Today's Seattle Times editorial page recaps its endorsements and gets to the essence of the race between Supreme Court Chief Justice Gerry Alexander and John Groen:
The court's most important job is to limit the overreaching of the executive and legislative branches of government, particularly when it damages the rights of the people. In our view, the court has been too deferential to those in authority ... and [Alexander] offers stability and continuity to the institution.Oddly, "stability and continuity to the institution" is the punchline in the Times endorsement of Alexander. How can any decent person want stability and continuity in a court that is too deferential to authority and damages people's rights? The Times editorial board seems better at laying out facts than deriving therefrom a logical conclusion.
But they were right to endorse Sen. Stephen Johnson over incumbent Susan Owens.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at September 17, 2006 09:48 AM | Email ThisGroen is of course completely unqualified for the job. Just read the part of the Op-ed that Stephan carefully cut out:
"Alexander is the better pick in his race. He has the broadest judicial experience of anyone on the court. He has the backing of his colleagues as chief justice. He has an exemplary judicial manner. He is nearing the end of his career -- this would be his last term -- and he offers stability and continuity to the institution.
Challenger John Groen is a private attorney who took over the client list of Richard Sanders when Sanders was elected to the court in 1995."
Posted by: Sorry Charlie on September 17, 2006 10:59 AMwho cares what the papers say--most lazy people will follow them blindly; others will read, dig and decide for themselves; the only thing papers know is that they have their power, channels and visibility to use for pet candidates--unlike the average Joe.
"this would be his last term"--thank you Sir, can I have another?! sure--but a lot of damage can be done in a last term;people leave legacies.
as for the effectiveness of the flying banner--Charlie looked up, didn't he?
I'd very much like an answer to this question, because we can ill afford another Democrat on the court.
Posted by: balanced but fair on September 17, 2006 07:17 PMIf for any reason Alexander wins and retires before Jan 2009, all bets are off.
Posted by: SouthernRoots on September 17, 2006 07:24 PMThe state of Wa has mandatory retirement at age 75. Alexander turns 75 in 2011, he must then retire at the end of that year. As he explained on the radio on Kirby's show last week, that would leave only 8 1/2 months before the next election. This is another case of Groen's campaign attempting to make an issue that isn't there. In addition the Bobbe Bridge drunk driving add which tries to imply Alexander somehow approves of her drunk driving is a joke and again masks the real facts regarding this campaign;
1. Groen has no experience. None. He doesn't belong on the court at this level. Start at the superior court level and get some experience and then run against Bridge ir Fairhurst when they are up for reelection.
2. Groen hasn't been endorsed by any newspaper in this state. None. This includes the more conservative papers in eastern wa. Why is that? Read the endorsements they all say they same thing, basically that Alexander is fair jurist who
doesn't have an agenda.
3. Groen's only support is from the BIAW who is soley focused on property rights, distorts the facts surrounding the supposed Monorail case and must make a person really ask if judges, either conservative or liberal with an agenda should be o n the court. Most people (maybe not on this blog) would have to conclude Alexander is a much more balanced choice.
4. Alexander has been on the right side (no pun intended) on a number of key cases i care about including DOMA and the union case re: dues. As he pointed in his Kirby interview he has written thousands of opinions, it is easy to airchair quarterback a few you don't like but until you've strapped on the helmet and made the tough calls it's easy to complain about the ones you disagree with. All Groen can offer is a few (4) cases on his website that he disagrees with.
5. Alexander is a republican, he we appointed by a republican (yeah I've heard Dan Evans wasn't as conservative as we all would like but when was the last time we had a true conservative in the governor's mansion?) and Alexander's father was head of the republican party in Thurston county forever.
Bottom line is I am one of what I suspect are many Republicans that will be voting for his re-election.
Posted by: Larry on September 17, 2006 07:49 PMNow where in the world did you hear that? Hahahahahahahahahahah.
When Evans was governor, most Democrats were more conservative than he was... Evans was against the death penalty, pro-abortion, big government, etc., etc. It was a different era. Thurston county GOP is as liberal as you can find, anywhere, so stating that Alexander's father -- when was that anyway, 1950? -- doesn't get you very far these days.
I don't want Gregoire appointing any judge to that court.
Groen!
Posted by: GS on September 17, 2006 11:22 PMGroen! -Posted by GS at September 17, 2006 11:22 PM
And that's the whole point of this liberal whinefest against Groen... when he wins the illegitimate queen will lose her opportunity to stack the courts.
I really don't think the loony leftys actually care about, agree with or even like Alexander, but they do care about getting him replaced with the right lefty.
The technique the court employed to place ST and SMP above the law was straightforward. First, the court ignored what the citizens were arguing in their legal briefing. Second, the opinion the court issued ascribes made-up statements to the citizens. Those fictional purported contentions are in fact contrary to important assertions about the taxes the citizens spelled out in their briefing to support their legal arguments.
The Alexander court took those steps so hundreds of thousands of citizens would not be able to enforce their legal rights against those two governments. If the citizens actual claims had been addressed, there would have been some refunds of taxes that should not have been collected.
There is a discussion of how the court used this technique going on at the Postman blog at this URL.
Posted by: Hoffman on September 18, 2006 08:49 AM
http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/davidpostman/archives/2006/09/coping_with_politics_in_court_races.html
Posted by: Hoffman on September 18, 2006 08:53 AM1. Ask Gerry how many of his esteemed colleagues had prior judicial experience before they became Supremes. I believe the number is 5 (the Johnsons, Sanders, Chambers, Fairhurst). Under your logic, if Chambers wasn't an incumbent, then Burrage would be a better choice than him since she has experience. Except voting for Burrage would be sillier than going to work in your underwear. So yes, Groen has never been a judge but he's skilled in the law and argued plenty before the Supremes (something not many out of those 5 had done).
2. Ed Boards like the status quo. Nobody in their right mind is going to advocate defeating a Chief Justice in their headline. But Larry you're misleading people. The TCH said this:
"The contest for Position 8 presents a different challenge for voters. In this case, the two candidates are qualified for the job and serious about winning.
The challenger, attorney John Groen, will appeal to Mid-Columbia voters. He's personable, smart and conservative, with roots in the Tri-Cities. His background in property rights matches Eastern Washington sensibilities."
3. Groen absolutely is not only supported by BIAW. Go to the PDC and look at the reports. There has been close to $2M spent so far, but well less than half of that spent by the BIAW. Yes $700,000 is an enormous sum of money, but there are a lot of people not named BIAW who gave the other $1M+. Also, Groen has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, less than 3 thousand of which came from BIAW.
4. Yes I agree that not EVERY decision Alexander made was bad. But if we're using football analogies, then it doesn't matter if the quarterback makes a bunch of good plays all game long, if he blows it when it counts, the other team is going to win. When the QB is throwing INTs and fumbling (or when he's so old he can't stay awake through a 1 hour awards assembly at Olympia High School), its time to send in a replacement.
5. Alexander is not a Republican. I can think of 25 Democrats in ofice around the state who are mor conservative. And so what if Alexander's dad ran the Thurston County GOP. Alexander is so old, it was probably during the Lincoln presidency. Sic Semper Tyrannus.
So Larry please don't come here and try to mislead us. You look foolsih. Go mark your absentee for Gerry, and prepare a list of retirement communities (I hear Panorama City is nice) for Alexander since he's losing by double digits tonight.
5.
Posted by: ARS on September 19, 2006 07:53 AM