Current conditions unavailable
One of the candidates for the state Supreme Court has solicited signatures of more than five dozen other judges from across the state in a letter criticizing his opponent for allegedly making partisan, disparaging and inaccurate statements about him in a campaign email.
King County Superior Court Judge Sean Patrick O’Donnell sought the signatures and issued a letter this week condemning campaign statements by his opponent, state Court of Appeals Judge Ian Birk.
The letter accuses Birk of making “serious and false accusations” against O’Donnell.
The candidates are locked in a bitter and hotly contested campaign that might be the most expensive Supreme Court contest conducted in Washington. In a race that rarely sees contributions exceeding five figures, Birk has raised more than $400,000. O’Donnell has collected nearly $340,000, according to the latest figures posted by the state Public Disclosure Commission.
Both candidates, vying for Position Four on the high court bench, boast extensive endorsements. Birk has the support of several union-related and Democratic district supporters and seven of the nine sitting state Supreme Court justices, while O’Donnell lists four former U.S. Attorneys, the support of 220 current and former judges and some key law-enforcement unions. His campaign site includes some support from Democratic institutions.
“The email accused me of having a partisan agenda,” O’Donnell said in an interview. “This is not the usual playbook for judicial races.
“These campaigns don’t run hot,” he said. “Our job is to keep politics out of this job. Judges can’t be political.”
He accused Birk of running a campaign “throwing sharp elbows” from the outset.
In an Aug. 24 fundraising email, Birk claimed that O’Donnell is running with a “partisan agenda” that is “out of touch with the values and priorities of our state,” the email said.
It alleges O’Donnell has joined a slate of candidates recommended by the state Republican Party and that he is beholden to the GOP.
O’Donnell vehemently denied this. “I didn’t reach out to the state Republican Party. I’m an impartial candidate,” O’Donnell said.
“There is nothing more essential to our democracy than an impartial and trusted judiciary,” his letter said.
The letter is signed by 62 judges statewide and rebukes Birk for failing the basic test of judicial candidates — being factual and accurate in campaign statements. They defend O’Donnell from Birk’s “partisan attacks and insinuation,” saying he has a long-established reputation for fairness and impartiality.
“We should be talking about the nerdy stuff — the efficiency of the courts, ensuring the integrity of the system,” O’Donnell said. “That’s what makes his comments so weird.”
“These accusations run afoul of a judge and judicial candidate’s most important obligations — getting the facts right and being ‘scrupulously honest’ in their campaign statements,” the letter says. The letter says O’Donnell “has served without political bias for over 25 years and a prosecutor and Superior Court Judge” who has served as a temporary Supreme Court justice.
Birk declined to be interviewed. However, a statement issued by his campaign quoted him as saying “honesty matters.”
“Sean O’Donnell needs to make a decision,” Birk said in the statement. “Either he is fine with his support from the Washington State Republican Party, and it’s not a big deal, or it is a big deal, and he should disavow that support and ask to be removed from their materials.”
“Instead, he wants to have it both ways,” Birk claimed, accusing O’Donnell of “affiliating with conservative interests for political expediency, while denying those affiliations to court mainstream Democratic support.”
Birk said voters in judicial races “deserve to know who backs a candidate, and why.”
He points out that Republican former Attorney General Rob McKenna pointed to O’Donnell as “rising star” on his “Full-court press” website and said O’Donnell has accepted contributions from McKenna.
Birk, however, claims he has avoided partisan politics and that he is running on “his clear record as a respected judge and former longtime advocate for families, workers, and vulnerable people.”
