King County Executive candidate Susan Hutchison—a former KIRO anchor who has given thousands of dollars to Republicans, including Mike Huckabee, and who until recently sat on the board of the creationist Discovery Institute—has been elusive on the campaign trail, avoiding most public forums and high-profile campaign events in favor of meetings with small groups and individuals (the so-called "learning tour").

Lately, however, Hutchison has started to emerge from her protective shell. Yesterday, she appeared at not one but two public campaign forums—the Nonprofit Executives Forum in Southeast Seattle at 8am, and the Eastside Candidates Forum in North Bend at 7:30 pm. According to folks who were in attendance (I had a conflict—the Cascade Bicycle Alliance screening of VEER in Columbia City, where I served as a panelist),

Hutchison reportedly seemed more polished and prepared than usual, only getting defensive when other candidates accused her of being a partisan Republican. (That's in sharp contrast to earlier public statements such as her interview with the P-I's Chris Grygiel, in which Hutchison snapped, "I don't have to say anything" to voters.) Hutchison reportedly also continued to describe her time reading news on KIRO as "public service" that had prepared her to serve as county executive.

Andrew Villaneuve at the Northwest Progressive Institute liveblogged last night's forum. He reports that Hutchison said she wanted to "go back to the drawing board" on the county's Critical Areas Ordinance, which protects rural areas from suburban sprawl; supports proposals to "restructure" transportation planning (i.e., replace Metro and Sound Transit with a single mega-government body); and reiterated her demand that the state repeal a portion of the state's business and occupation tax.

Hutchison will have plenty of opportunities to air her views in upcoming weeks, including a July 7 breakfast event with mayors of Eastside cities; a July 15 meeting of the Commercial Real Estate Developers Association; and a July 16 forum hosted by CityClub in Bellevue. However, because Hutchison has a tendency to wait until a day or two before events to confirm no one knows yet at which, if any, of those events she will appear.