Washington’s Supreme Court will have its first truly open election in 12 years

At a grange hall in Port Angeles Saturday, candidates lobbied Clallam County Republicans for support and late-stage campaign donations. Free coffee and cakes frosted with American flags sat off to the side of the stage.

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The only speaker without an "R" next to his name on the ballot was Dave Larson, a municipal court judge in Federal Way. He’s running for a seat on the Washington Supreme Court, a nonpartisan position.

As Larson told the crowd, this November will be the first time in 12 years voters will decide on a truly "open" Supreme Court seat, with no incumbent running.

Justice Susan Owens turned 75 this year, reaching retirement age under state law. Gov. Jay Inslee appointed replacements for the last three justices to retire, and they went on to win enough votes to keep their seats. This time, the governor will not appoint a replacement; neither candidate competing for the open seat — Larson and his opponent, Sal Mungia — is currently on the bench of the state Supreme Court.

Larson also ran for the state Supreme Court in 2016 and 2020, but lost.

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While there is no explicit Republican or Democrat in the race, voters face a somewhat clear partisan choice. Larson was endorsed by the Washington State Republican Party, and Mungia has money and support from many leading Democrats and progressive groups, including Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who's running to be the next governor.

Mungia has the clear upper hand, with more than double the money and an electorate that seems to be trending progressive: a Ballotpedia analysis found over the last decade, donors to winning state Supreme Court candidates were overwhelmingly progressive, and the court's decisions usually favored progressive parties.

Mungia is a lauded trial lawyer who’s argued appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court. In addition to Inslee and Ferguson, he's been endorsed by eight of the nine sitting state Supreme Court justices – including Justice Susan Owens, whose retirement opened up this seat.

He told KUOW his core values include access to justice and "fighting bias within the justice system."

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"I always thought I'd just continue doing that as a lawyer, like I have been doing," Mungia said. "But when this opportunity came up, I thought, 'Man, if I can make bigger systemic change, I've got to try.'"

If elected, Mungia said he'd lobby Olympia and Congress to put more money into civil legal aid, and work to ensure people who can't pay legal fees get them waived.

Larson has advocated for more services for defendants with behavioral health issues like mental illness and drug addiction.

"My motto in my court that I have right now is, 'I run a repair shop, not a junkyard.' My job is to make people's lives better," Larson said. "[If] somebody deserves punishment, it's still there. But the idea is, when somebody's ready for change, if we're not ready to help them, then we're the problem."

But there are some stark differences between the two candidates' legal philosophies. Larson called the governor's Covid-era vaccine mandate for state employees "illegal," and criticized court decisions in recent years throwing out the state's drug possession law and keeping the capital gains tax.

"The foundation of justice is dignity and respect, and that's what our courts are supposed to deliver, is dignity and respect. And we haven't been doing a very good job," Larson said. "If we take a number of judges and let each of us pick our own personal opinion about what we think the law is, we undermine the political process. …We take sides when it comes to trying to change the law, when the legislative process needs to fix it."

Mungia agreed with the state Supreme Court's decisions on capital gains and drug possession – particularly in the 2021 "Blake decision" when the state Supreme Court threw out the state's felony drug possession law.

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"It's not personal opinions – it's what the law requires," Mungia said. "People have to get over that, knowing that judges are doing their best to follow what the law requires them to do, whether it's popular or not. That's their job."

Mungia has raised far more money than Larson, raking in nearly half a million dollars from attorneys, tribes, and unions representing state employees, teachers, and caregivers.

Larson has raised less than $140,000 from a range of attorneys and private citizens, including $2,400 from Steve Gordon, a regular Republican donor and retired trucking magnate.