DUI lawyers PAC shifts support to founders wife in judicial race

The Citizens for Judicial Excellence or CJE is a political action committee that was founded by DUI Lawyers here in Western WA.  The purpose of this PAC was to back candidates in local municipal and district court judicial races.  However recently they have come under fire due to a Seattle Times article that was written this past week.

According to the article this PAC supported a particular District Court Judge in Bellevue back in 2013 when he was appointed.  However according to the Seattle Times the CJE is no longer backing this particular Judge and they have decided to back another candidate.  Seems like no big deal right, it’s just politics.

However the article points out the new candidate is the wife of one of the founders of the CJE.  Apparently this has ruffled a few feathers in the community and has become somewhat newsworthy.  Now in case you’re wondering, No I’m not a member of this particular political action committee.  So there is no bias on my part here.

At first glance I have to admit.  I was a little taken back by the article.  After all the Judge whom the CJE is no longer backing is actually a very good Judge in my opinion.  Granted I have not had anything substantial in front of him.  But I find him to be very professional, follows the law, and he offers deferred sentences when most Judges wont.  So I was a little surprised when I heard the CJE was no longer backing him.  But I guess they have their reasons.

Anyway it should be interesting to see what happens.  Whether this article helped or hurt any of the candidates.  I guess we will find out come November.  Best of luck to both.  If you want to check out the article here you go.  http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2024701309_duilawyerspacxml.html

_
About the author:  Matthew Leyba is a DUI Lawyer in Seattle.  He is rated a perfect 10 out of 10 by Avvo.com, and has been named on of Seattle’s Best DUI Lawyers several years in a row by the Seattle Met Magazine, an honor less than 2.5% of all lawyers receive.