Newest high-court justice faces voters

OLYMPIA - Nine months after the governor appointed her to a seat on the state Supreme Court, Justice Bobbe Bridge is asking voters to let her stay for two more years.

Only one person stands in the way: Tacoma attorney Scott Schwieger.

The two are competing in the Sept. 19 primary for the Position 7 seat that Bridge has held since January, when Gov. Gary Locke appointed her to the vacancy created by the resignation of Justice Barbara Durham.

Because there are only two candidates in the race, the winner of the primary wins the right to finish the last two years of Durham's six-year term, unless a successful write-in candidate emerges before the Nov. 7 statewide vote.

Bridge, 55, spent 14 years in private practice before then-Gov. Booth Gardner appointed her to a seat on King County Superior Court in 1990. In nearly 10 years as a trial judge, she served for a time as chief judge of juvenile court and created the Unified Family Court, an initiative that is being copied elsewhere to streamline court operations.

Then Locke made her his first appointment to Washington's highest court.

Bridge says she has had a busy year since then, with one published decision and seven others in the works. She also remains active in judicial-administration issues, including heading a committee searching for ways to build public confidence in the courts.

By mid-August, her campaign had raised about $100,000, more than most of the 13 people running for four seats on the court this fall.

She is married to Jonathan Bridge, co-chief executive officer of Ben Bridge Jeweler.

Schwieger, 35, filed for the office at the last minute after seeing that no one had signed up to oppose Bridge.

Schwieger (pronounced SHWEE-ger) says he has "a great deal of respect" for Bridge's accomplishments. But he says she should not be running for a nonpartisan seat on the Supreme Court because of her past activities with the Democratic Party.

Before beginning her career as a judge, Bridge was a Democratic activist and ran unsuccessfully for the King County Council in 1987.

Schwieger notes that Bridge was appointed to the trial court by Gardner, a Democrat, and to the Supreme Court by Locke, also a Democrat.

"Judges are supposed to be nonpartisan," Schwieger says. "She's still readily identifiable as a Democrat. I know of nothing she did to disabuse the public of the notion she is a firm Democrat."

Bridge says Schwieger's criticism is off the mark. Everyone has a "background," she says, noting that Justice Phil Talmadge is a former Democratic state senator and Justice Richard Sanders follows unabashedly libertarian views. What's important is that the judges follow no political platform once they're on the bench, Bridge says.

"I have been a judge for 10 years and I have never been criticized as a Democratic judge or a Republican judge," she says. "I would defy anybody to find any decision I have made which smacks of political partisanship."

Schwieger, a former Army paratrooper who has spent most of his life in the Tacoma area, has practiced law for five years. He runs a solo law practice covering civil and criminal law and is engaged to be married.

Schwieger acknowledges that his five years of experience falls well short of Bridge's 25 years, but he says "breadth" of experience is more important than "depth."

Bridge is one of two justices on the ballot this fall. The other, Gerry Alexander, 64, of Olympia, is finishing his first six-year term on the nine-member high court. He is unopposed.