Lauren B. Simonds, M.S.W., executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington, said in a release that if Susan Hutchison, a candidate for King County Executive, makes it past the primary and into the November run-off, her group "will be poised to mobilize members and activists in opposition to her candidacy."
As first reported on Tuesday by the PostGlobe , Hutchison didn't answer a candidate questionnaire sent her by the National Abortion Rights Action League.
Instead she sent a statement saying abortion is divisive. She wants to bring people together. And she'll enforce the laws of the land.
"NARAL Pro-Choice Washington is laying the groundwork now for a massive grassroots and public education campaign against Susan Hutchison’s candidacy," Simonds said.
The issue around the questionnaire is really only a reflection of the concern groups like NARAL have of Hutchison's ideology.
“Susan Hutchison has made clear that she has no intention of talking about many of the issues that the voters of King County care about, including women’s access to family planning care,” Simonds said in the release. “Hutchison has told us she will not complete our candidate questionnaire, and instead asserts that her position on the right to choose has no bearing on the women of King County .”
When questioned about this statement on KUOW’s “The Conversation” (June 17, 2009), Hutchison reiterated her misguided notion that the county has no impact on women’s health.
“This statement raises a number of red flags,” said Simonds in the release. “First and foremost, Hutchison is woefully uniformed about the many critical roles the county plays in administering reproductive health care, particularly to low-income and otherwise marginalized women, and in protecting women’s access to the full range of family planning care.”
“If this is the attitude an Executive Hutchison would take toward women’s health, that would spell disaster not only for the tens of thousands of women who use county services, but also for the county’s bottom line,” added Simonds in the release. “When the county, or any public entity, spends money on birth control and other family planning care, it saves more than four times what it spends on pregnancy care, delayed screening and treatment of STDs, and other preventable costs over the long term.”
The release continued:
With Hutchison dominating early polls in the race for King County Executive, due to her name familiarity from many years as a KIRO broadcaster, it is likely that she will make it through the primary. At which point, NARAL Pro-Choice Washington will be poised to mobilize members and activists in opposition to her candidacy.
While the King County Executive race is non-partisan, Hutchison’s donations to conservative, anti-choice Republicans, including George W. Bush, Mike Huckabee, Dino Rossi, and Rep. Dave Reichert (R-8), clearly illustrate her political leanings.
“Beyond the danger her views pose for women’s health, Susan Hutchison is a conservative whose beliefs are far to the right of the voters of King County ,” said Simonds. “Hutchison knows this just as well as we do, which is why she refuses to talk about the right to choose.” King County overwhelmingly voted pro-choice in 2008, with 70% voting for Barack Obama and 64% for Governor Gregoire.
“It is our job to make sure the electorate knows the full story about Hutchison,” Simonds added. “The worst case scenario would be for Hutchison to win this race, only to give her a platform from which to seek an ever higher office.”
We've asked Hutchison's campaign for a response.
