Ad pact’s effects worry some

By Brad Shannon | The Olympian • Published June 04, 2008

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A citizens committee formed to discourage unfair ads and campaign tactics in state judicial campaigns could have unwanted effects on free speech, an Olympia lawyer said this week.

The group calling itself the Washington Committee for Ethical Judicial Campaigns wants judicial candidates to sign pledges promising not to campaign in a way that harms the public's faith in the judiciary. It also wants candidates to disavow ads by third-party organizations that the committee deems unfair.

"That smacks of censorship to me, and who determines what is unfair or what is something that damages the integrity of the court?" said Shawn Newman, state director for the Initiative and Referendum Institute based at the University of Southern California Law School and an adjunct faculty member at Saint Martin's University in Lacey.

Newman added that a campaign pledge limiting what can be said might favor incumbents over challengers, who are more likely to criticize sitting judges or the court system.

"I think the solution to what may be perceived as bad or inappropriate speech is more speech," Newman said.

But two members of the newly formed committee — former state agency leader Richard Thompson of Olympia and Tacoma attorney Jill Haavig Stone — told The Olympian's editorial board Wednesday that the point is to avoid over-the-top attacks that lower the public's regard for the judiciary. They said their committee of lay and legal members is trying to bring civility to judicial races that were rocked by hard-hitting campaign ads funded by third-party groups in 2006.

"The idea here is that all candidates conduct their campaigns in a way that lifts up the integrity and independence of the judiciary," Stone said.

Stone and Thompson said candidates already are limited by professional canons of conduct in what they can say in campaigns.

Nine states have set up similar watchdog efforts, Thompson said. He dismissed the worry about helping incumbents, saying they inherently have an advantage.

The group leader is retired Appeals Court Judge William Baker of Everett, who hopes to respond within 48 hours to complaints of unfair or demeaning ads. Baker has said the committee grew out of past efforts by civic groups such as the League of Women Voters and local bar associations, which produced the www.votingforjudges.org Web site.

All three Supreme Court justices up for re-election — Mary Fairhurst, Charles Johnson and Debra Stephens — agreed to the fair-campaign pledge. Appeals Court Judge J. Robin Hunt, whose division reviews cases from several counties including Thurston, also signed the pledge. But Fairhurst's foe, Michael J. Bond, has not yet signed, and Hunt's expected opponent, Tim Ford, had neither filed to run nor signed the pledge.