Attorney Jim Johnson to run again for state high court

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES

March 23, 2004

OLYMPIA, WA -- Jim Johnson, a prominent appellate attorney who came within a few thousand votes of the state's highest court two years ago, announced a second run for a Supreme Court seat yesterday.

He becomes the third entrant in the race to fill the seat currently occupied by Justice Faith Ireland, who is retiring.

A former official in the attorney general's office, Johnson bills himself as a staunch defender of the Constitution.

As a private attorney, he's defended Tim Eyman's anti-tax initiatives, fought against tribal claims on private and public lands, argued against some endangered species protections for wild salmon and battled unsuccessfully to keep Washington's blanket primary system alive.

Johnson lost by fewer than 4,000 votes in 2002 to Mary Fairhurst, then a deputy to Attorney General Christine Gregoire.

So far, his opponents include Mary Kay Becker, a Court of Appeals judge and former Democratic lawmaker from Bellingham, and King County Superior Court Judge Robert Alsdorf -- the man who struck down Initiative 695, Tim Eyman's popular repeal of the hated car-tab tax.