Conservative WA Supreme Court justice targeted

Liberal advocacy groups have ramped up their bid to oust state Supreme Court Justice Jim Johnson, the high court's most conservative member.

Johnson faces Tacoma attorney Stan Rumbaugh in an election that will be decided in the Aug. 17 primary. Voters started receiving their ballots in the mail this week.

A group called Impartial Justice spent about $42,000 this week on mailers that show a small cutout picture of Johnson inside a business-suit pocket, and another $10,000 on a web video ad with the same theme, urging voters to vote against "special deals for special interests."

All of Impartial Justice's money comes from a left-of-center group called FairPAC, first created during the 2006 Supreme Court election in response to money being spent by conservative groups that year. FairPAC has raised about $182,000 in the last month, with more than half of that coming from three labor groups: the Washington Education Association, the Service Employees International Union, and the Washington State Labor Council.

Alex Hays, a spokesman for Johnson's campaign, said that the groups are angry over court decisions that didn't go their way.

In an April opinion authored by Johnson, the court ruled that it couldn't order Gov. Chris Gregoire to budget for raises awarded to the SEIU's Local 775. The union had been awarded pay and benefit increases worth more than $80 million in binding arbitration. But Gregoire refused to include the money in her budget, citing a looming budget deficit.

Lisa MacLean, a spokeswoman for both FairPAC and Impartial Justice, denied they were trying to pack the court with labor-friendly justices. Two of the justices who voted with Johnson - Gerry Alexander and Tom Chambers - got FairPAC's support in 2006.

"We're interested in maintaining and improving the fairness of the Washington state Supreme Court," MacLean.

MacLean and other Johnson opponents take issue with Johnson's ties to the powerful Building Industry Association of Washington, which he represented as a private attorney. He received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the BIAW during his prior campaigns, and has often ruled on the side the organization favored.

MacLean says there is a clear "pattern of ruling in favor of the interests who have funded his campaigns."

In a recent debate, Johnson called that charge a "bum rap."

He noted that he recused himself from the only case that came before him where BIAW was a party. In the other cases, where BIAW filed friend-of-the-court briefs, he said he took positions he's clearly stood for all along, like property rights.

"I never go back, and never did know, who contributed to my campaign," Johnson said.

Johnson is a former assistant Attorney General. As a private attorney, he drafted one of Tim Eyman's anti-tax initiatives and defended another, fought against tribal claims on private and public lands, and battled to keep Washington's blanket primary-election system alive.

He said he considers himself a constitutionalist, and that his top issues are free speech, religious rights and property rights.

"Many of the really important decisions made by the courts are when they don't change things," he said. "Our business is to not rewrite the law, our business is to enforce the Constitution and interpret and enforce the laws."

Johnson was first elected to his seat in 2004, raising a record $539,000. This year, he has raised just $85,000, in part because a 2006 law forbids giving unlimited money directly to judicial candidates. Rumbaugh has raised about $63,000.

The BIAW could still spend big money supporting Johnson without coordinating with his campaign, but so far they have just donated the maximum allowed $1,600.

Spokeswoman Erin Shannon wouldn't say whether it will spend more to support Johnson in the coming weeks.

"We'll do whatever we think we can to help him," she said.

Shannon noted that the nearly $1 million the BIAW spent backing attorney John Groen in 2006 didn't keep him from losing to the incumbent Alexander.

"I don't think money buys votes by any stretch," she said.

Rumbaugh said that he thinks voters are ready for a change on the court.

"My offer to the voters is to offer a more centrist and somewhat progressive evaluation of the law, because I think that is much more consistent with the intent of the laws passed by the Legislature," he said.

Rumbaugh, who has been an attorney for more than 30 years, has his own practice in Tacoma that deals with personal injury, worker's compensation and wrongful death. He serves on the boards of Bates Technical College, the Tacoma Housing Authority and Planned Parenthood Washington.

---

On the Web:

Johnson campaign: http://www.JimJohnsonforJustice.org

Rumbaugh campaign: http://www.rumbaughforjustice.com

Judicial election information: http://votingforjudges.org

Supreme Court of Washington: http://courts.wa.gov

Public Disclosure Commission: http://www.pdc.wa.gov/