Richard Pope's latest run for public office gains notice few ever expected

Richard Pope has run for office 10 times and lost 10 times. He has switched parties three times.

Until now, he has been seen mostly as a political pest.

Pope has demonstrated a talent over the years for scouring public records and finding others' flaws.

He's done that particularly well in his current campaign, showing that Jane Hague, the four-term King County councilwoman he is trying to unseat, violated campaign-finance laws and claimed a college degree she didn't have.

Those disclosures, plus Hague's recent drunken-driving charge, have made her re-election less than a sure bet — and caused Pope's candidacy, as a Democrat this time, to be taken seriously.

Pope, 45, may still be a longshot. He has no endorsements, the Municipal League of King County considers him not qualified and King County Democrats have all but disowned him. His campaign reports $8,956 in contributions, mostly loans from Pope.

Only six other people have given to his campaign to represent District 6, which includes Mercer Island and most of Bellevue and Kirkland.

But Hague and the King County Republican Party were worried enough to throw an additional $91,134 into the campaign this month. GOP mailings and a Web site accuse him of mental instability and of harassing and threatening women.

The ultimate outsider so accustomed to scrutinizing the records of those in power is himself getting a closer look.

Pope denies accusations that he has harassed or threatened women. "I never imagined the level of nastiness that has come out," he said.

As for mental instability, Pope said he was seriously depressed two years ago, but he's better now and ready to serve on the County Council.

On issues facing county government, Pope supports the "Roads & Transit" Proposition 1 tax. He says the region needs more jail beds but isn't yet sure if the county should provide them. And he is dubious about a newly created ferry district because he's not convinced that the county should be in the ferry business, or that there's adequate demand for routes on Lake Washington.

"I think he's very bright and he has the capacity to do enormous amounts of research on subjects," said county Democratic Party Chairwoman Susan Sheary. "He's well-spoken, he's well-written, but it's always a 'gotcha' kind of thing. I don't like that kind of politics."

Hague was viewed as a shoo-in before word got out in August that she had been arrested 2-½ months earlier. She has pleaded not guilty to driving under the influence.

This month, Hague acknowledged she falsely claimed a university degree on a 1986 résumé. Earlier, she admitted a number of recent campaign-finance and -reporting violations and agreed to pay an $8,000 fine to the state Public Disclosure Commission (PDC).

The résumé padding and finance violations came to light through Pope's efforts. Sitting at a computer in his Bellevue home that serves as his campaign headquarters and law office, he noticed discrepancies in Hague's biographies from different years and found problems with her PDC reports.

Then, after a judge pro tem continued a hearing on her DUI charge until after the Nov. 6 election, Pope checked him out. He discovered Richard Llewelyn Jones had a criminal record. A panel of King County District Court judges last week barred Jones from hearing any more cases.

It was a tour de force of muckraking, and classic Richard Pope.

But will any of Hague's problems translate into votes for a man who has been repeatedly admonished by judges and who couldn't persuade his own party to support him?

No one seems to doubt Pope's intelligence. He graduated with highest honors from the University of Washington School of Law in 1991. A professor once said Pope was one of the smartest students he had seen but also an eccentric who drove other students away.

While still in law school, Pope was a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the UW over its withholding of Social Security payments from thousands of employees. Pope won, but the state Supreme Court reversed the decision.

Over the years, he has gained a reputation as a combative lawyer who files suits against businesses he's unhappy with and flurries of motions and appeals on behalf of clients. He has gotten into emotional spats in court proceedings.

He called a lawyer "a damn liar" in a 1995 deposition and said another was "a jerk" four years later. In the first case, an opposing lawyer and client said Pope turned red with anger, knocked papers around and lunged across a conference table during a deposition. Pope apologized for yelling at the lawyer and calling him a liar, but has denied lunging.

The opposing client, a woman, got an anti-harassment order against Pope. The State Bar Association and Pope signed a stipulation acknowledging his conduct "was sufficiently egregious to warrant a public warning."

After Pope's client in a 1995 divorce case was arrested for growing marijuana, Pope told the opposing lawyer, "You'd better watch your back," recalls the lawyer, Christopher Mainard. Pope says he recalls no such comment — "and certainly I would not have made a threat to anybody like that."

Chuck Kimbrough, a retired lawyer, remembers Pope as "an odd duck — smart academically, real poor people skills."

Judges have sometimes lost patience with Pope for missing deadlines. The state Court of Appeals in 1997 sanctioned Pope and a client $1,500 for delays and failure to pay for court documents.

When more than a year passed without payment, the court threatened to ban him from filing future cases. The appeals judges later charged Pope and his client $1,500 more for their "flagrant disregard" of the original penalty.

U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman removed Pope from a case last year, months after Pope wrote he had missed deadlines because of depression over his father's illness and death, his separation from his wife, assuming custody of their autistic daughter and taking her to therapy several days each week.

Pope told the judge he had moved his law practice into his home, was in the process of closing it down and his mental health was "terrible" but that he hoped that was temporary. "Counsel believes that he suffers from serious depression and post-traumatic stress disorder," Pope wrote the court.

Pope said the state bar association is investigating his handling of the case before Pechman. The association wouldn't confirm or deny this.

The King County Bar Association last year rated Pope as not qualified in his campaign for a District Court judgeship. He got 43.7 percent of the vote.

Now divorced, Pope has custody of his daughter, Katie, 4-½, who is in special education and can't speak. He says he barely makes ends meet with money from his small legal practice and his daughter's Supplemental Security Income payments.

"Richard is a devoted father who has put all his energy into his own daughter," says Paul Brecht, a former client working on his campaign. "The things he's most passionate about are his daughter and his desire to serve the public."

Since 1995, Pope has run unsuccessfully for offices ranging from Shoreline water commissioner to state attorney general. He has run as a Republican, then a Democrat, then a Republican and now a Democrat.

On his way out the door of the Republican Party, which he says he left, in part, out of anger over the Iraq war, Pope filed a complaint about the county party's financial reports. That led to a PDC investigation and a $22,500 fine against the party this year for multiple public-disclosure violations.

When Pope filed at the last minute as Hague's only Democratic challenger, GOP leaders were gleeful. Democrats were appalled, choosing to support a write-in candidate whom Pope easily defeated in the primary.

Even after that, the Democratic Central Committee voted not to endorse him.

Tim Hatley, a lobbyist and Democratic political consultant, doubts that Pope, with his reputation as "an ankle-biter," could be an effective council member.

Former state Rep. Toby Nixon, a Republican, praises Hague as doing a "great job" and staying in touch with her constituents.

But, he notes, "If you look at what Richard Pope is really good at — and please don't quote me as being a supporter of Richard Pope — what Richard Pope is really good at is digging for the truth and exposing it. The King County Council could use some of that."

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com