Superior Court Judge Paul Bastine isn’t running for anything this election. But a comment about his retirement decision is a good prelude to a discussion about his successor.

Bastine is serving out the term to which he was elected. Judges don’t always do that. Often, they step down in midterm, letting governors appoint their replacements. The replacements then enjoy months of name familiarity that gives them a political advantage over anyone who challenges them on the ballot. Not only name familiarity but the ability to print the title “Judge” before their names. And they accumulate judicial experience to boast about to voters.

Thanks to Bastine’s decision, the candidates for his position come before the voters this fall with differences, to be sure, but differences that are honest rather than contrived.

District Court Judge Harold D. Clarke III is one of them. Attorney Gail Schwartz is the other. The robe Clarke wears and the title before his name were come by genuinely.

Those things and the judicial experience they represent give him a strong edge.

Schwartz is a personable, enthusiastic, good-hearted and idealistic lawyer – and we mean idealistic in a good way. She wants the court to be a guardian of fairness and respect. She wants to safeguard justice and show people the compassion and poise under fire that she exhibited during 10 years as a 911 emergency dispatcher. She wants everyone to have access to the judicial system, regardless of socioeconomic conditions.

She’s a 1998 Gonzaga University Law School graduate who, with the help of a paralegal, operates a solo private practice in northwest Spokane.

Clarke, on the other hand, has been a judge since 1999, almost as long as Schwartz has been in practice. Also a GU Law School product, he had 18 years of private practice before donning his robes.

In his nearly six years on the Spokane County District Court bench, he has performed well, supporting all the ideals cited by Schwartz. He is well-prepared to take a step up the judicial ladder to the Superior Court bench.

There’s no reason to think Schwartz isn’t solid judicial material, too. But Clarke has a track record of achieving the ideals he and Schwartz share. Voters could elect him with confidence in a known quantity.