Sharp ideological contrasts in state Supreme Court race

For a nonpartisan position, the race for Supreme Court justice between James Johnson and Stan Rumbaugh is taking on clear casts of red and blue.

Johnson, a one-term incumbent, is the court's most consistent and avowed conservative. With a strict reading of the constitution, he champions the rights of crime victims and private-property owners and usually sides with businesses. He vigorously defends marriage as being between a man and woman.

Johnson's opponent is on the other side of the ideological spectrum. Tacoma attorney Stan Rumbaugh has been a Planned Parenthood board member, donated widely to Democrats and said he likely would have voted to approve gay marriage.

Because there are only two candidates, the race will be decided in the Aug. 17 primary.

As in previous campaigns, money is flowing into the race from groups with strong partisan ties. But unlike 2004, when Johnson won a contentious race with six-figure help from builders and business, money now is coming to Rumbaugh from progressive groups who smell a chance to swing the state's highest court.

A union-backed group called FAIRPAC launched the first attacks on Johnson last week, with ads literally putting him in the pocket of business. Meanwhile, conservatives have stayed mostly on the sidelines.

In joint appearances, the two candidates have sparred over the outside money, each questioning the others' ability to appear impartial despite deep-pocketed backers.

Johnson focuses on his experience — and Rumbaugh's lack of it. Rumbaugh portrays Johnson as an activist in judicial robes.

At a candidate forum last week, Johnson noted Rumbaugh has handled only two Supreme Court cases. "He just doesn't have the experience," Johnson said. "If you were going to have an operation, would you want a doctor who'd done 700 (surgeries), or done two in his whole life?"

"I guess it depends on how well you've done them," Rumbaugh said.

Johnson

Johnson, 65, is a gregarious, Harvard-educated Washington native prone to colorful tales of hunting and fishing exploits, as well as of travels to China, Africa and the Gallapagos Islands.

After earning a law degree from the University of Washington and serving in the Army, he began a 20-year career under Republican state Attorneys General Slade Gorton and Ken Eikenberry. By Johnson's estimate, he has argued about 100 cases before the state and U.S. appeals and Supreme courts. He quit shortly after Chris Gregoire was elected attorney general in 1992.

During Johnson's 10-year stint in private practice, his political leanings emerged. He represented the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW) and state initiative guru Tim Eyman, helping him write one limiting property-tax increases.

"I'm without a doubt conservative, libertarian conservative," said Johnson, who boasted of meeting libertarian author Ayn Rand. He has been endorsed by Joe Fuiten, a prominent Christian conservative pastor.

Johnson calls himself an "originalist," a judicial model that calls for a historical interpretation of the constitution and that excludes modern interpretation. Think U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

That led Johnson, in the court's State v. Sieyes ruling filed this year, to find unconstitutional a state law that limits the right of minors to possess a gun. Johnson, writing alone in dissent, noted that 11-year-olds fought in the Civil War.

"If age did not bar teenagers from serving in the Continental or Union armies, how could it bar them from receiving full judicial protection for the rights they championed?" Johnson wrote.

"There are limits to any right," Rumbaugh said at a recent candidate forum. "In modern times, we have drug wars, gang wars, we have the blood of our children being spilled in the streets and sidewalks of every town and city in Washington. And it is time to do something about it."

Rumbaugh

Rumbaugh, 56, moved to Washington for law school in 1975 after growing up on a farm in northwest Ohio.

He said his epiphany came one hot summer day as a teenager, when a hay bale split open, spilling itchy stalks over his sweaty head and arms. Lesson: time to get off the farm.

After graduating from the University of Puget Sound's law school, Rumbaugh began a side business in real-estate development and business. He is a partner in a New York company, Art Meets Commerce, which runs what it calls the largest haunted house in the city.

"I bet I'm the only Supreme Court candidate that can say that," he said recently.

Rumbaugh, the name partner in a Tacoma firm, perhaps is best known for his civic work, serving on the boards of Planned Parenthood Northwest, Bates Technical College and the Tacoma Housing Authority. During his 12 years on the housing authority, the agency embarked on a $225 million redevelopment of a sprawling, old housing project.

His legal experience is a key issue in the campaign. Rumbaugh, who focuses on workers' compensation and plaintiff's cases, says he has handled a handful of appellate cases, including a 2007 insurance dispute he won before the Supreme Court.

He said he also wrote briefs on a landmark case, Vasquez v. Hawthorne, which created in 2001 the right of gay couples to divorce — even if they weren't married.

Gay marriage, on the other hand, remains illegal due to the Supreme Court's 2006 decision. It is the most significant case heard during Johnson's tenure.

Johnson joined a 5-4 majority but went further than other justices to describe the "unique and binary nature of marriage and its exclusive link with procreation and responsible child rearing. ... "

Johnson referred to U.S. Supreme Court cases banning polygamy, and described lower-court opinions upholding a right of gay marriage as "transparently result-oriented," prompting criticism from other justices.

In an interview, Johnson said, "Our court declined to rewrite the constitution to put something in there that wasn't there." But the Legislature, he said, appeared to have acted appropriately in enacting "everything-but-marriage" laws.

"The Legislature responded to what was apparently a need on the part of same-sex couples," he said.

Rumbaugh said he likely would have voted to allow gay marriage. "I don't think it's the government's place to decide whether people are going to enter into what is essentially a private contract with each other," he said.

"I don't think it's appropriate for the government to stick its nose in and say no you can't do that."

Independent money flows

Progressive groups, angered by what they see as Johnson's anti-union and anti-consumer rulings, plan to pour money into the race in the remaining weeks. FAIRPAC, a liberal advocacy group active in judicial races, has spent $92,000 on ads so far.

"If you look at Johnson's record, he's basically an ultraconservative legislator who is legislating from the bench," said Aaron Ostrom, executive director of the progressive FUSE Washington, a contributor to FAIRPAC.

Erin Shannon, a spokesman for the BIAW, Johnson's largest contributor in 2004, said of Johnson: "He's doing what he said he would do when he first ran. He is upholding the protections guaranteed in the constitution as they relate to person freedom and property rights."

Yet, the BIAW has given Johnson only $1,600 while focusing on Initiative 1082, which would change the state's workers' compensation system.

In the closing weeks of a short campaign, no conservative group has reported spending money on ads opposing Rumbaugh.

Jonathan Martin: 206-464-2605 or jmartin@seattletimes.com