Nearly $700,000 flows into court race

OLYMPIA — Since last month's primary election, interest groups that are battling for control of the state Supreme Court have poured nearly $700,000 into competing political-action committees.

Most of that money presumably will be spent on the last remaining race, which pits incumbent Justice Susan Owens against Republican state Sen. Steve Johnson.

And it likely will push total spending — by the candidates and by interest groups — on this year's three Supreme Court races past $4.5 million. That's more than triple the previous record, set two years ago.

Special-interest money has continued flowing into the court races despite concerns raised last month by state campaign-finance regulators. They fear the court races are being taken over by a few independent campaigns funded by businesses, labor unions and other interest groups.

"As those numbers increase, the election process is pretty much controlled by very few people," said Mike Connelly, a member of the state Public Disclosure Commission (PDC).

Connelly said the heavy spending by special-interest groups threatens to erode public trust in judicial elections.

Shortly after the primary, commission members asked PDC staff to look at options for restricting independent campaign spending by interest groups. The staff is preparing a report that will be presented to the commission Tuesday.

Owens and Johnson face a runoff in the Nov. 7 general election because neither got 50 percent in the five-way primary.

Two other court races were decided in the primary because the two incumbents — Chief Justice Gerry Alexander and Justice Tom Chambers — both won more than 50 percent.

As of Tuesday, all of this year's candidates for Supreme Court had raised a combined $1.6 million, according to the latest PDC filings. Johnson had raised about $300,000, compared to nearly $270,000 for Owens.

Meanwhile, interest groups have given more than $2.9 million to a handful of political-action committees that were formed specifically to wage aggressive independent campaigns in the court races.

Under state campaign-finance rules, starting Oct. 17, groups were barred from giving more than $5,000 to a campaign.

In the week leading up to that deadline, the building industry and its allies dumped $352,000 into ChangePAC, a committee that is supporting Johnson. More than two-thirds of that money came from the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW), which for several years has been the biggest player in court races.

Johnson is also backed by a new PAC called Justice for Washington, which has raised $114,000 since it was formed less than two weeks ago. More than two-thirds of that money came from a coalition of groups that want to rein in medical-malpractice and other liability lawsuits.

Owens, meanwhile, is backed by Citizens to Uphold the Constitution, a coalition of mostly liberal groups. Since the primary, that committee has raised nearly $220,000, the bulk of it from tribes, labor groups and trial lawyers.

The BIAW and its leader, Tom McCabe, have been up front about why they are putting so much money into court races: They want to elect more conservative judges who support private-property rights. And in a state where Democrats control the legislative and executive branches, the BIAW and its allies see the court as their best chance to gain influence.

People in the opposing camp say they got involved mostly to try to counter BIAW's efforts.

But McCabe said he is convinced many of the groups behind Citizens to Uphold the Constitution gave money simply because they were asked to do so by powerful people like Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire.

Gregoire has been sending mixed messages.

Shortly after the primary, Gregoire decried the explosion of special-interest spending in court races and announced earlier this month that she is exploring the idea of public financing for judicial campaigns.

But during the summer, she made calls to several big-money political figures to help raise money for Citizens to Uphold the Constitution. And a political-action committee that she controls — The Legacy Fund — has given at least $25,000 to the cause.

McCabe called Gregoire's actions hypocritical.

"It's more than hypocritical," he said. "It's laughable."

Ralph Thomas: 360-943-9882 or rthomas@seattletimes.com