The Stranger

King County District Court Endorsements

Our Endorsements for the November General Election!

Northeast Electoral District Judge Position No. 1: Janet Garrow

Janet Garrow has been a King County judge for 16 years! She's seeking her fifth term on the bench, and we see no reason to vote her out. Her challenger, Dawn Bettinger, didn't bother to show up for an SECB interview. Bettinger's one major endorsement? The King County Republican Party. Ha-ha! No. Vote Garrow.

Northeast Electoral District Judge Position No. 2: Ketu Shah

Ketu Shah is the only credible candidate in this race. Sarah Hayne, his challenger, is joined at the hip with the so-called Citizens for Judicial Excellence (CJE)—she's married to its cofounder—a political action committee funded largely by DUI defense lawyers. She has little experience as a judge and has not been evaluated by local bar associations. She worked for the King County prosecutor's office, she says, but she couldn't tell the SECB for how long. Sketchy. Shah became the first South Asian American judge in Washington State in 2013 and is highly rated by local bar associations. He's a progressive thinker who prefers alternatives to jailing whenever possible. We've seen eminently qualified individuals with unusual, foreign-sounding names lose judge elections to amateurish candidates in Washington before. Don't let that happen here. Vote for the consummate professional. Vote Shah.

Northeast Electoral District Judge Position No. 3: Lisa O'Toole

The two candidates in this race get along like the best of frenemies, each one complimenting the other's experience while saying he or she is actually the one who's just a little bit more qualified to be a judge. We like Lisa O'Toole best, and not just because she's perfected an Amy Poehler–style gaze that silently says to opponent Marcus Naylor: I'm listening to you, and I'm smiling at you, and I might even kinda like you, but I like me better, so now I must destroy you. Plus, she's right: She's just a little better than Naylor. O'Toole's been a King County prosecuting attorney. She's been a King County judge pro tem. She's well rated by local bar associations. And she seems likely to bring a little Parks and Recreation to district court, which we can get behind. Vote O'Toole.

West Electoral District Judge Position No. 2: Mark C. Chow

Challenger Phillip Tavel acted like it was a fucking crime against humanity that incumbent Judge Mark C. Chow once got into verbal fisticuffs with a defendant who told Judge Chow to suck his dick. "If a defendant tells you to suck his dick," Tavel said, "you can't stoop down to their level and start trading remarks with them. You just can't." Yeeaaaaah. We know. But go ahead and haul us in front of the Commission on Judicial Conduct or whatever because we kinda love what Judge Chow said to the asshole who told him to suck his dick in court: "I would if you pulled it out, but you can't find it." The judge has since admitted this wasn't the best move, and he's also promised not to ask any more Asian American defendants, "What flavor are you?" (He seems to have thought being Asian American himself gave him some leeway on this kind of banter, and has since thought better.) But Judge Chow asked us to look at his overall career, and what do you know: He's well-rated, he pioneered Seattle's hugely important mental health court, he has the experience of six terms under his belt, and Tavel's other major criticism—that Judge Chow isn't hip to new technology—was proved to be bullshit when Judge Chow whipped out his iPhone and showed the SECB a picture of a bruise he got while hand-blocking a mug a defendant threw at him. Vote Chow.

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