SEATTLE – A right-of-center political action committee has been formed to help elect candidates to the state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, the first PAC in the state to focus solely on judicial elections.
The Constitutional Law PAC is centrist, said Alex Hays, executive director of the new committee, and while mostly Republicans sit on the board, a few Democrats do also.
Former Republican U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton is the PAC’s chairman, and its board includes two former state GOP chairmen and candidates for governor, Dale Foreman and Ken Eikenberry, the committee’s vice chairman. It also has veterans of political and legal fights favoring property rights and opposing government regulation and taxation.
“The current state of our judiciary is fairly radicalized and far to the left,” Hays said. “Working toward the center, compared to where the judiciary is, makes us look conservative. The outlook we’re hoping for is just to have a centrist judiciary with thoughtful, fair-minded people.”
Some court observers fear an agenda-driven PAC for judicial elections could threaten the independence and impartiality of the state’s judiciary, and that the emergence of one will lead to other, countervailing PACs.
“You really hope you don’t politicize the judicial branch of government because judges aren’t elected to enact an ideological agenda,” said Charles Wiggins, a Bainbridge Island lawyer and president of the Washington chapter of the American Judicature Society, which works to maintain courts’ independence and integrity.
Washington is one of only four states that elect judges but have no finance limits on their campaigns. Contributions to candidates for other statewide offices are limited to $1,350 per donor.
Former state Supreme Court Justice Phil Talmadge, a prominent Democrat, said, “The thing I fear is, as these campaigns get more expensive and more aggressive and more nasty in nature is that the (judicial) candidates have to behave like candidates” for partisan office.
But Hays noted that while other PACs give money to political candidates and judges, the Constitutional Law PAC is focusing only on judicial elections “in order to be more centrist.”
While the board hasn’t officially voted on who they will support in the 2006 elections, Hayes said many members are interested in supporting state Sen. Stephen Johnson, R-Kent, and Bellevue property rights lawyer John Groen, secretary of the Constitutional Law group, in campaigns against Justices Tom Chambers and Susan Owens. Both said they are interested and are considering running.
Rick Forcier, executive director of the Christian Coalition of Washington, said leaders of the PAC have sought the coalition’s support. He added, “We’re well familiar with a number of principals in the organization, and we have confidence in their judgment.”
Forcier said the Christian Coalition will watch closely how the court rules on a challenge to the state’s ban on gay marriage.
Hays said the main focus is for judges to have a conservative stance on things like property rights and water rights. On issues like gay marriage and abortion, he said supporters of the coalition want to see “non-activist” judges selected.
“We are operating like a coalition,” Hays said. “We’re bringing together a lot of diverse visions. Some of them are social conservatives who feel the judiciary has been an enemy to them. They would be satisfied simply with a neutral judge.”
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