From the Sep 12 – Sep 18, 2002 issue

Pullout

More . . .

CITY
PROPOSITION NO. 1 LOW-INCOME HOUSING LEVY
Vote No
Should city money help poor people get housing? You bet! It's a way to give poor people footing, so they can stabilize their lives and get back in the game. The mayor and the city council did an excellent job of directing the majority of this year's housing levy's rental assistance portion to truly poor people--folks making 30 percent or less of the median income.

Should city money subsidize home mortgages for people making up to 80 percent of the median income? No. Unfortunately, the housing levy includes money--nearly 10 percent of the dough--for homeownership. This waste of precious levy funds convinced us to say no dice.

The Glee Club is offended that a worthy program like low-income rental assistance was spliced together with homeownership in one initiative. Voters should have had the chance to vote on the ideas separately.

STATE SUPREME COURT
In Supreme Court races, the top two vote-getters move on to the general election. However, if one candidate receives an outright majority, his or her name will be placed on the November ballot unopposed, as a formality.

JUSTICE POS. NO. 3
Vote for Michael Spearman
This one was easy. It's not just that Michael Spearman is the only candidate with judicial experience, having served nine years on the King County Superior Court. Or his stack of endorsements from Democrats, moderate Republicans, and over 100 other judges. No, what makes Spearman a lock in the view of the Stranger Election Glee Club is his dreamy demeanor. Soft-spoken and mannerly, he's a jurisprudential Sidney Poitier--dignified, humble, and quietly intelligent. As for the others, Jim Johnson is smart but too far to the right, Mary Fairhurst is well meaning but too nicey-nice, and Stan Morse lacks experience. So vote Spearman, the Dream Supreme.

JUSTICE POS. NO. 4
Vote for Charles W. Johnson
Judicial races are boring. Nonpartisan and highbrow, they're usually free of the (highly entertaining) sniping that defines most political contests. Take Spearman. Yeah, he's dreamy--but there's only so much dignity, humility, and quiet intelligence the Glee Club can stand. Much as we liked him, after an hour with Spearman we wanted to get the Undignified Duo--Adam Kline and Dawn Mason--back in our office for another pissing match.

As it turns out, we didn't have to bring back Kline and Mason to liven things up. Someone apparently forgot to tell the folks running for state supreme court position no. 4 that these races are supposed to be dull. The Glee Club was shocked--shocked!--at the verbal hand grenades lobbed at the endorsement interview, particularly by Pam Loginsky, who claims incumbent Charles W. Johnson "has no concern for police safety" and refuses to correct seriously flawed court rules that free dangerous criminals on technicalities. Bits of spittle flew out of Loginsky's mouth as she made these charges; at one point Loginsky went rigid and fell to the floor, and Stranger Publisher Tim Keck had to reach into her mouth to prevent her from swallowing her own tongue. Gross! Mopping Loginsky's spittle from his face (along with bits of the scone she was eating before the meeting!) Johnson made a strong, unrepentant defense of individual rights--and in the Glee Club's estimation, earned another term.

The third candidate in this race, Doug Schafer, was off in la-la land with his abstract, sweeping denunciation of the current legal culture as "immoral." Schafer obviously doesn't read The Stranger, a longtime supporter of immorality in all its pleasurable guises.

COURT OF APPEALS
In this race, whoever receives more than 50 percent of the vote is the de facto winner, but must appear (albeit unopposed) on the general election ballot.

DIV. NO. 1, DIST. NO. 1 JUDGE POS. NO. 5
Vote for H. Joseph Coleman
This is a scary one. The challenger, Jeanette "Skirts" Burrage, is a former judge and a right-wing ideologue rated "not qualified" by the King County Bar Association. ("Skirts" Burrage lost her seat in 2000 after ordering female lawyers to wear skirts when they appeared in her courtroom.) Burrage looks like a Stepford Wife, but presided over her courtroom like a member of the Taliban's Grand Council of Islamic Clerics. Joe Coleman, on the other hand, has 18 years on the appellate bench, gets the bar association's highest rating, and impressed the Glee Club with his thoughtful, principled approach to the law. Burrage has name recognition, though, and right-wing voters are highly motivated and tend to turn out for primaries, unlike lazy lefties. So Burrage might actually win, and then the world will end, and it will be all YOUR FAULT.

SUPERIOR COURT
In this race, the winner will be decided in the primary.

JUDGE POS. NO. 5
Vote for Steve Gonzalez
Steve Gonzalez looks good on paper. He ran the hate crimes unit of the U.S. Attorney's office, speaks four languages, and prosecuted the high-profile Millennium Bomber case. We only know how Gonzalez looks on paper, because he refused to come in for an endorsement interview--he didn't want to get in a debate, he said. David Larson, Gonzalez's Republican opponent, did show up, and came across as a thoroughly reasonable conservative. Still, Gonzalez wins our endorsement because... well, because Larson's a conservative Republican, which is a very serious handicap in the Glee Club's estimation.

KING COUNTY DISTRICT COURT
In this race, the top two vote-getters move on to the general election.

SEATTLE ELECTORAL DISTRICT JUDGE POS. NO. 3
Vote for Susan J. Noonan
This one's a rarity: three candidates, and all pass the sanity test. Makes it tough on the Glee Club, but we persevere because we've got pep. Ron Mattson has had an active private legal practice for 10 years. Art Chapman's been a Seattle municipal court judge for the last two years. But the Glee Club liked Susan J. Noonan. She served 12 years as a prosecutor without developing a hang-'em-high mentality, and has sat 200 times as a pro tem judge. She's qualified and even tempered, and she deserves a shot.