12 candidates will vie for empty court seat

By Brad Shannon | The Olympian • Published July 11, 2008

The race for Thurston County District Court judge skipped into a weird sort of overdrive Thursday as a stampede of candidates drove the field to an unlikely 12 names.

"Unprecedented," county Auditor Kim Wyman said as the three-day filing period ended.

"We've gone back all the way to the 1970s. The only race that would be close to it was back in 1996, when they added the seventh judgeship (in Superior Court) … That was five in the primary; the primary narrowed it to two."

There were so many candidates that Wyman made a quick trip to a sporting-goods shop to buy extra pingpong balls to determine the order in which names will appear on the ballot. Wyman's staff numbered the balls, and she drew them one at a time from a metal can with a few candidates watching.

The candidates filed for office in this order: Greg Rosen of Olympia; private attorney Jim Foley of Olympia; defense lawyer Sam Meyer of Olympia; deputy prosecutor Jodilyn (Jodi) Erikson-Muldrew of Olympia; state administrative judge Jamie M. Moore of Olympia; private attorney William R. Bayness of Tenino; private attorney Bill Gilbert of Olympia; private attorney Phil Kratz of Olympia; private attorney Laura M. Murphy of Olympia; private attorney Sans M. Gilmore of Olympia; private attorney Lynn Kathryn Hayes of Thurston County; and private attorney Ken Valz of Olympia.

Gilbert's name appears first on the ballot, followed by Rosen's.

The race already shaped up as unusual. The vacancy was created in late June, which is after the regular election filing period, when Judge C.L. "Kip" Stilz died.

Hoping to save money and not wanting to give a candidate a leg up with incumbency, county commissioners declined to appoint a replacement, which is a more typical practice.

That left it to Presiding Judge Susan Dubuisson to juggle the court schedule for nearly five months using judges pro tem.

Now, because the vacancy came after filing week, there will be no primary in August and only a Nov. 4 vote.

That means it is highly probable the winner will have less than a 50 percent majority, which is quite unusual in judicial races, Wyman said.

And the winner could emerge with as little as 20 percent of the vote, Wyman said.

The county's bar president, Erik Price, predicted "a variety of levels of campaigning on this one. You might see some people who have to spend more time and money campaigning and other less so."

The bar association plans to send out a preference poll or survey to its members next week for both District and Superior Court races. Results could be back in time for an Aug. 4 evening forum at The Olympia Center (the 5:30 p.m. forum will focus only on the four candidates for two Superior Court races that will be decided in the Aug. 19 primary).