Ireland To Run Again For High Court

OLYMPIA - A veteran King County judge is stepping into the race for the only open seat this fall on the Washington Supreme Court.

Superior Court Judge Faith Ireland yesterday announced her second bid for the high court. She lost to Justice Gerry Alexander in 1994.

Ireland will be running for the seat being vacated by Justice James Dolliver, who is retiring after three terms.

She'll have company on the ballot. Hugh Spitzer, who splits time teaching law at the University of Washington and working as a lawyer for the Seattle firm Foster Pepper Shefelman, indicated his intention to run in January.

Ireland holds an undergraduate degree from the UW and law degrees from Willamette University and Golden Gate University. She is a recent past president of the Washington State Superior Court Judges Association and also has served as dean of the Washington Judicial College, where new judges are trained. Spitzer, who holds an undergraduate degree from Yale and law degrees from the UW and UC Berkeley, served as legal counsel to former Seattle Mayor Charles Royer from 1977 to 1981. He has never run for public office.