Johnson vows clean race for court seat

OLYMPIA — State Sen. Steve Johnson vowed Tuesday he would not resort to personal attacks in his bid to unseat state Supreme Court Justice Susan Owens.

But Johnson stopped short of directly criticizing interest groups that recently launched a barrage of attack ads in the race between Chief Justice Gerry Alexander and property-rights attorney John Groen.

Johnson and Owens face a runoff vote in the November general election. They were the top two vote-getters among five candidates in last week's primary, but neither got the 50 percent needed to advance unopposed.

Alexander got slightly more than 54 percent, defeating Groen in what was the most expensive and divisive Supreme Court race in state history.

Johnson said he is sending a letter to supporters this week promising to run a "clean, fair and truthful" campaign and declaring that "personal attacks are out of bounds."

Johnson also issued a press release calling on Owens and interest groups to "consider honoring" the same principles.

In the Alexander-Groen race, the candidates generally stuck to the issues. But interest groups that waged independent campaigns on both sides did not.

The Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW) and its allies ran television and radio ads portraying Alexander as too old for the job and criticizing him for expressing support for a fellow justice after she was arrested for drunken driving.

A political-action committee funded by labor unions, trial lawyers and other liberal groups responded with ads and mailers deriding Groen as a "right-wing extremist."

Johnson — who also has gotten a lot of support from the BIAW — on Tuesday declined to say whether he thought either side had gone too far in the Alexander-Groen race.

"I didn't necessarily formulate an opinion on it," Johnson said. "A lot of people think they went over the line, so it doesn't really matter what I think. Whatever they did, it created a public distraction and controversy. ... I don't want our campaign to devolve into that."

Christian Sinderman, a political consultant for Owens, questioned the timing of Johnson's call for civility.

"It's interesting that Senator Johnson waited until after BIAW tactics against Chief Justice Alexander backfired to make this proclamation," Sinderman said. "If he were serious, he would have made it months ago."

Tom McCabe, the BIAW's executive vice president, said he isn't sure what kind of ads his group is going to run in the Johnson-Owens race. He said he is still analyzing data from a poll the BIAW conducted last week to gauge voter response to the ads in the Alexander-Groen race.

"I can guarantee you that we will do no personal attacks on Susan Owens," McCabe said.

But McCabe also said he didn't think the BIAW's ads against Alexander went too far. He said they were "mischaracterized" as personal attacks.

Owens said she welcomed Johnson's clean-campaign pledge and hopes it has some sway with his supporters at the BIAW. She also said that if she sees any offensive attacks against him by her supporters she will denounce them.

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