In recent weeks, the race between incumbent Municipal Court judge Edsonya Charles and her challenger, assistant city attorney Ed McKenna, has devolved, thanks to the efforts of Charles’ supporters, into an ugly dispute over whether a group of DUI attorneys illegally collaborated with McKenna’s campaign. (Charles’ supporters filed a complaint saying a political-action committee funded by DUI defense attorneys had recruited McKenna and raised money to support his campaign).
For starters, we don’t buy the claim that McKenna will be soft on drunk drivers. (He’s a 20-year veteran of the city attorney’s office who worked for tough-on-crime guys Mark Sidran and Tom Carr.) More important, the move by the Charles camp fits with how she does business. And it’s why we’ve grown tired of her tenure.
Charles’ last-minute assault on McKenna is only the latest in a long list of borderline unprofessional attacks on people she perceives to be her opponents:
• She refused to follow a request from Holmes that most defendants receive no more than a 364-day sentence in criminal cases—a position that could have made immigrants charged with minor crimes vulnerable to deportation (immigrants who receive sentences of 365 days or more are subject to automatic deportation, whether or not they are in the country illegally.)
Holmes argued that
• She fought loudly (and publicly) against a city council proposal, which Holmes supported, to cut one muni court judge to help close this past year’s $15 million budget shortfall; city budget staffers argued that the court did not have enough workload to justify paying eight full-time judges. Although Holmes offered to put any of his 90-plus lawyers at Charles’ disposal, Charles refused, instead hiring private attorneys from Perkins Coie at city expense (an expense she initially tried to pass off to Holmes’ office); the council eventually cut the position.
• And she has been accused by the city attorney himself of being “verbally abusive” (to paraphrase Holmes himself, as quoted by the Seattle Times) to his attorneys—a description that dovetails with numerous city officials’ criticisms that Charles is divisive and difficult to work with.
Oh, and Charles was ranked dead-last on a list of 47 judges ranked by the King County Bar Association. You don’t rank 47th out of 47 by doing a stellar job.
McKenna is a well-liked city prosecutor who has fought against crime-plagued motels on Aurora Ave., targeted repeat auto thieves for enhanced prosecution, and expanded access to community court. He was rated “exceptionally well qualified” by the King County Bar Association, “Very Good” by the Seattle/King County Municipal League, and has received endorsements from five Seattle District Democratic organizations, the Seattle and King County police unions, community leaders including bar owners, neighborhood groups, and bike activists, and six city council members—spanning the Seattle political spectrum from Tim Burgess to Nick Licata. We support him, too. If that doesn’t demonstrate a convincing consensus for McKenna and against Charles, get this, not only has current super lib City Attorney Pete Holmes endorsed McKenna, but former city attorney, conservative (for Seattle), Tom Carr has as well.
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