The Stranger

Seattle Municipal Court Endorsements

Our Endorsements for the November General Election!

Seattle Municipal Court Judge Position No. 2: C. Kimi Kondo

"Kimi Kondo is the worst judge we've had in Seattle municipal court," claims Jon Zimmerman, a lawyer who wants to unseat the six-term judge. What's his Exhibit A to support this contention? Kondo's low ratings in the King County Bar survey. Stop right there, bud. Those surveys are totally unscientific. They don't demonstrate jack. Everyone—especially lawyers—knows this, but guys like Zimmerman keep using the surveys in attempts to bludgeon opponents in judicial races. "It's like Yelp for judges," Kondo counters. She has a solid record, having served on Seattle's mental health court and, recently, being elected by her colleagues to the court's presiding judgeship. She's also calling on the city to fund a long-overdue upgrade to the court's computer system, which is stuck in the MS-DOS (yeah, really) stone age. Vote Kondo.

Seattle Municipal Court Judge Position No. 7: Damon Shadid

Whoa, Damon Shadid is innnnnnnnntense. This guy is ready for whatever municipal court can throw at him (including that ceramic mug Judge Chow hand-blocked a while back), and our guess is we'll be interviewing him about a run for higher office someday soon. He has Hillary Clinton–style message discipline, a lawyerly thirst for argument, and a solid passion for initiatives that push toward greater social justice in the court system. His opponent, Judge Fred Bonner, was first elected to the court in 1989 and has also been a strong proponent of social justice programs. But he's been hit with the municipal-court equivalent of a scandal lately (apparently violating the rules of a city-subsidized carpool parking spot that saved the Corvette-driving judge $12,000 over the last 10 years, and also declining to attend municipal court judge meetings because he doesn't like his colleagues much). Given this, you'd expect Judge Bonner to be all over his reelection campaign, but he admitted to the SECB that he probably should have been paying more attention to this race much sooner, and that he'd probably gotten a little too relaxed over 24 years in this position. We don't think Shadid is capable of relaxing, and we don't think elected judges should ever get too comfortable with the people's trust. Vote Shadid.

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