PORT LUDLOW — Three candidates for the state Supreme Court discussed legal philosophy and the benefits of judicial individuality and collaboration at a candidate forum last week.
Two candidates, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Bryan Chushcoff and Bainbridge Island attorney Charlie Wiggins, are challenging incumbent Supreme Court Justice Richard Sanders, who is seeking a third full term.
In judicial races, a candidate who receives more than 50 percent of the vote in the Aug. 17 primary will take office in January. Primary ballots were mailed Wednesday.
If no single candidate gains a majority, the top two vote-getters will face off in the Nov. 2 general election.
Sanders has built a reputation as an iconoclast, and that became a recurring theme in the debate.
“We want a judge who can collaborate with other judges and not insert their own opinions into the case,” Chushcoff said Thursday in Port Ludlow.
“I work well with other people,” Sanders said.
“But the purpose of the court is to challenge each other and stand up for your own ideas.”
Sanders quoted Gen. George S. Patton, the renowned World War II leader: “If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.”
All three candidates appeared twice on the North Olympic Peninsula last week, in Sequim on Monday and Thursday in Port Hadlock in a forum shared with candidates for Jefferson County commissioner in District 3.
The forum was sponsored by the League of Women Voters, the Association of University Women and the Port Townsend Jefferson County Leader, a weekly newspaper.
When asked to name the jurist they most admire, Chushcoff mentioned U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, citing his behavior during his confirmation hearings.
Sanders said he most admired William O. Douglas, who is the only U.S. Supreme Court justice in history to hail from Washington state, having moved to Yakima when he was young.
Sanders said he didn’t always agree with Douglas’ rulings, but admired his goal “to get government off of our backs.”
Wiggins said he didn’t always agree with his most admired jurist, former state Supreme Court Justice Robert F. Utter, who resigned his seat rather than rule in favor of the death penalty (something that Wiggins does not oppose).
Utter was Sanders’ predecessor on the state Supreme Court, Wiggins noted.
Chushcoff said his current job prepares him for the one he seeks.
“When Judge Gerry Alexander retires from the bench next year, we will no longer have anyone on the Supreme Court who has served on Superior Court,” he said.
“I think that it’s important that we preserve that knowledge on the high court.”
Wiggins countered that his own experience as an appeals court judge was more suited “because most of the cases heard by the Supreme Court are appeals.”
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie. bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.