Supreme cash flows

OLYMPIA – A record amount of money is pouring into the state Supreme Court races, as political committees – including one based in Virginia – spend hundreds of thousands of dollars wrestling for perceived ideological advantage on the high court.

“When it’s your time, you know it. You’re tired, you get sloppy, you make mistakes. Take Chief Justice Gerry Alexander,” one radio ad says of the 70-year-old judge.

A counterattack came Tuesday, in a TV ad that opens with an ominous bell and the words “Justice for sale? John Groen and far-right extremists are trying to buy our Supreme Court.”

Already this year, the money in the race is nearly double the previous high-water mark of 2004, when candidates and political groups spent more than $1.3 million on Supreme Court campaigns.

This year’s total so far: about $2.5 million. Of that, more than $430,000 has been spent – mostly on the Groen/Alexander race – in the past three days.

“It’s ridiculous,” said F. Parks Weaver Jr., Alexander’s campaign treasurer and a veteran of 16 judicial campaigns. “How do you compete with a million-dollar budget?”

Why the flurry of spending, months before Election Day? Because two of the three high-court seats up for election this year are likely to be decided in this month’s primary election. And with Democrats in control of the Legislature and governor’s office, the tug-of-war between liberals and conservatives has shifted to the nine-person court.

“As the court has issued increasingly more disturbing and more alarming decisions, we’ve become more involved in these judicial decisions,” said Erin Shannon, a spokeswoman for the Building Industry Association of Washington, the group that bankrolled the “tired” ads. The BIAW has spent about $500,000 blasting Alexander and boosting Groen.

“It’s not so much his age,” Shannon said of the ads’ criticism of Alexander. “It’s the fact that he’s been in office so long, he’s really lost touch with voters.”

Alexander and his supporters say he remains respected, mentally sharp and vigorous.

“If you looked at that age and ran it up the flagpole at the U.S. Supreme Court, you’d be minus a few learned justices,” said his campaign manager, Stuart Morgan.

On Tuesday, a new attack ad made its debut.

Television stations began running a new BIAW-backed ad that tries to tie Alexander to the 2003 drunken-driving arrest of Justice Bobbe Bridge. The link: that the chief justice expressed public support for his colleague following the arrest.

“Alexander backs Bridge, despite her driving drunk with a blood-alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit,” intones the radio ad’s announcer, over a picture of a repentant-looking chief justice. “Gerry Alexander: Justice for whom?”

Neither Bridge nor Alexander could be immediately reached for comment Tuesday night.

Morgan says he’s not so concerned about the amount of spending against Alexander as he is the relatively narrow group of industries providing most of the cash.

“If such a tactic is successful, it’s going to lead to a situation where various interest groups think they can buy a seat” on the court, he said.

As the builders’ group points out, both sides are pumping money into the races. Citizens to Uphold the Constitution, the group running the “Justice for sale?” ad against Groen, is heavily backed by unions, the Tulalip and Puyallup Indian tribes and attorneys. It has raised more than $544,000 to defend Alexander and two fellow incumbents against challengers. Among the group’s high-powered fundraisers: Gov. Chris Gregoire.

Groen scoffs at the suggestion that a seat’s being bought for him on the court by groups that hope he’ll rule their way.

“That’s just a slogan,” he said Tuesday, en route to Yakima. “It’s a scare tactic. People who know me know I’m a man of integrity and an independent thinker.”

Attacking Alexander from another flank is an Alexandria, Va.-based group called “Americans Tired of Lawsuit Abuse.” The year-old group – which has spent at least $357,500 in the race in the past six days – wants limits on liability lawsuits.

“Obviously this is a primary we’ve taken particular interest in,” said spokeswoman Cari O’Malley. It’s the only Supreme Court race the group is spending money on so far this year, she said, although other races will likely be added.

The group’s TV ad features a mother whose young son was killed. The killer – the boy’s uncle – was released from prison early after the Supreme Court ruled that assault couldn’t be the basis for a so-called felony murder conviction. In the controversial 5-4 “Andress” ruling, Alexander voted with the court’s majority.

The ad is heart-wrenching: “He was adorable,” says mother Yvonne Roberts, clutching a photograph of her dead son. “Stevie had just turned 3 years old before he was beaten and tortured to death. The Andress decision let my son’s killer walk free after serving less than a third of his murder sentence.”

But the felony-murder ruling had nothing to do with liability lawsuits, said Morgan.

“It just shows an attempt to manipulate the public,” he said.