10/23/08

Letters to the Editor

In support of Wilson for Superior Court Judge

Editor,
Experience counts. And Joe Wilson has the experience that counts to be an excellent judge, which is why so many judges support his candidacy. It’s the reason I have endorsed Joe to take my place on the bench. He has tried cases in Superior Court for the last 14 years and has tried cases in the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. No other candidate for judge can make that claim.

Most of our citizens receive the services of our courts in civil cases, not criminal. Joe Wilson has not only handled criminal cases, as his opponent has, but also all the civil cases which most affect our citizens – personal injury, real estate, domestic relations, wills and estate planning. Litigants prefer to have their cases heard by a judge who has represented clients with similar problems.

For the last ten years, Joe has served as a board member with Domestic Violence Services of Snohomish County, helping thousands of the most vulnerable members of our community find help.

I’ve been a Superior Court judge for the past 20 years. I know what it takes to be a solid judge. There is no doubt Joe is the more qualified person to succeed me. I’m voting for Joe because he has a rare combination of legal skills, fairness and integrity. I hope everyone will join me this year and vote for Joe Wilson for Superior Court Judge.

Richard J. Thorpe
Snohomish Co. Superior Court Judge

Editor,
For a lay person, casting an informed vote for judge can be a daunting task.  A case in point is Superior Court judge, Pos. 6, a position for which, on first analysis, both candidates, Joe Wilson and George Appel, appear qualified.  How then to decide?

For me, there are three deciding factors: breadth of experience, commitment to public service and a key endorsement. Joe Wilson emerges as superior in all three.

Mr. Wilson has litigated both criminal and civil cases all over the state of Washington. He has tried cases in Municipal, District, Superior courts and in the Tulalip Tribal Court. He has argued cases before the State Court of Appeals, the Federal District Court of Western Washington and most impressively successfully argued two cases before the Washington State Supreme Court.
Mr. Wilson volunteers his time for low income clients through Snohomish County Legal Services, is a long-time board member and past president of the Snohomish County Center for Battered Women and serves on the Dawson Place Feasibility Committee to provide comprehensive services to abused children.                                                                                   
Superior Court judge Richard J. Thorpe, the judge who is retiring from the position the two candidates are competing for, has provided a compelling endorsement for Mr. Wilson.
I believe the choice is clear.

Bill Trager
Mill Creek

Editor,
I recently read a glowing letter to the editor about George Appel. The letter stated George stands up for victims of domestic abuse, and prosecutes criminals who commit violent crimes.

Yet George Appel cannot stand up and give respect to his opponent in their race for Superior Court Judge. On Oct. 1, at the domestic violence luncheon at the Everett Events Center, Joe Wilson was honored by Domestic Violence Services Center of Snohomish County for his years of work and dedication to ending domestic violence in our community.

 
Surprised and humbled, Mr. Wilson received a standing ovation from the crowd. Who remained seated and aloof? That would be George Appel and his table of prosecutors.

What does that say about Mr. Appel’s character? It says partisan politics are more important than recognizing hard work. It says pride is more important than selfless acts of compassion for those who cannot speak for themselves.

If your first instinct is to snub Joe Wilson for his decade-long pursuit of social justice, who else are you willing to snub, Mr. ­Appel? The character of a Superior Court Judge must be neutral, firm and fair. I see those qualities in Joe Wilson.

On Oct. 1, George Appel was sitting on the sidelines as leaders in the victim’s advocacy arena cele­brated the achievements of a compassionate volunteer. On November 4, I hope we stand up and elect Joe Wilson to the Superior Court.

Aaron Wagner
Lake Stevens

Editor,
I turn on my TV and I see Barack Obama and John McCain. During commercials I see Dino Rossi and Christine Gregiore. What a breath of fresh air it is to have a candidate come to my door and actually talk about what’s important to me. That candidate is Joe Wilson.

Joe is running for Snohomish County Superior Court Judge position 6. Before Joe came by to talk, I didn’t know much about the Superior Court, or what makes a good judge. When Joe and I finished our discussion, I did my homework about both candidates in the race.

Joe has more legal experience than his opponent. For the last 14 years, Joe has tried both criminal and civil cases, the kinds of issues that a Superior Court Judge will hear every day.

We need competent judges who know what they’re doing on day one. There won’t be a learning curve for Joe; he knows his stuff. Joe also knows what it means to give back to the community. When he’s not meeting folks around the community and talking about his candidacy, Joe stands up for local crime victims and their family members.

What do I like most about Joe? He took the time to listen to my concerns about my neighborhood and my children’s safety. Joe Wilson has done his homework; he is a fair-minded, modest person. I’m voting for Joe…and I hope you will too.

Jeanne McDonagh
Mill Creek

Editor,
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 2005 and 2006 America’s unions lost 326,000 members.  This is only part of a long, long decline from the post-war years when unions were strong in our country.  Unions are under attack in America.  The culture of belonging to a union has declined.

We need to be thinking about every candidate from dog-catcher to President—does this candidate put forward a positive, pro-union message.  Does he or she support the efforts of unions to bargain and organize?

 
Now I am going to get specific.  Judicial positions are “Non-Partisan.”  But we have seen over the years how much judges can change our lives with their rulings.  We have seen what conservative courts can do, how they have set back the unions in America and helped fat-cats ship our jobs to China and Vietnam.  We have a judicial race here in Snohomish County this year.  Superior Court Judge Position Number 6 is vacant.  Who knows, these judges might be on the State Supreme Court someday.  Do you think that what party endorses them doesn’t matter?  The committee, Democracy for Snohomish County, has supported Joe Wilson for Position No. 6. Snohomish County Democrats have supported Joe Wilson for that spot as well.  I also know that Wilson has been the contract attorney for the Teamsters in Snohomish and neighboring counties, so he knows about unions and what they stand for.

