Recall efforts done, Sullivan refocuses

After spending months in and around courtrooms for the mayoral recall, Shannon Sullivan finally may have found a way to turn her avocation for the law into a vocation. Or at least a job.

But not by going to law school. Instead, she has become a process server, delivering the paperwork that goes with all the legal maneuvers and manipulations that lawyers think up.

“I would’ve never thought of it before” the court hearings surrounding the recall, said Sullivan, newly registered with the Spokane County auditor as Process Server No. 899. But after doing her own legal research and courtroom defense for the early phase of the recall petition, and sharing the later phase with attorney Jerry Davis, Sullivan learned from experience there’s more to the legal system than what one sees on “Perry Mason” or “Boston Legal.”

Like paperwork. Lots of paperwork.

“I love process-serving,” she said

Love?

“All right, all right, I don’t mind it,” she said. “It’s not all negative.”

Definitely not as negative as being regularly referred to as “an unemployed, divorced mother” during six months of stories about the eventually successful recall. She’s billing herself as “a tenacious server” on cards and fliers distributed to local law offices, and even her adversaries in the recall wouldn’t argue with that adjective.

Sure, there are some people who aren’t too happy to receive a subpoena or a court summons, she said, but most of the time the job isn’t like that. She recently delivered final papers to a just-divorced woman, who recognized her and thanked her.

With Gonzaga Law School turning out lawyers at a steady clip, litigation may be one of Spokane’s growth industries. “Everybody wants to sue everybody,” she said.

And that means more work for process servers.

By any other name

Washington’s governor wants to be known officially as Chris Gregoire, rather than Christine, and news organizations around the state are complying. After all, a person should get to determine what she or he is called.

Some folks will speculate that this is all part of a plan to soften the governor’s image, although Spin Control seems to recall that she told reporters during the 2004 campaign that she went by “Chris,” even though she had been known officially as “Christine,” the name on her bar license, during a dozen years as attorney general.

We suspect this is all a plot to annoy the Republicans and initiative maven Tim Eyman, who have taken to calling her “Queen Christine” in various missives that are less than laudatory.

Now they’ll have to think up something to rhyme with Chris.

Maybe in, part two

Incumbent County Commissioner Phil Harris may have $50,000 in the bank for this year’s re-election campaign, thanks to his $1,000-per-plate kickoff breakfast this month. But he doesn’t necessarily have a clear field to a fourth term.

Democrat George Orr, a former state legislator, is rumored to be gearing up for a challenge. Contacted last week, Orr would say only he’s “doing a lot of investigating” – not because he’s being coy but because once he says he’s sure, the clock starts ticking toward the deadline to file any paperwork with the state Public Disclosure Commission.

A former Spokane Valley firefighter, Orr served two terms in the state House in the 4th District before losing his seat in 1994, the same year Harris won his commissioner’s seat. Now he lives in Peaceful Valley.

One problem with living in the city, he said, is that many city residents don’t give much thought to the county commissioners or let alone know that they elect them.

Orr plans to make his decision by St. Patrick’s Day. All good Irishmen know that you must plant your three P’s by then: potatoes, peas and political races.

Definitely in

Mike McGavick, a GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate, is making a swing through Washington state this week, with six stops (and six different speech topics) in five days. He’ll be at the Davenport Hotel at 11:30 a.m. Monday for his Spokane stop. Topic: Health care.

He’ll hit Pasco and Wenatchee on Tuesday, talking about dams and immigration, respectively.

Incumbent Maria Cantwell, who recently finished a between-session swing of her own, countered McGavick’s bus tour with some endorsements from law enforcement and fire-fighting organizations, and an announcement that she has $5 million available to spend on the campaign.