Re-elect Hunt to judgeship

• Published July 30, 2008

With primary election ballots arriving in Thurston County mailboxes early next week, it's time to offer the endorsement of The Olympian's editorial board in those races that will be decided in the Aug. 19 primary election.

We start with the Court of Appeals where Judge (Joyce) Robin Hunt, 60, of Kingston faces the challenge of Tim Ford, 43 of Olympia. Hunt is the obvious choice in this race, based on her experience and depth of knowledge about the workings of the appellate courts.

Washington has three appellate courts divided into multicounty divisions headquartered in Seattle, Tacoma and Spokane. A total of 22 nonpartisan judges serve in the three districts and they serve for six-year terms. The judges hear cases appealed from Superior Court before they advance to the state Supreme Court.

In the race at hand, voters in Thurston, Mason, Kitsap, Jefferson, Grays Harbor and Clallam counties will decide the Hunt versus Ford race in the August primary.

Ford deserves credit for giving voters a choice. Hunt has run unopposed for the past 12 years.

Ford is open government ombudsman for Attorney General Rob McKenna. It's an important job, advising government agencies on how to respond to requests for public records and how to abide by the state's Open Public Meetings Act.

In his limited time as ombudsman, Ford has proven himself to be a solid advocate for openness. His prior legal experience was with the solicitor general's division of the Attorney General's Office in which he prepared state cases for appeals. Prior to that he was in-house counsel for the Building Industry Association of Washington. He began his legal career as an attorney in private practice for one year, handling family law, criminal defense and other specialty areas.

While well-intentioned in his run for the Court of Appeals, Ford comes up woefully short when it comes to qualifications. He has no judicial experience whatsoever and has very limited trial experience. Those are serious deficits.

Hunt (not to be confused with Thurston County Treasurer Robin Hunt) has served on the Appellate Court for 111/2 years. Her legal experience includes a private practice in Alaska, service as senior deputy prosecutor in the King County Prosecutor's Office, law clerk in the United States District Court in eastern Michigan, land use hearings examiner and pro-tem municipal court judge in this state.

We have not agreed with every one of Hunt's nearly 1,000 decisions on the Court of Appeals. She does not have a sterling record on open government cases, for example. Hunt said she always "starts with the presumption of disclosure," and that's as it should be. But too often, she has sided with secrecy. That's a concern.

But when it comes to the practical, legal experience necessary to be an appellate court judge, experience researching the law and writing legal opinions, Hunt wins the race hands down. Voters should return Hunt to the Division 2 Court of Appeals bench Aug. 19.