship to her deputy Caleb Heim­lich, Hutchi­son has stepped back into the spot­light as a can­di­date for the Unit­ed States Sen­ate against Demo­c­ra­t­ic incum­bent Maria Cantwell. With less than two hours to go before the close of fil­ing, Hutchi­son jumped into the race, eas­i­ly becom­ing the most rec­og­niz­able Repub­li­can in the thir­ty can­di­date field.

Although she did not both­er to put up a web­site or even a tweet announc­ing her can­di­da­cy, she prompt­ly grant­ed inter­views to The Seat­tle Times and KING 5 News, in which she harsh­ly bashed Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell while neglect­ing to lay out any pol­i­cy posi­tions or pri­or­i­ties for the coun­try. As report­ed by Jim Brun­ner:

“I have just been watch­ing the sit­u­a­tion and I think that a sit­ting sen­a­tor who is known for doing noth­ing for us does not deserve a fourth term,” Hutchi­son said in an inter­view. “She is a fake sen­a­tor. She is a ghost in the state and in the Senate.”

Hutchi­son called Cantwell “a leader of the left-wing elite that are destroy­ing our state,” tying her to lib­er­al Seat­tle pol­i­tics, such as the city’s recent­ly passed “head tax” on larg­er businesses.

Asked about what fed­er­al issues she dis­agreed with Cantwell on, Hutchi­son returned again to Seat­tle pol­i­tics, say­ing, “Seat­tle is a sym­bol of the left-wing elite” and that she would put out issue papers on “a lot of dif­fer­ent subjects.”

It’s pret­ty evi­dent from this inter­view and the KING5 inter­view that Hutchi­son intends to be a can­di­date in the mold of Don­ald Trump, her idol. That means we can expect a cam­paign con­sist­ing of out­ra­geous lies and deroga­to­ry insults.

That is not the kind of cam­paign that Wash­ing­to­ni­ans expect or deserve.

Hutchison’s open­ing attacks on Cantwell are not only demon­stra­bly false, but laugh­ably incon­sis­tent. How can Cantwell be “destroy­ing our state” if she is a “fake” and a “ghost” who is “doing noth­ing for us” — as Hutchi­son also says?

It appears that Hutchi­son now aspires to do what Trump did — get elect­ed to high office despite nev­er pre­vi­ous­ly hav­ing held office using blus­ter, brava­do, and innu­en­do. But Don­ald Trump did not win in Wash­ing­ton in 2016, nor did the Repub­li­can Par­ty’s can­di­dates for gov­er­nor or U.S. Sen­a­tor, despite Hutchison’s claims that Repub­li­cans would be com­pet­i­tive in the state.

And last year, under Hutchi­son, the Wash­ing­ton State Repub­li­can Par­ty lost big again when Demo­c­ra­t­ic ris­ing star Man­ka Dhin­gra hand­i­ly defeat­ed Jiny­oung Lee Englund in the 45th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict, destroy­ing a five-year Repub­li­can major­i­ty in the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate. With­in weeks of that loss, Hutchi­son had resigned her post. Now she’s sign­ing up for anoth­er fight she seems des­tined to lose.

If Hutchi­son tru­ly believes that Maria Cantwell is a fake and a ghost who has­n’t done any­thing for Wash­ing­ton State, then she is an igno­ra­mus. I know of few elect­ed lead­ers who work hard­er for their con­stituents than Maria Cantwell. She is com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing excel­lent rep­re­sen­ta­tion for every com­mu­ni­ty in Wash­ing­ton, and she proves it every day through her actions.

It is Sen­a­tor Cantwell that we have to thank for the con­struc­tion of a new coastal radar on Lan­g­ley Hill near West­port in Grays Har­bor Coun­ty, which has been a mas­sive boon to weath­er fore­cast­ing in Wash­ing­ton State.

It is Sen­a­tor Cantwell we have to thank for get­ting more bomb-sniff­ing dog teams in place at Seat­tle-Taco­ma Inter­na­tion­al Air­port, which is rapid­ly becom­ing one of the nation’s busiest air­ports, to cut down on secu­ri­ty check­point wait times.

