Washblog

John Groen, the attorney for the Building Industry of Washington State who has never been a judge but wants to unseat our Supreme Court Chief Justice, tells us  in a Seattle Times article of today entitled Building-industry ads hammer judge , that he is running in order to prevent "the undermining of the notion of an independent, nonpartisan judiciary."

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ho ho ho hee hee Ug! Hack! Ew!

This is the man who touts his "eighteen years (of) experience before the Washington Supreme Court, advocating for property rights," He's raised, $276,061.56 for this race, according to Washington's Public Disclosure Commission records.  Much of it's from lumber, construction, and development interests.  Scads of it was poured into the campaign right before a June deadline that made such contributions illegal.  SDS Company, for example, which provided $25,000 right before that deadline, is a lumber company from Klickitat County.  Then we've got $25,000 from the principals of another development company, Sundquist Homes.  And so on.

Gerry Alexander, our current chief justice, known as a moderate, adhered to the letter and spirit of Washington's law and has raised only $47,581.60. Alexander, according to King County Bar Association, is exceptionally well qualified.

This fall, the building industry is heavily supporting three sprawl-happy candidates for the Supreme Court above the experienced and moderate incumbents. Can this industry buy justice in Washington?   Yes, they can.  And  maybe they will succeed. Except it won't be justice any more, once they've got their paws on it.

It's also worth noting that the same interests that are trying to buy our courts are also pushing I-933 in order to unravel a good portion of Washington State's environmental and zoning laws. This will generate a huge amount of sprawl and... yep, litigation.  If the BIAW has its way, much of this litigation will end up before its own hand-picked judges.

How do these people sleep at night?