Longtime state Court of Appeals judge Bill Baker of Everett will step down from his post early next year, and Gov. Chris Gregoire is moving toward appointing his replacement.
Baker, who has been on the bench nearly 18 years, said he will quit at the end of February for health reasons.
The judge, 67, has been diagnosed with leukemia, although he has not shown symptoms of the disease, he said. He believes he will have to have undergo a stem-cell transplant sometime in the next few years.
Three Snohomish County residents have applied with the governor’s office to replace Baker, and their names will be sent out later this month in a preference poll of some 600 Snohomish County attorneys.
The governor’s office is expected to use the poll as a guide in making her appointment to Division 1 of the court. Snohomish County is entitled to two jurists on the Division 1 bench, which covers Superior Court appeals in the northern part of Western Washington.
One applicant is Seattle lawyer Leonard Feldman, who has homes in both Snohomish and Seattle. Feldman specializes in appellate law.
The other two are J. Robert Leach, a partner in the Anderson Hunter law firm in Everett, and veteran Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Seth Fine, who heads the appeals division of his office.
Both Leach and Fine ran unsuccessfully for a vacant seat on the Court of Appeals in 2005.
It is no accident that Baker will step down from the post during his current term, which expires at the end of next year. He is firmly convinced that judges should be appointed, at least at the outset of their careers on the bench.
“I believe strongly in appointment of judges and this governor has been pretty good in appointing people who merit appointment,” Baker said Monday. Elections are a “strange” way to select judges, he added.
It’s fine for voter approval of the job a judge is doing after he or she has been on the bench, but Baker believes “judges ought not to be politicians” when it comes to first getting the job, he said.
The veteran judge said he doesn’t know what he will do after he quits the bench. He may act as a temporary judge on the Court of Appeals. He also plans to become more involved in the Everett community, he said.
Baker said he is sorry he has to step down because he found the job rewarding and challenging. “I truly enjoyed it,” Baker said.
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