It is Sen­a­tor Cantwell we have to thank for the intro­duc­tion of the Com­pre­hen­sive Addic­tion Reform, Edu­ca­tion, and Safe­ty (CARES) Act, which her office says would hold opi­oid man­u­fac­tur­ers account­able for aggres­sive and mis­lead­ing adver­tis­ing, neg­li­gent dis­tri­b­u­tion prac­tices. The bill has been endorsed by thir­ty-nine Attor­neys Gen­er­al, includ­ing Repub­li­cans as well as Democrats.

It is Sen­a­tor Cantwell we have to thank for the pas­sage of S. 346, the Nation­al Vol­cano Ear­ly Warn­ing and Mon­i­tor­ing Sys­tem Act, which she cospon­sored. Cantwell says the bill — prime spon­sored by Lisa Murkows­ki of Alas­ka and cospon­sored by Mazie Hirono of Hawaii — will improve the nation’s vol­cano mon­i­tor­ing and ear­ly warn­ing capa­bil­i­ties and strength­en exist­ing mon­i­tor­ing sys­tems, includ­ing the Cas­cades Vol­cano Obser­va­to­ry in Wash­ing­ton and Oregon.

It is Sen­a­tor Cantwell that we have to thank for the down­fall of SOPA and PIPA, two hor­ri­ble anti-Inter­net bills that the MPAA was try­ing to jam through Con­gress sev­er­al years ago. Along with Ron Wyden of Ore­gon, Cantwell was among the first to declare her oppo­si­tion to the infa­mous afore­men­tioned bills that led to an unprece­dent­ed black­out by major web­sites in Jan­u­ary of 2012.

It is Sen­a­tor Cantwell that we have to thank for the Sen­ate’s recent vote in favor of Net Neu­tral­i­ty. Cantwell, a rec­og­nized expert and leader on tech­nol­o­gy issues, worked with col­leagues like Ed Markey and Jeff Merkley to secure the nec­es­sary votes to pass the res­o­lu­tion repu­di­at­ing Ajit Pai’s FCC for abol­ish­ing the land­mark Open Inter­net Order of 2015. Cantwell deliv­ered one of the most sub­stan­tive speech­es in favor of Inter­net free­dom dur­ing the debate over the res­o­lu­tion.

It is Sen­a­tor Cantwell we have to thank for watch­dog­ging the prob­lems caused by unchecked media con­sol­i­da­tion and anti­com­pet­i­tive merg­ers — a set of issues that very few elect­ed lead­ers choose to edu­cate them­selves about or work on. Except for New Mex­i­co’s Tom Udall, no U.S. Sen­a­tor keeps a clos­er eye on the shenani­gans cur­rent­ly going on at Ajit Pai’s FCC than Maria Cantwell.

She does­n’t let up, as we can see from these news releases:

• April 12, 2018: Cantwell, Udall Lead Col­leagues in Call for FCC to Inves­ti­gate Sin­clair Broad­cast­ing for News Distortion
• Jan­u­ary 4, 2018: Cantwell, Col­leagues Urge Depart­ment of Jus­tice and Fed­er­al Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mis­sion to Close­ly Scru­ti­nize Media Merg­ers, Par­tic­u­lar­ly, the Pro­posed Sin­clair Broadcasting/Tribune Media Merger
• Novem­ber 15, 2017: Led by Cantwell & Udall, Sen­a­tors Call for Impar­tial Inves­ti­ga­tion into Poten­tial Quid Pro Quo between Chair­man Ajit Pai, Trump Admin­is­tra­tion, and Sin­clair Broadcasting
• June 21, 2017: Cantwell Joins Coali­tion of Sen­a­tors Pres­sur­ing Jus­tice Depart­ment to Reject AT&T‑Time Warn­er Merg­er if Harms to Con­sumers Out­weigh Benefits
• June 5, 2017: Cantwell Leads Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors in Call for Scruti­ny of Sin­clair-Tri­bune Broad­cast­ing Deal, Sen­ate Hearings
• Jan­u­ary 25, 2017: Cantwell and Col­leagues Pres­sure AT&T & Time Warn­er to Prove Mega-Merg­er is in Pub­lic Interest

It is Sen­a­tor Cantwell we have to thank for pro­tect­ing the Arc­tic Refuge from being destroyed by greedy oil prof­i­teers. When the Bush admin­is­tra­tion tried to open the Refuge to drilling in 2005, Cantwell suc­cess­ful­ly led a fil­i­buster that kept the oil rigs out. Sad­ly, the Repub­li­cans got a pro­vi­sion in the Trump tax scam bill that opens the Refuge to drilling, but the bat­tle to pro­tect the Refuge isn’t over.

