The Stranger

Endorsements

General Election Endorsements (Judicial Excerpt)

Stranger Election Control Board

STATE SUPREME COURT, POSITION NO. 2
VOTE FOR SUSAN OWENS

Susan Owens may not be the nation's fanciest jurist, but she's a conscientious, nonpartisan vote on a court that is starting to look anything but. When the court refused to strike down the gay-marriage ban this summer, she took a principled stand in the dissenting minority. She wasn't shy about telling the SECB that she felt the plurality opinion represented "blatant discrimination against Washington's gay and lesbian citizens."

And if you thought the plurality was obnoxious, consider the guys who put discriminatory legislation on the books in the first place—like Owens's opponent—staunchly Republican state Senator Stephen Johnson. Johnson, whose $451,000 (a big chunk from realtors and homebuilders) dwarfs Owens's $248,000 , voted twice in favor of DOMA, and had the audacity to claim, when faced with our endorsement board, that he couldn't remember why he voted that way. Thanks to that vote and others against stem-cell research and sex education, the Christian Coalition honored Johnson with a 100 percent rating in 2005, echoing identical scores in 2004 and 2003. Unless you want the court to be a wholly owned subsidiary of the Republican Party, vote Owens.

Primary Election Endorsements (Judicial Excerpt)

Stranger Election Control Board

STATE SUPREME COURT, POSITION NO. 2
VOTE FOR SUSAN OWENS

When the Washington State Supreme Court upheld this state's ban on gay marriage earlier this summer, Justice Susan Owens was in the court's dissenting minority, arguing, in a right-eous southern drawl that hypnotized the SECB, that gay marriage is a "fundamental right" and accusing the court's majority of "blatant discrimination against Washington's gay and lesbian citizens." That's reason enough to vote for Owens—a serious advocate of domestic-violence laws who's been endorsed by the Washington State Labor Council, the Sierra Club, and NARAL— but here's another:

She's facing a well-funded social-conservative opponent, Republican State Senator Stephen Johnson, a member of the Christian Legal Society that is anti-choice and opposes stem-cell research. Johnson, a fierce opponent of education funding in the state senate, can't even remember why he voted as a state senator to ban gay marriage back in 1998.

Johnson's lack of a moral center and his lack of a principled voting record make him a dangerous man to have on the high court. Vote for Owens, who has both.

STATE SUPREME COURT, POSITION NO. 8
VOTE FOR GERRY ALEXANDER

Supporters of marriage equality across Washington State despise Gerry Alexander. We kind of hate him, too. The chief justice—a sound legal mind and consistent liberal vote on most issues facing the court—royally fucked us over when it came to the all-important Andersen v. King County, signing on to the majority opinion that refused gays and lesbians the right to marry. Sure, he penned a weasely concurrence, claiming nothing in the majority opinion prohibited the legislature from instituting gay marriage or civil unions "if that is their will." But we're not content to leave fundamental civil rights to the mercy of the legislature.

So why would we ask you to vote for this misguided 70-year-old incumbent? Because his opponent, hotly partisan conservative John Groen (he's contributed thousands of dollars to GOP candidates), must be kept out of the courts at all cost. Bankrolled by the conservative Builders Industry Association of Washington, Groen is a property-rights attorney who has fought open-space requirements and has represented BIAW in the past. It's probably safe to predict that his positions would mirror those of fellow BIAW crony Jim Johnson, the farthest-right justice currently serving on the supreme court. (Johnson wrote the truly bigoted concurrence in Andersen.)

Alexander is a pragmatic guy, not an ideologue: He acknowledged that a nonbiological lesbian mother had standing to claim status as coparent of her child in In re Parentage of L. B. (Johnson forcefully dissented). The chief justice may not be perfect, but he's not in bed with business, and he's the only acceptable candidate for Position 8.

STATE SUPREME COURT, POSITION NO. 9
VOTE FOR TOM CHAMBERS

There is one other state supreme court race that's not as hotly contested. That's because the challenger, Jeanette Burrage, is a joke candidate who has consistently gotten "not qualified ratings" from the King County Bar Association

Vote for the liberal, motorcycle-driving incumbent, Tom Chambers. Want to feel good about Chambers? He dissented on last month's Defense of Marriage Act ruling, telling the SECB that the legislature's DOMA law was "irrational." And we quote: "The state has set up laws to make gays and lesbians parents. Assisted fertilization laws. In vitro fertilization laws. The state has said it's discriminatory for gays and lesbians not to be able to procreate. They've set up laws so gays and lesbians can procreate. There's also adoption laws that make gays and lesbians parents. It is too late for the state to say gays and lesbians can't marry because they can't procreate or be parents. That's out of whack."

See also The Stranger's Complete Primary Endorsements

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