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NWsource

BURRAGE RATED `NOT QUALIFIED' AGAIN BY PANEL

BY JAMES WALLACE P-I Reporter

Thursday, August 29, 1996

Section: News, Page: B1

A year's experience as a King County Superior Court judge has not improved Jeanette Burrage's qualifications to sit on the bench, according to a bar association panel that rates judicial candidates.

Burrage, a conservative judge closely identified with the property-rights movement, was rated ``not qualified" by the judicial screening committee of the King County Bar Association.

She received the same rating last year from the bar committee when she was finally elected to a judicial office after running unsuccessfully for the state Supreme Court and the state Court of Appeals.

The King County Bar Association also rated her as ``not qualified" when she ran for the Supreme Court in 1994. The former one-term legislator also was rated as ``not qualified" when she ran for the Court of Appeals.

Burrage noted that the last time she got a similar rating, she won election to her job. She said the rating won't change the way she does business, noting that it is ``the opinion of about 20 attorneys" among thousands.

``Part of it has to do with being in with the in crowd with the bar association, which I obviously am not," she said. ``I believe that I gather information about the case and study the law before making a decision. I rule by what the law is even if I disagree with it, but then I work to change the law when I see it needs changed."

The ``not qualified" rating is one of four assigned to judicial candidates by the bar's screening committee. The top rating is ``exceptionally well qualified," followed by ``well qualified," ``adequate" and ``not qualified."

The committee released its ratings this week for the 37 candidates who filed for two positions on the state Supreme Court and 13 positions on the King County Superior Court.

Burrage was the only sitting judge to be rated as not qualified. Two incumbent judges, Marilyn Sellers and Jo Anne Alumbaugh, received ``adequate" ratings.

Douglass North and Bill Fligeltaub, the two candidates challenging Burrage, were both rated exceptionally well qualified. North lost to Burrage in last year's election.

The judicial screening committee, with staggered three-year terms, consists of up to 30 members, including practicing attorneys and three nonattorney members from the general public. It is composed of equal numbers of men and women from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds who regularly appear in court.

The process begins with candidates for judicial office completing a 13-page questionnaire, which covers current and past employment, trial experience, education, public office held, honors received, community and civic activities and a statement by the candidates about why they should be elected to the judicial position.

A confidential portion of the questionnaire requests from 30 to 50 references, who are then contacted by members of the committee. Those references must include judges and opposing counsel from the last five trials in which the candidate participated.

The screening committee conducts a 20-minute interview with each candidate who participates.

Below is the complete list of candidate ratings released by the King County Bar Association. A few candidates did not participate and were not rated. The incumbent is designated by an asterisk.

Washington State Supreme Court

Position 1:

# Barbara Durham, exceptionally well qualified; Mark Mestel, exceptionally well qualified; Kathryn Ross, adequate.

Position 3:

# Charles Johnson, well qualified; Barnett Kalikow, adequate; Douglas Smith, not qualified.

King County Superior Court

Position 2:

# Harriet Cody, exceptionally well qualified; D. Bruce Gardiner, well qualified; Mary Ellen Ramey, adequate.

Position 3:

# John Darrah, well qualified; Norman Leopold, well qualified.

Position 6:

Joan Allison, well qualified; Paul Feinsod, well qualified; Philip Hubbard, exceptionally well qualified.

Position 8:

# Marilyn Sellers, adequate; Jay White, well qualified.

Position 9:

# Jo Anne Alumbaugh, adequate; John Costo, not rated because he declined to participate; Jeff Ramsdell, well qualified.

Position 10:

Glenna Hall, well qualified; Dale Ulin, well qualified.

Position 11:

# Richard M. Ishikawa, exceptionally well qualified; Kevin Patrick Dolan, not rated because he declined to participate; Theresa Gibbons, not qualified.

Position 24:

# Michael J. Fox, exceptionally well qualified; Marilou Rickert, not rated because she declined to participate.

Position 26:

# Jeannette Burrage, not qualified; Bill Fligeltaub, exceptionally well qualified; Douglass North, exceptionally well qualified.

Position 32:

Peter Camp, well qualified; Leroy McCullough, exceptionally well qualified.

Position 34:

# Michael Trickey, exceptionally well qualified; Thomas Moore Kellenberg, not rated because he declined to participate.

Position 38:

# Jim Bates, exceptionally well qualified; Rexford Lawrence, not qualified.

Position 46:

# Sally Pasette, well qualified; Suzanne Barnett, well qualified.