It is Sen­a­tor Cantwell we have to thank for going to bat for Sno­homish Coun­ty ratepay­ers before, dur­ing, and after the Enron scan­dal. Sen­a­tor Cantwell exposed how Enron traders schemed to make mon­ey at Wash­ing­to­ni­ans’ expense.

It is Sen­a­tor Cantwell we have to thank for orga­niz­ing elect­ed lead­ers in our region in oppo­si­tion to plots by the Bush admin­is­tra­tion and the Trump regime to pri­va­tize the Bon­neville Pow­er Admin­is­tra­tion — a dis­as­trous idea that would jack up elec­tric­i­ty rates for peo­ple and busi­ness­es all over the Northwest.

And it is Sen­a­tor Cantwell we have to thank for an incred­i­bly long list of invest­ments in essen­tial pub­lic ser­vices like mass tran­sit, afford­able hous­ing, and fire­fight­ing in the omnibus appro­pri­a­tions bill adopt­ed by Con­gress ear­li­er this spring, along with the expan­sion of the Low-Income Hous­ing Tax Cred­it (LIHTC).

Thanks to Sen­a­tor Cantwell, we got an appro­pri­a­tions bill that:

• Pro­vides major increase in wild­fire fight­ing funding
• Pro­vides major increase in opi­oid and men­tal health funding
• Pro­vides two years of fund­ing for Secure Rur­al Schools
• Bol­sters fed­er­al cyber­se­cu­ri­ty efforts to block Russ­ian hacking
• Increas­es fund­ing for air­port improve­ment program
• Increas­es fund­ing for freight and trans­porta­tion infrastructure
• Boosts rur­al broad­band development
• Saves Land and Water Con­ser­va­tion Fund and increased funding
• Pro­tects the EPA from a 30% cut
• Pri­or­i­tizes Han­ford Funding
• Accel­er­ates new icebreaker
• Increas­es med­ical research funding
• Clos­es loop­holes in fed­er­al firearms back­ground checks
• Reme­dies retire­ment pay gap for Coast Guard members

Afford­able hous­ing advo­cates know that Sen­a­tor Cantwell is a cham­pi­on that we can count on. Cantwell has worked tire­less­ly to find mon­ey to house our nation’s peo­ple and our state’s peo­ple. She is incred­i­bly per­sis­tent. (One of the projects she got fund­ed will be built right here in Red­mond, NPI’s head­quar­ters and hometown.)

This list could go on, and on, and on.

Point is, Sen­a­tor Cantwell has rep­re­sent­ed Wash­ing­ton for near­ly eigh­teen years with dis­tinc­tion. She cares about every com­mu­ni­ty in the Ever­green State, which is why she vis­its all thir­ty-nine coun­ties when she cam­paigns for reelection.

Even Repub­li­cans should be able to appre­ci­ate how hard she has worked for Wash­ing­to­ni­ans. And I have no doubt that many Repub­li­can may­ors, city coun­cilmem­bers, and coun­ty com­mis­sion­ers qui­et­ly do.

But Susan Hutchi­son? If you ask me, she has no hon­or. She is not qual­i­fied for this impor­tant posi­tion. She is not a wor­thy oppo­nent for Maria Cantwell.

She has cho­sen to launch her cam­paign — if it can be even be called that — by try­ing to project her­self onto her oppo­nent using Trumpian style attacks.

So much for civil­i­ty. Susan Hutchi­son makes Mike McGav­ick look like a saint.

Fake, ghost, and do-noth­ing wannabe office­hold­er are all phras­es that could describe Hutchi­son quite well. As a for­mer par­ty chair, she knows how to serve red meat to her base. The Trump-lov­ing Repub­li­can faith­ful will be hap­py to sup­port Hutchison’s Sen­ate bid — but they are not a major­i­ty in Wash­ing­ton State.