Sanders: Wash. Supreme Court win unlikely

Supreme Court Justice Richard Sanders said Friday that he's likely to lose his re-election bid to the state Supreme Court, but isn't ready to concede just yet.

Sanders' campaign e-mailed a statement to supporters on Friday saying it was unlikely that the three-term justice would close the approximately 4,500-vote gap that exists between him and challenger Charlie Wiggins.

"It looks like we're coming to the end of the campaign trail," Sanders' statement read.

Wiggins had a 6,261-vote lead following a count update Friday afternoon from several of the state's 39 counties, and he holds a 50.2 percent vote advantage over Sanders' 49.8 percent. Sanders had initially led since election night, but Wiggins took the lead on Tuesday and has held on to it ever since. Two other counties, including Spokane, were set to update their numbers Friday evening.

Sanders praised Wiggins for his "intelligence and professionalism" in the debates they had throughout the campaign, as well as the cases that Wiggins argued before the high court as an appellate lawyer. Wiggins is a Bainbridge Island attorney who briefly served as a state appeals court judge.

"I am sure he will be a good Justice, but of course he does not share my perspective on many issues," Sanders wrote. "I have offered him my congratulations and promised him my 100 percent support for his new position."

When reached by telephone, Sanders said that while he expects Wiggins will win, he wasn't officially conceding.

But he said he called Wiggins earlier this week, to tell him congratulations. When Wiggins asked him if he was conceding, he said no, but told him "you're a fine lawyer and you deserve to be on the court," Sanders said.

Wiggins confirmed that conversation Friday, and said he hadn't yet heard from Sanders on Friday.

"This is about as close to a concession without saying it's a concession as I can imagine," he said.

Wiggins said that, out of respect for Sanders, he doesn't want to declare outright victory.

"He's the incumbent, and he has the right to decide when he wants to say, 'OK, that's the end,'" Wiggins said. "From my standpoint, I'm going to assume I'm going to emerge as the victor."

In his statement, Sanders said that it was a "great honor" to serve on the state's highest court. He said that he intended to continue to participate in public life and "to speak out on the issues that confront our justice system."

"I guess there's some truth in the saying, 'old lawyers never die, they just lose their appeal,'" he wrote.

There's still nearly 100,000 ballots left to tally in the coming days, but many of the votes that remain to be counted are in vote-rich King County, the state's largest, where Wiggins leads by a 59 percent to 41 percent margin.