Public Disclosure Commission documents reveal that financial backers of Initiative 26, a measure that passed last year making all county offices “nonpartisan,” have also been huge financial supporters of King County Executive candidate Susan Hutchison. Hutchison, a conservative who has contributed exclusively to Republicans (UPDATE: with the exception of city council member Tim Burgess, whose office is nonpartisan but who infamously represented the fundamentalist Christian group Concerned Women for America) and who once served on the board of the the creationist Discovery Institute, was one of the most vocal supporters of the initiative. The measure was widely seen as a Trojan Horse for Republican candidates to make inroads in Democrat-leaning King County.
For example:
Issaquah developer Skip Rowley, a frequent Republican contributor and treasurer for I-26, gave $70,000 to the I-26 effort. He also gave $3,200 to Hutchison’s campaign, and contributed $27,000 to the independent group that produced an infamous attack ad against her opponent Dow Constantine, the King County Leadership Fund.
Cellular magnate Bruce McCaw (whose company manages the luxury home at the center of a major ethics complaint against Hutchison) contributed $5,000 to I-26. He also donated $3,2000 to Hutchison’s campaign, and gave $25,000 to the attack ad committee.
Wireless billionaire John Stanton contributed an astonishing $243,000 to the pro-26 campaign. Although he didn’t give money to the group that produced the hit on Constantine, he did give Hutchison’s campaign $3,200.
John Hennessy, president of the demolition company Nuprecon, contributed $10,000 to the I-26 campaign and $2,400 to Hutchison.
The fact that I-26 donors are anti-Constantine donors are pro-Hutchison donors confirms the conventional wisdom: That this was a GOP ploy to elect conservative candidates in a county that doesn’t ordinarily go for Republicans.