Joe Wilson’s campaign is the only campaign that made the choice early on to only patronize union shops for his materials.   Joe is widely endorsed by local organized labor from the firefighters to the laborers. He stands with us and now I am asking you to stand with him.  Please join me in voting for Joe Wilson on November 4th.

 
Roger Moller
Bothell

Alas! No polling place

Editor,

The mail-in ballot has cut me off from my community. I don’t have the pleasure of finding my precinct polling place where I would see neighbors to chat with. Neighbors that I’d just wave to as I passed them during the year. I feel the loss. It was fun, stepping through the door, saying hello to the poll workers, signing in and passing the time of day with them. Then filling out my ballot and handing it in to a real person. It made me feel that I had really done my duty—voting in public, where God and everybody could see me. It was important!

It used to be we would go to the City Hall or the Grange Hall or school where the county had set up those old clunky machines. We would step in, close the curtain so no one could peek at you while you looked at whichever lever would register your choice. The machine clanked and did its mysterious thing, registering your vote. Impressive!

In those days, after the polls closed, the workers tallied the votes and posted the results on the door outside the polling place. As one of the local newspaper’s worker bees, I dashed around to all the polling places—at midnight—getting each precinct’s results and running back to the office to tally all of them for that week’s editions, trying to get the results, fresh and new, to our readers. It was exciting!

Now, with motor-voter registration and ever-efficient efforts to get EVERYONE—legal and illegal—to vote, we have this new mail-in ballot that divorces us from our fellow person (not man), where, in the privacy of our home, we can make our supposedly informed choices. Nobody to chat with. No sense of importance—letting the world know we have VOTED.

I guess that’s progress. But I’d rather regress a little. It was more fun!

Sim Wilson

Marysville/Kingston

Attack ads are shameful

Editor,

Once again, last-minute attack ads are being rolled out.  At the top of the list this campaign season is one sponsored by someone calling themselves the Citizens Action Group, but paid for by The Leadership Council. With research, we discover the hand of the Washington State Republican Party at work. Their target is Senator Mary Margaret Haugen, a public servant in District 10.

 How former Soviet Union’s Premier Yuri Andropov fits the political scene in Washington is beyond me, but it may point to how desperate the Republicans are to replace Mary Margaret. I truly hope they fail.

 Such attacks are not appropriate anytime, but at the last minute they are a clear violation of campaign ethics. One wonders how connected her opponent is to such tactics. Shame on whoever is behind it.
 
John J. Shaffer
Stanwood

Bipartisan ad a breath of fresh air

Editor,
I was recently surprised and pleased to hear an ad by Washington’s treasurer, Democrat Michael Murphy, endorsing his Republican assistant, Allan Martin, for the state job.

How refreshing to hear a candidate disregard party lines for the sake of the state’s citizens. As the ad states, our money isn’t red or blue and ability is more important than party affiliation.

Jeanne Davis
Smokey Point

Praying for city

Editor,
After reading “Pray for the City Council” in the Sept. 25 issue of North County Outlook, I marked my calendar to remember to pray for the City Council meetings, held each Monday at 7 p.m.

We can all do our part to remember those in leadership positions in our city.

Irma Oien
Marysville

Rossi lies about governor's record

Editor,
Like other law enforcement officials around the state, I am outraged and offended by the latest ads in the governor’s race.

The ads blaming Gov. Gregoire for 1,300 homeless sex offenders represent some of the most misleading and reprehensible political attacks I have ever seen. In truth, Gov. Gregoire has done more to track and hold sex offenders accountable than any other governor during my lifetime. In fact, the number of missing registered sex offenders has dropped by more than 300 during her tenure.

As a legislator, I worked with Gov. Gregoire to pass HB 2407 to put in place GPS monitoring for the worst sex offenders. This was just one out of more than 25 sex offender laws that the governor signed during her first term, and that doesn’t even include the creation of Operation Crackdown, a new program to track and punish sex offenders who fail to register.

 
As a sheriff, I will personally attest to Gov. Gregoire’s dedication to public safety and tell you that she is the best partner the law enforcement community has ever had in the governor’s office. Those who care about the safety of our communities would be unwise not to re-elect her.

John Lovick, Sheriff
Mill Creek

Editor,
Like most of us out here, I am completely fed up with the negative political ads constantly invading my living room. Dino Rossi’s campaign seems to be the biggest player in the dirty laundry brigade, and I’m amazed at the baseless lies he continues to spout against Chris Gregoire.

1,300 sex offenders unaccounted for? That’s actually a positive number. When Gregoire took office, there were 1,637 sex offenders with unknown addresses. Her leadership efforts have helped reduce the number of unregistered sex offenders by 16 percent since 2004, partly because of increased state funding to city and county agencies to track offenders and to pay for more at-home visits from police officers.

Gregoire has also been instrumental in backing the development of a database that will send e-mail notifications to residents when a sex offender moves into the area.

As state attorney general, Chris Gregoire is well aware of the state’s responsibilities and limitations in dealing with child abuse and sex offenses. Unlike Rossi, who can easily promise anything in order to get elected, Gregoire has a track record of advocating for citizen safety, and especially the health and wellbeing of children.

Joe Martin
Marysville

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