Running for the Supremes
Plus another challenger in LD46, Trump's nod in CD3, and some recommended reading
State appeals court judge Michael Diaz had a heads-up that state Supreme Court Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis was resigning and got in the day after she announced in January she wasn’t running again. With eight years on the bench, an immigrant’s story and accolades for reining in Seattle Police while at the U.S. Attorney’s office, Diaz quickly got blue-chip endorsements and locked up Gov. Bob Ferguson’s campaign fundraiser for a relatively rare open seat.
In the months since, rumblings have circulated about a Diaz appellate opinion that ticked off labor and his defense of ICE agents while at the DOJ. This month, politically-connected King County Superior Court Judge Jaime Hawk, a former federal public defender and ACLU attorney, got in with a challenge from his left.
The race for Supreme Court position 3 looks to be a good one up through the primary. A third candidate, Mason County Superior Court Judge David Stevens, says he’d emulate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. It’s not typically a winning play in WA, but if he or another right-lane candidate can galvanize conservative voters, Diaz and Hawk could effectively run expensive campaigns to split the Democratic vote in the primary.1
